Fruitleather is All About A Cleaner Process: A Talk with Hugo de Boon on #storyofdesign
the concern of fruit waste is not purely in their hands. consumer preference and standards are still on the list of things waiting to be solved. so is giving them further comprehension of how fruitleather alleviates fruit waste and reduces the use of animal skins for leather. knowing the fact that most of us still lack awareness of how to use sustainable material for product outcomes, fruitleather rotterdam, in continuation of the previous article, talks about the benefit of using this vegan leather-like material. a clean process and utilizing resources that are left behind are some of the benefits. "we disagree with having exotic animals being slaughtered just for their hides. i think it is absurd to keep a crocodile inside a small tank (as an example) for a company to make a fancy bag out of it." also read: hugo de boon of fruitleather rotterdam talks alleviating fruit waste problem on #storyofdesign emma cogné on textiles that connects living beings to matter and objects #storyofdesign going circular economy with plastic waste: sebastian sajoux of arqlite #storyofdesign "here (in europe) we don't have that many leather tannerie and the tanneries here are pretty well maintained, there's water filtration, although they are still using chemicals to get rid of the excess skin on the hides. however, in countries like india, the water that is used in tanneries, with the acids and chemicals used for processing, are let to stream to the river. so in a place where water from the river is still very much needed for washing clothes and washing one’s body, even to have kids playing in the river in these polluted water, it can be extremely harmful and dangerous. so it is not only a problem for the animals, but it is a problem for us humans as well." fruitleather; the clean processwe’re not growing resources to use, but we only use resources that are left behind."our process, compared to that of traditional leather, is a lot cleaner and a lot easier. first, because we don't need a cow or any other type of animal - we don't have to wait for certain years for the animal to be fully grown and slaughtered for certain hides. what we need is just fruits; which are grown naturally and abundantly everywhere; and even better, we use the waste." "within our process, we don't make raw material and we don't use any chemical compounds, but we just use the entire fruit. but since we also need to make the material available for everyone, we have to take precautions on how the material will be used, and make sure that it stays good, and strong over time. so right now, for the sheet that we sell, we still add polyester backing, which is not the most sustainable solution at the moment. it is more sustainable than traditional leather and it makes it strong enough to put less risk or damage claim when purchased. another process that we do is adding a polyurethane coating for certain products, not all of the products.""what we try to do is we want to be able to provide for larger orders and for specific finishings for clients. if they say they don't want polyester backing because it's not sustainable enough, we can add other backing upon request, such as cork, cotton, or even unbleached-cotton for example. or if they want the material to be used only indoors, we don't have to add the polyurethane coating. so we try to make our materials in such a way to meet exactly what the customer desires, but also keeping in mind that we help find the more sustainable solution for the application they want to use." being situated in bluecity - a sustainability hub in rotterdam that only houses companies with sustainable ideas and sustainable startups - gives them a helpful support system and a room to process and reprocess all the waste from production there to boost a zero-waste economy vision. de boon explained that the waste they produced (in the form of juice) is useful for another company in the building that makes beer out of it. so bluecity is a whole circular economy in itself. upcycling fruits"we are not circular at the moment. but technically we are on the upcycling step within the fruit waste industry, although we're still linear right now. we are currently looking at how to make our material biodegradable, so even if you have a linear product, it will not pile up in landfill anymore. it's possible to make a biodegradable material because the raw material itself is fully made from natural materials. to make our process circular, we have to figure out the entire production process - it is something we will definitely look at in our future agenda."courtesy of the design story interview with hugo de boon of fruileather rotterdam on may 2020 https://bit.ly/2WBBMAg
