V4- Sparkle Environmental Theme. Orange Leather Plant Fibres

author: SPARKLE--HARRIS

2023-06-28

Citrus fruits are healthy and tasty, and the worldwide production of oranges, mandarin and co is steadily increasing. However, in the citrus fruit industry, processing that fruit, e.g. to make it into juices, also generates huge amounts of of waste.

In Italy alone, up to 700,000 tons are produced each year. These quantities of waste pose a huge challenge to producers and burden them with high waste management costs. But where else could all of those skins and seeds go?

Every year, Italy’s citrus fruit industry produces 700,000 tons of waste. Two ecopreneurs have tapped into the potential of that organic waste – and are turning it into high-quality fabric.

The prototype of a citrus cellulose material. This material is made from pulp and other organic waste left over from orange juice production. Processing is performed in order to extract citrus cellulose and spin it into yarn. Citrus cellulose yarn is made from 100 percent citrus fruit, but can also be blended with other materials to make it opaque or shiny. This fabric should have a silk feel and can also be dyed and printed.

What are the environmental benefits?

A closer look at Orange Fiber’s production process shows that production and manufacturing are sustainable from start to finish, in line with the principles of the circular economy: the textile fibres are biodegradable, while the raw materials are obtained from local, recycled and sustainable waste products. They’re not the only ones to have realised that citrus fruit waste doesn’t belong in the bin. The extracting the cellulose from it and using it to produce environmentally friendly paper.

Is plastic in vegan leathers bad?

And citrus fruit waste could also have big benefits in other areas, as a team of researchers from Princeton University found out when they made a surprising discovery during field research in Costa Rica.

In the 1990s, an orange juice producer had dumped 12,000 tons of orange waste on a cleared area of forest. 20 years later, the area was lush and green, with an increase in biomass of 176 percent, rich soil and a wider variety of tree species than surrounding areas. Examples like these are proof that it’s possible to reframe our understanding of waste. If orange pulp can be used to make fabric, paper and even help reforestation efforts, then who knows how many other opporunities there to are to turn food industry leftovers from a burden into a blessing…