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Vegskin: Plastic-free Vegan Leather Made From Leftover Mangoes and Bananas

Last updated: Sep 1, 2021

Summary

Leather production has a vast carbon footprint, and most leather substitutes in the market are still composed of plastic. Vegskin is a French startup company that produces plastic-free vegan leather alternatives made from leftover mangoes and bananas. To date, it has used 100 tons of bananas and mangoes leftovers to create several thousand meters of leather that were also biodegradable.

Problem

According to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition's Higg Materials Sustainability Index, which measures the impact of materials up to the point of fabrication, leather materials have a rated impact of 159, compared to 44 for polyester and 98 for cotton. Leathers' high impact rating is due to the enormous adverse effects on water use, pollution, and global warming. In particular, the tanning procedures involved are considered highly toxic, with 90 per cent of production using chromium. When released into the waterways, untreated effluents negatively impact the ecosystem and human health along the food chain. Although leather alternatives exist in the market, most are made of plastic materials such as PU or PVC, which also pose environmental concerns of their own. It also means that most of them are not biodegradable and still rely heavily on petroleum and carbon-intensive resources.

Food waste is another rising global concern. According to the FAO, if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, and it makes up 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Solution

The founders of Vegskin, Loïc Debrabander and Anaëlle Picavet, saw the lack of plastic-free vegan leather alternatives on the market. In addition, they would also like to take the opportunity to minimise the detrimental impacts of the food waste problem. Hence, after experimenting with different types of fruit and vegetable waste and their textures, they introduced Vegskin: a vegan leather alternative made from mangoes and bananas. Vegskin upcycled discards from retailers which would otherwise go to the landfill.

Outcome

Vegskin uses about 100 tons of bananas to make 5,000 to 8,000 square metres of its plastic-free, plant-based leather. Vegskin eliminates the emissions required from livestock raising and is also biodegradable and resilient. Vegskin also maintains the water resistance and flexibility properties of leather. To date, it has already used 100 tons of bananas and mango leftovers to produce several thousand meters of biodegradable leather.