Fruitleather
Overview
Fruitleather Rotterdam is currently developing a new, eco-friendly process that converts leftover fruits into a durable leather-like material. The material is being further developed so that it will be strong enough to be used for shoes, handbags and other products in the future.
By collecting waste which is already present, we will not have to use new resources in order to make our material. By collecting the fruit from fruit importers in the Netherlands, we are able to supply ourselves with a large quantity of diverse types of discarded fruit. By doing so we are able to give new value to something that is seen as useless.
Using an Eco-friendly process which we have developed, the discarded fruit is transformed to sheets of leather-like material. In order to really get the leather look, a final finishing is applied. The Fruit Leather can be coated or embedded with a print before being applied to a large variety of products which tend to use traditional leather.
Our process which involves mashing, cooking and drying, is a lot cleaner then the process that traditional leather undergoes. Using natural materials, our final product is a lot less harmful to both the environment and animals.
Suggested Reading
“These cool ‘leather’ bags were once rotting fruit” By Mashable