Fruit leather: Dutch students have discovered how to turn rotting fruit into leather accessories.
In my pursuit of maturity, I am finally all about saving the planet. In fact, now I can’t consciously throw a plastic bottle into a trashcan without feeling really bad about where it is going to end up… a big leap from the kind of careless guy I used to be.
Six undergrads in the Netherlands obviously care about the environment too, because they have found a way to repurpose wasted fruit by turning it into leather. The project is called ‘Fruitleather Rotterdam’, and started off as a school assignment. The students found that over 7,000 pounds of food were wasted every day at a local market, and lots of the vendors were dumping the food illegally instead of paying for disposal. The students started collecting it, and figured out how to turn it into leather.
Although they won’t reveal their process, they start by deseeding the fruit, mashing it up, boiling it to kill bacteria and prevent rotting, and drying it in a specific, top-secret process.
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The group is currently figuring out different uses for the leather, from bags to furniture, accessories, and even clothing.
Say what you will, but finding a way to make leather without killing animals is definitely a step in the right direction.
