Mon, Nov 25, 2019 page9

• Community creates local industry from betel nut leaves 農村打造熱壓神器　檳榔葉變身碗盤餐具

  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Who needs the philosopher’s stone when you can turn betel nut leaves into tableware? As part of a rural regeneration initiative, people in the Guangming Community of Nantou County’s Jiji Township have recently started taking the discarded leaves from local betel nut and banana trees and, using a self-designed thermal press machine, have been making environmentally friendly tableware. This has helped them turn agricultural waste, which would ordinarily have been thrown away, into something useful and which can be of benefit to the community. The hope is that, in the future, when they have been able to refine the tableware a little, they will be able to sell it commercially, to boost the community economy and bring some more money into the village, and to develop a local specialty.

  According to Yang Chen-lien, chairman of the Guangming Community Development Association, processing betel nut and banana leaves follows essentially the same principle as processing bamboo and lotus leaves, and simply entails washing and drying them in the sun, giving a natural and environmentally friendly material for making the tableware.

  Since there are plenty of betel nut and banana plantations around Jiji Township, in the past there was no alternative but to mulch the large leaves from the trees down into fertilizer: there was no other way to put them to good use. Nowadays, with increasing ecological awareness, people are avoiding disposable tableware, which is wasteful of resources. This initiative also allows for the agricultural waste from betel nut trees to be given the chance of a new life.

  

  A man in the Guangming Community of Nantou County’s Jiji Township creates tableware from betel nut leaves first washed and dried and then shaped in a heat press machine. 南投縣集集鎮廣明社區打造熱壓機器，把洗淨的檳榔葉加熱、塑形，製作成檳榔葉碗盤。

  Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Liberty Times
  照片：自由時報記者劉濱銓

  Yang says that the community has made its own thermal press machine for the green tableware, and after the betel nut leaves have been washed and sun dried they can then be pressed to make them into betel nut leaf tableware including bowls and plates. The products are practical and require no additional chemical processing, and have a very simple, natural aesthetic.

  In addition to the tableware, the community has also fashioned metal frame templates so that the betel nut leaves can be cut into fan shapes. When visitors come to Jiji they can see the kind of items of everyday use that people would have used in the old days. Hopefully, in the future, the quality of this betel nut leaf tableware will have been improved and turned into a local industry, for the benefit of the community and the environment.

  (Translated by Paul Cooper)

  

  A man creates a traditional fan from discarded betel nut leaves using a purpose-made metal frame in the Guangming Community of Nantou County’s Jiji Township. 南投縣集集鎮廣明社區推廣檳榔葉廢物利用，透過模具敲打，可裁切出充滿農村野趣的扇子。

  Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Liberty Times
  照片：自由時報記者劉濱銓

  點石成金，檳榔葉變身碗盤餐具。南投縣集集鎮廣明社區民眾，近期透過農村再生計畫，將當地種植檳榔、香蕉所棄置的大型樹葉，透過自行設計的熱壓機器，製作成環保碗盤餐具，把過去當成垃圾的農業廢棄物，化腐朽為神奇，成為社區體驗一大亮點，未來將精進檳榔葉碗盤餐具質感，盼成為在地商品販售，增加社區營造與農村收入，也能成為在地特色產業。

  廣明社區發展協會理事長楊振聯表示，把檳榔葉、香蕉葉當成餐具，其實道理跟粽葉、荷葉一樣，只要洗淨、曬乾，就能成為非常天然且環保的餐具材料。

  由於集集鎮有非常多的檳榔園與香蕉園，過去廢棄的大型樹葉只能任憑在果園腐爛當肥料，未能好好利用，但現今環保意識抬頭，消耗資源的免洗餐具大家都避免使用，也給了檳榔葉等農業廢棄物重生的機會。

  楊振聯則說，目前社區已自立打造一台環保餐具熱壓機器，只要將檳榔葉洗淨、曬乾，就能壓製成檳榔葉碗、盤等餐具，且成品樸實，沒有其他化學加工，非常有反璞歸真的純粹感。

  除了餐具外，社區也打造鐵製模具，藉由敲打就能將檳榔葉裁切成扇子，讓遊客來到集集，也能體驗阿公阿嬤年代的古早生活用品，未來則希望檳榔葉碗盤品質能更成熟，發展成在地農村產業，為社區發展與環保盡分心力。

  （自由時報）
• Most Popular

  • 1

    First person arrested as Danjiang Bridge opens

  • 2

    TSMC shares stumble on report, but losses minor

  • 3

    Navy needs 12 subs for modern fleet: CSBC head

  • 4

    HIMARS to be deployed to islands

  • 5

    Police identify man who engaged in indecency at park