Pomelos: Fruit in a Package Doesn’t Need Packaging

A fruit with a package (a thick peel) next to all of this unnecessary packaging,  a plastic bag, shrink wrap, a plastic ribbon.

I have blogged about packaging on fruit before (Dole bananas- see link here and pomelos more than once- see link here and link here), but I feel compelled to do it again. Some fruit probably needs some kind of packaging (example berries would fall all over the place if they didn’t have some kind of a little box), but fruit with its own package like bananas and citrus fruit, like pomelos, definitely does not need a package.

For some reason, pomelos seem to get ornate packaging every now and then (other times there is no packaging and this is great). I’m not sure if this packaging is because they are sometimes given as a gift, but they really don’t need all of this packaging.

The pomelo that my husband came home with from the grocery store the other day was incredibly overpackaged. It was housed in a plastic bag, a plastic ribbon, and plastic shrink wrap too. This is ridiculous since pomelos have a very thick peel (they taste like a mild, slightly sweeter grapefruit).

The pomelos were being sold in the grocery store like this.

"We use high-quality raw material for our goods. This is the best gifts for best Friends." That's what it said on the plastic bag that the pomelo came in.

A fruit with a package next to a plastic bag, plastic shrink wrap, and a plastic ribbon.

A peel of a pomelo can compost, but all of this garbage cannot and it’s totally unnecessary. I wish packaging of packaged fruit would just cease. Producing more stuff for landfills will make finding places to grow fruits and vegetables even more difficult. Overpackaging of organics is odious.

Dole Organic Bananas: Putting Packaging on Bananas is Just Bananas

Even my baby knows that bananas have their own package; it’s called a peel. People who shout about organic produce being the best must feel chagrinned when they see products like Dole’s organic bananas. The bunch of these bananas that my husband bought the other day, had a giant strip of sticky tape as a label all the way around it, some plastic wrap  and what looked like masking tape or paper over the end of the bunch, and a plastic sticker! What a waste.

Anyone who says organic produce is better for the environment does not have this type of overpackaging in mind. A banana doesn’t need packaging. Dole’s overpackaging is just bananas.

Profuse Pomelo Packaging Strikes Again

My husband picked up a pomelo the other day at the grocery store and sure enough, it came packaged just like the last one I bought. We're not sure if this is some new trend, as we never used to see packaging on pomelos before, but it should stop. It's wasteful and unnecessary overpackaging that uses precious resources for no reason at all.

A pomelo is a citrus fruit that has a perfect package of its own. Its peel is thick and certainly doesn't need to be surrounded by a mesh net, plastic wrap, and a plastic ribbon (this one had pictures of fruit on it instead of pandas like in my last pomelo post).

The mesh net and ribbon are not recyclable as far as I can figure and will end up in the landfill.

This is heading to the landfill and it's not even necessary.

The plastic cling wrap, while one might throw it into a bag of old shopping bags and take it to a recycling facility, will probably be thrown out by most people and in any event is totally unnecessary.

Who knows what the purpose of this plastic cling wrap is.

 This is such a prime example of overpackaging, a package, around packaging, around fruit that has its own package.

All of this packaging for a single piece of fruit that's in its own package!

This beautiful and very large citrus (pomelos taste rather like a milder or sweeter grapefruit and are thought to be what grapefruits may have originated from) does not need this package. It is not fragile and vulnerable to squishing like a mandarin orange. Some of them you could probably break a window with they're so large and heavy, so I don't know how cling wrap and plastic mesh and ribbons are contributing to protecting them in transit or preserving them in the store.

The pomelo looks beautiful on its own, not wrapped in layers of wasteful plastic.

With a peel this thick there's no need for all that plastic.

Clearly, this is yet another example of overpackaging.

Plethoric Pomelo Packaging

I was at the grocery store the other day in the produce section. I noticed that pomelos are in season again. I was thrilled and bought one. It was only when I took it home that I noticed how complex and excessive the packaging around it was. First of all, for those who don't know what pomelos are, they're a citrus fruit from Asia that are related to grapefruit and taste sort of like a sweeter or milder grapefruit. As everyone knows, citrus fruits have their own natural package, a peel. So, they shouldn't need any package (I'm waiting for someone in the comments section to come up with some B.S. reason for this extra packaging that comes from the citrus distributors themselves and not from actual fact).

Despite its thick and protective peel (the thickness of a grapefruit peel), this pomelo was wrapped in a mesh net, with a fake leaf on top, and a plastic ribbon around with panda bears on it (something threatened with extinction and it's on something that using tons of resources and therefore threatening the environment how bizarre).

After I took the mesh net off with scissors, I found that the pomelo was wrapped in plastic wrap. Why?!

It was a package (peel) surrounded by a plastic package, surrounded by a mesh net package, surrounded by plastic ribbon with a fake leaf on top.

This is a crazy amount of packaging for just one piece of fruit that already comes in a package. I should also point out that other than the plastic wrap which could be recycled with shopping bags, none of the packaging was recyclable so it will be going to the landfill (other than the citrus peel, which is of course compost).

What will we see next? Bananas in plastic wrap and bags? This is a prime example of overpackaging.