Philippines: Sustainable Pizza Boxes Made From Dried Leaves Help Local Weavers

The BrickOven restaurant in Laguna, Philippines, is using handcrafted pizza boxes made from pandan leaves to help the local weavers tide over the difficult times. Siblings Dennise and Dhon Jhon Porca, the pizzeria owners, wanted to open their pizza business with a sustainable step and used the eco-friendly 'tampipi' pizza boxes which were made from the fragrant dried pandan leaves.

The locally abundant pandan leaves are commonly used for making hats or spicing up dishes in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

"The tampipi box was conceptualised when we run out of normal cardboard pizza boxes that we sourced out in Manila. Our solution is to source out something nearby. The primary industry in Cavinti is hat weaving. And we thought of requesting weavers to make pizza boxes instead of that," Denisse Porca, the restaurant owner was quoted as saying by international news agency Ruptly.

"We are helping our community, our very own locals in community Laguna to have another source of income for their daily needs during the pandemic," she added.

In July, another Filipino restaurant Aqwa Siargao in Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte also announced that they are using eco-friendly pizza boxes made of pandan leaves.

"We are proud to share that we are now using an eco-friendly take away pizza container for our customers," the restaurant said.

"Our aim is to have less waste and promote sustainability. We are also helping local Tangbo weavers to earn extra income especially at this time of pandemic. As the first one to use this for take away (in Siargao), we would be happy to see this initiative happening in the whole island," it added.

Also Read: Meet India's 'Recycle Man' Who Is Making Bricks From Used PPE Kits, Face Masks