For example, could you use a banana leaf or some other form of cover other than a plastic bag, tarp, or man-made material?
Well, you'd need it to be non porous as smooth as possible, but honestly the places you'd want a solar still to survive with don't give you much to work with that you didn't bring in yourself. Sometimes manufactured items are really convenient, I mean most of the Amerindians with contact to European steel found it so much better than stone that they lost the ability to make stone tools within a few generations.
Thanks. I'd never thought about that. Yes, it would be possible, just not as effective or efficient.
Yes. It is just that the man-made plastic is more efficient as a collector.
