26/07/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/17jdRnHuwY/
A grocery store swapped plastic wrap for something that's been sitting in Thailand's backyards for centuries, and it turned an ordinary vegetable aisle into something people wanted to photograph.
The idea started at Rimping Supermarket in Chiang Mai, where staff began wrapping loose vegetables and fruit in banana leaves instead of plastic film, tying them closed with biodegradable bamboo strips instead of tape or rubber bands. Banana leaves have been used across Thailand and much of tropical Asia for generations already, as plates, food wrappers, and cooking vessels, since they're naturally flexible, water resistant, and grow abundantly on trees that can produce leaves up to nine feet long.
A local real estate company posted photos of the produce section to Facebook, and the images spread fast, eventually racking up millions of views. What people responded to wasn't just the environmental angle, plenty of shoppers said the leaves genuinely looked better than plastic, giving the produce section a more natural, less sterile feel.
The idea didn't stay in one store either. Other supermarkets in Thailand picked it up, and the concept spread to neighboring countries too, including trials at Lotte Mart locations in Vietnam. Rimping paired the change with other small steps, offering reusable cloth bags, biodegradable bioplastic bags, and a small discount for customers who skip a bag entirely.
It's not a complete fix, some items on the shelves are still plastic wrapped since they arrive pre-packaged from suppliers, but it's a real example of a simple, low-tech swap catching on because people actually liked it.
Would you be more likely to buy vegetables wrapped like this over plastic, even if it cost a little more?
