Who’d have thought that banana peels could be so versatile! Not only can you use them to polish silver (really), help cure warts (hmm) and even make paper from it. now there’s evidence banana peels can help remove heavy metals from contaminated river waters.

An article published in the American Cancer Society’s Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research journal claims that a device using minced banana peel can be as effective (sometimes even more) effective in removing copper and lead from rivers than conventional methods. Gustavo Castro and a team of colleagues from Brazil’s Instituto de Biociências de Botucatu at the Universidade Estadual Paulista have found that heavy metals accumulate from farm run-off, mining and industrial waste, polluting our waterways.

Banana peels can be used up to 11 times without compromising its cleansing properties. This low cost, non-chemical process looks like a highly promising albeit natural remedy to a man-made crisis. But it’s not a good idea to use banana peels to purify your home water system.