Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Abstract

Nature has a lot of hidden potentials, especially in the direction of packaging for perishables and goods. Natural material for packaging is a topic that has been around since the dawn of civilizations, especially in the Iranian tradition. The advantages of using natural leaf packaging are the antibacterial effect of that on foods and keeping them fresh. As Iran has a great date harvest from palm trees, providing suitable packaging for dates has a positive effect on encouraging people to use this product daily. Packaging for dates has different design in the market. But there is no serious usage and design with natural material and for dates with palm leaf. The surveys got done through local observation and ethnographical research. Locals in south of Iran weave baskets with palm leaves to keep dates for their annual usage, these baskets have simple design, through interviews we realized that local people believe this kind of baskets keep dates fresh comparing to plastic or paper-based materials. In this research we have a closer look to advantages of using traditional ways of wrapping dates with palm leaf and in general using natural leaf for food packaging. Advantages of that are positive impression of natural material on consumer food preferences, job opportunities for local people, keeping traditional designs updated and introducing sustainable packaging to the market and users more and more. The methodology used in this study is based on ethnographical research and analysis. The main goal of this project is to introduce the potential of using natural material as packaging.

Biography

Fatemeh Askarinejad is pursuing her Master’s course in Industrial Design from Tehran University. Her enthusiasm mainly shaped in ethnographical research, design for user behavior and sustainability to explore the exact need of people and providing them a better life.

E-mail: fatemeh.askarinejad@gmail.com