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I work in the plastics industry, but even for me, it's kind of hard to defend individually wrapping fruits and vegetables in plastic. If you haven't heard, Del Monte is rolling out plastic-wrapped bananas to 7-11 convenience stores. The company says the plastic film will extend the shelf life of the bananas from two days to five, which is beneficial on many levels, including spoilage and overall carbon foot print, but try telling that to consumers.

Tony Deligio

March 11, 2011

2 Min Read
Plastic packaging fail

The move inspired a blogger with The Portland Mercury to start a new running column, "Absurd Plastic Wrapped Object of the Day." After an initial post on bananas, the blog next laced into individually plastic-wrapped potatoes. Truly revealing were the reader comments, which show how redundant packaging ranks right up there with "wrap rage" in terms of ticking off consumers and giving plastics a black eye.

Calling the concept "ridiculous" or worse, this comment summed up the board's feelings pretty succinctly:

I used to think the plastic bag ban was a dumb idea, but for god's sake, individually wrapped POTATOES????!!! And bananas?! That ought be illegal. Enough of this crap!

Or as someone pointed out on the banana post:

Bananas are the fruit that comes with their own wrappers. Lol, this is so stupid.

The product launch even got the attention of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, who noted, "Del Monte single-serve bananas are for people who love bananas but hate their biodegradability," and placed the bananas in the show's "Pantry of Shame."

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