Biotech company Fruitleather Rotterdam is currently developing a new, eco-friendly process that converts fruit that would otherwise be thrown away into durable, leather-like material.
unsold fruit becomes faux leather
In a bid to fight food waste while mitigating the environmental impact of the leather industry, the two founders of Fruitleather Rotterdam turn unsold fruit into vegan leather. Koen Meerkerk and Hugo de Boon, graduate designers from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, are driven by the desire to create value from things deemed unusable and solve problems by taking a design-based approach, incorporating circular economy principles.
The double-problem
We live in a world where resources are becoming increasingly more scarce everyday.
- Each year worldwide we throw away 1.3 billion tones of food. This is approximately one third of the entire production.
- From all the fruit that we produce for consumption, 45% gets thrown away.
- 30% of the earths agricultural land is used to produce food that eventually will be thrown away.
- Farmers tend to leave up to 40% of their harvest in the fields, because it does not meet the cosmetic standards for the supermarkets.
In developed countries there are different reasons why produced food for the consumer is wasted. This is often due to the fact that the consumer has bought to much or because retailers reject the food because of its appearance.
- 10% of all greenhouse gasses in rich countries is emitted by producing food that will never be eaten.
Besides the problem of food waste, the production of animal leather is also an environmental problem. The impact is largest among poorer and less developed regions in the world.
- Every year, more then a billion animals are slaughtered so that the hides can be used.
- The cleaning process which the hides undergo produce worldwide approximately 650 million kilos of CO2.
The solution to both problems
What if we did not see fruit waste as a residue but as a valuable raw material? Over the years Fruitleather Rotterdam have been experimenting on how to convert left-over fruit into leather-like material. By doing so, they are able to bring an eco-friendly and animal-friendly product to the market.
The aim is that Fruitleather can be made into footwear, fashion accessories, and can be used in the interior and furnishing industry.
The two worlds of fruit and leather are combined where the waste of the fruit industry is used to radically change the world of the polluting leather industry.
Tackling food waste and reducing the environmental impact of animal leather manufacturing
Fruitleather Rotterdam is developing an eco-friendly manufacturing process for "fruit leather" using unsold food collected from Dutch distributors. The fruits are deseeded and mashed before being boiled to eliminate bacteria and prevent rotting. The fruit soup is then spread on a surface for drying. This produces sheet of material that can be easily worked, cut, sewn, printed and covered with a coating resembling real leather. (Material specifications)
The vision at Fruitleather Rotterdam is not only to spread awareness of the food waste issue, but also to show how waste in general can be used in a positive way.
8 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO FIGHT FOOD WASTE
Food plays a huge role in our daily lives. Whether we have it abundantly, or we don't. It also plays a huge part in global warming and deforestation: food production is the #1 reason for deforestation, and it uses most of our fresh water resources. What a waste to let those resources go to waste! Here are 8 things you can do to fight food waste.