Palm Fiber Packaging - The Cycle

Full Fruit Bunches (FFB)
From the palm oil tree, large husks containing up to 3,000 ‘fruitlets’ are harvested year round. These husks are called Full Fruit Bunches (FFB). In the conventional milling process, FFBs are sterilized and stripped of the fruitlets, which are then digested and pressed to extract crude palm oil that is used in the production of food and cosmetics, among other products.

Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB)
After separating the fruitlets from the fruit bunch, what lies remaining is the Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB), a fibrous mass that has conventionally been considered waste. The EFB can be mulched, used as fertilizer or used for soil remediation. Unfortunately, the EFBs are usually incinerated.

Fiber
EFB waste is converted into useable fiber through processing. While the fiber has natural water repellent properties, it is mixed with food-grade additives that increase the water and oil repellency to form Palm Pulp.

Packaging
Palm Pulp forms a versatile packaging material that is now branded Earthcycle. There are a number of natural characteristics of palm fiber that make it uniquely suited for packaging. The long-strands of the fiber add to the tensile strength of the material, and a natural wax present in the palm fiber increases the water and oil repellency of the pulp mixture, creating a strong and durable product.

Humus
When Earthcycle packaging has done its job it returns to earth. It is biodegradable, non-genetically modified and certified compostable (ASTM D6400). Just toss it in the backyard compost. After less than 90 days your Earthcycle Packaging will have decomposed into an organic soil component that is called humus.

Earth
The humus that remains, after Earthcycle Packaging decomposes in the compost, makes a healthy contribution to the soil. If Earthcycle Packaging was used for all US rigid, pre-packed produce, the resulting humus would enable the growth of more than 51 million pounds of tomatoes!