Narrator: This puree will eventually become
vegan leather.
It's made from thousands of mangoes
that would otherwise be thrown away.
Now this waste can be used to make wallets,
handbags, and shoes.
But can it compete with the massive leather industry?
We visited the headquarters of Fruitleather
in the Netherlands to find out.
Fruitleather collects around 1,500 mangoes each week
from a Dutch importer.
Anneke Bouman: The quality control requires that we cut the mangoes.
We cannot sell them anymore.
So I wanted to have an outlet for that
instead of just throwing it away like trash.
Koen Meerkerk: It's a win-win, as we receive the waste from them for free,
and they don't have to pay any more
to get rid of their mango waste.
Narrator: Back at their studio,
cofounders Hugo and Koen start making the leather.
First, a machine de-stones the mangoes
and then crushes the fruit into a pulp.
The mixture pumps through a tube into a large vat.
Next, Hugo mixes several additives
that will turn the mango pulp into a leather-like material.
Hugo: I'm checking if our measurements are right.
My meter tells me that I have to add
a little bit more of our additives.
Perfecto.
Narrator: When it looks right,
Hugo pours the mixture onto metal baking trays
and smooths it out to create an even thickness.
Then, the trays go in a dehydrator overnight.
Hugo: Before we dry it, it always has this light cream color.
But after we dry it,
it tends to look very different
based on the type of mango that we use.
So for instance, a Palmer mango
will give a more brownish material.
Keitt mango will give a more black material.
Narrator: Finally, the sheets
go to a leather-finishing facility
to be coated in a protective glaze.
Rico and his family
have been in the leather business since 1952,
but this is the first time they've processed vegan leather.
We use the same process,
but it's different material,
so it responds differently to heat
or to the finishing products we use.
Narrator: First, he measures the thickness of each sheet.
Then they mix resins to make the coating.
And it makes a little film on top of the sheets
so it will be protected from the elements.
Narrator: A machine presses a thin layer
of protective coating onto the leather.
Rico: When the sheets pass through,
they go on to a conveyor, and that will roll into an oven.
Narrator: The 100-degrees-Celsius heat
helps the coating dry.
Then the sheet hangs on racks to cool and dry completely.
Each one undergoes this process multiple times
to make it more durable.
Next, another machine applies heat and pressure
to combine the layers of coating.
The final step is the design.
This embossing machine
can make the leather look and feel like animal skin.
Then the leather is sold to designers around the world.
Hugo and Koen first came up with the idea
for Fruitleather back in 2015.
We wanted to turn something valueless
into something that has value.
Eventually with a lot of experimenting,
we came up with the material that we have today.
Narrator: A big part of this process
was deciding which fruit to use.
Hugo: When we first started, we didn't know that
a certain fruit might lead to better material,
actually in such a way
that we even tried processing watermelons.
Turns out there's not a lot of fibers inside watermelon.
It's mainly water.
Narrator: They settled on mangoes
because the fruit was easy to work with.
Koen: Later we found out how much mango
Holland actually imports.
Narrator: More than half of the mangoes in Europe
are imported or traded by the Netherlands.
And around 12% of food in the Netherlands is wasted.
Koen: We are able to get a very large amount of resource
to make our material.
That is why we decided to stick with the mango.
Narrator: Hugo and Koen also want to reduce emissions
another way.
Koen: We saw that all kinds of chemicals
were being used to tan the leather with all CO2
that comes from the tanning process.
Narrator: The chemicals used to tan leather
can be toxic to both humans and the environment.
There's also the methane emissions
that come from raising cattle.
Hugo: If we reduce the number of cows,
then we also reduce the amount of greenhouse gases.
Narrator: But some experts say it's not that simple.
Elizabeth Cline: Leather is not primarily
what's driving the cattle industry.
And I think that there's a pretty compelling argument
to be made that as long as beef production
is still continuing, that we should make use of these hides.
Narrator: Vegan leather
also comes with its own challenges.
Although some of it is made from mushrooms or pineapples,
most is made from plastic.
And this still leaves a large carbon footprint.
Koen: People started realizing that polyurethane leather,
which is made from oil, is not the solution.
Narrator: In 2020, the synthetic leather market
was valued at over $30 billion.
And one study predicts it will grow to over $40 billion
in the next six years.
But that's still only a fraction of the leather industry,
which was valued at nearly $400 billion,
13 times more than its synthetic counterpart.
We do need these new alternative materials that have
just a different environmental profile
and hopefully a smaller carbon footprint.
Narrator: But for small companies like Fruitleather,
it's hard to compete.
Right now, Fruitleather is only able to produce
80 square meters of leather per month.
That's about 250 pairs of shoes.
The final product costs around $22 per square foot.
And the small size of each sheet
means the company can only make certain products.
Hugo: Eventually, we want to work towards creating
the material on a giant roll
so that we can also increase our production capacity,
but also expand the range of products
that the material can be applied to.
Narrator: The mango leather
also doesn't last as long as traditional leather.
Hugo: The upholstery of a car needs to last like 10 years.
This is something it wouldn't be able to withstand now.
Narrator: But they are still working
to make the product more durable.
And Hugo and Koen say their goal
isn't to replace cow leather altogether.
Hugo: This process has been completely thought out,
and we started in 2015,
so we are not going to suddenly replace a product
that has been around for thousands of years.
Narrator: Still, they are aiming
to make leather production easier on the environment,
one mango at a time.