Chiquita Goes for Greener Fruit

by Jason Best, Posted Aug 31st 2010 @ 4:00PM

Chiquita bananas Photo: Jeremy Brooks, Flickr

What do you get when you process more than 320 million pounds of fruit a year? Lots of scraps.

Chiquita may be best known for its bananas, but at its plant in Guapiles, Costa Rica, it slices and dices all manner of tropical fruit-pineapples, papayas, passion fruit and mangos -- so that they can be turned into everything from baby food to yogurt.

But what to do with the leftovers? Instead of just letting them go to waste, the company has installed a huge new biodigester.

In Chiquita's press release, Manuel Rodriguez, the company's corporate responsibility officer, gushes: "This technology enables us to harness the full energy potential of fruit materials that previously could not be captured. It provides a sustainable energy source for our facility, nutrient rich fertilizer for local farmers and filters processing water."

But he never really explains how the biodigester does all that. From what we can gather, it's kind of like a massive compost bin: fruit waste and water go in, get churned around, and eventually everything breaks down into biogas (which can be used for energy) and fertilizer. The water is filtered so it's clean enough to drink.

Chiquita's biodigester doesn't even need any electricity to work, which means it doesn't contribute to the sort of emissions that scientists say cause global warming.

The biodigester is the latest in a long series of steps the company has taken to improve its image. Once widely ridiculed for its exploitative labor practices and its slash-and-burn attitude toward rainforests, Chiquita changed its tune in the early 1990s, converting its farms to meet the sustainability criteria of the Rainforest Alliance and reducing its use of pesticides.

Filed Under: Eco-Friendly
Tags: chiquita banana, ChiquitaBanana