Narrator: About half of every pineapple you eat
ends up in the trash.
The skin and core can be composted,
but in many places, they aren't.
One company turns fruit scraps into natural soap
and cleaners.
The founder, Le Duy Hoang,
says they're safer for the planet and people.
So safe, he drinks the stuff every day.
It's actually very sour.
It contains many organic acids and vitamins.
It's just like eating fruit.
Narrator: Fermented fruit is part of a new trend —
cleaning with enzymes instead of harsh chemicals.
Does it actually work?
Throughout history,
people have used all sorts of stuff to wash up —
everything from animal fat to human urine.
In the early 20th century,
scientists figured out how to make suds in a lab
using fossil fuels.
That paved the way for all kinds of synthetic gels,
powders, and cleaning chemicals,
which are all detergents.
Announcer: So much whiter, she can actually see the difference instantly.
Narrator: The problem is they were full of stuff
that water treatment plants weren't built to clean out,
like phosphorus and nitrogen.
When those elements flood waterways,
they can make algae grow faster,
creating thick layers of muck that suffocate life below.
That's exactly what happened in North America in the 1960s.
Announcer: Lake Erie is almost biologically dead.
Narrator: Today, detergent pollution
has spread around the world,
foaming up rivers
and fueling overgrown algae.
Fuwa Biotech is betting that fruit cleaners
are the next chapter for cleaning products.
The name Fuwa comes from the phrase "fruit warrior."
The company buys fruit waste from a factory
that makes canned pineapple.
Workers here chop thousands of them every day.
This pile is from just a half day's work.
These used to rot in nearby landfills,
creating bad smells and methane,
a powerful planet-warming gas.
Now, workers load the scraps onto a truck
and travel about 2 miles to the production site.
Here, the team unloads the fruit skins and washes them.
Hoang: So everyone can see how clean the pineapple peels are.
We only need to wash it one more time.
Narrator: Next, they mix together the first ingredients,
sugar and water.
Fuwa uses about 2 metric tons of sugar every month.
Hoang: Sugar is food for microorganisms,
so you can't ferment without sugar.
Workers add the pineapple peels to the sugar water
and wait for the mixture to start to ferment.
Fermentation is when microbes like bacteria or yeast
break down complex molecules like sugar
into simpler stuff like alcohol.
It's how barley becomes beer and grapes become wine.
At Fuwa,
fermentation is how waste becomes cleaning fluids.
But the secret isn't alcohol.
It's the enzymes and acids the pineapples will release.
Enzymes are molecules that speed up chemical reactions,
like digestion in the human body.
Certain enzymes can fight germs by entering cells
and breaking them apart from the inside.
This can either kill bacteria or just slow them down enough
that they probably won't make you sick.
But to make those germ-stopping enzymes from plants,
you have to ferment the right mix of ingredients
for just the right amount of time.
Workers here stir the mixture every day.
After about a month, it looks like this.
Hoang: The pineapples' peels are much softer.
Some have started to decompose.
And there's the nice scent.
Very sour.
Narrator: By two months,
this glob of bacteria and microorganisms forms.
That's how you know it's working.
The founders don't keep any of their process a secret.
The ratio is 10 parts water,
one part sugar, and three parts pineapple peels.
Narrator: Hoang says he learned this technique
from Rosukon Poompanvong.
She's a scientist and Buddhist nun
who figured out the formula,
then shared it freely for others to use.
After the mixture ferments for three months,
there's enough acid and enzymes for it to work as a cleaner.
Now, it's ready to be filtered.
We filter it to get the clearest enzyme
and pump it up into the containers like these.
Narrator: The leftover solids become fertilizer for nearby farms,
and the remaining liquid is the base
for everything Fuwa makes.
Then we add in a few safe additives
from coconut oil, corn oil,
and essential Vietnamese oils to make detergents.
Narrator: Fuwa buys those oils from local farmers
who make them using agricultural waste
like stems and leaves.
The final mixture is bottled
and shipped to mini-marts around Vietnam
or to online customers in most countries.
One bottle of dish soap sells for just over $2.
Hoang says that's less than the cost
of similar imported products.
Fuwa uses an onsite lab to test its products,
and it looks at competitors' stuff as well,
measuring the pH and testing for other additives.
Cleaning with fermented fruit is a fairly new concept,
but there's evidence it has a lot of potential.
Researchers compared a pineapple enzyme mixture
to bleach and water
and found it killed one type of bacteria equally well.
And early research suggests fruit enzymes
might even make wastewater cleaner.
We know more about common chemical cleaners like bleach.
They kill lots of germs but come with other risks.
Hoang started making fruit cleaners when his wife,
now the company's CEO, developed eczema.
Hoang: My wife had eczema,
which means the skin gets cracked
and bleeds in the winter.
Then I realized that the cause
of my wife's illness
was partly due to the use
of industrial cleaning detergents.
Narrator: Studies have linked cleaning products to skin irritation
and breathing problems, including asthma.
When used and stored properly,
they're safe for most people.
But mixing bleach with the wrong cleaners
can create deadly gas,
which happens thousands of times
per year in the United States.
So could we one day replace household bleach
and detergents with fermented pineapples?
We asked an expert.
You'd be surprised — yes. Totally, yes.
Narrator: But he also said we need more research.
There's only a certain number of bacteria that has been tested.
So we probably got to do a wide range of studies
with a wide range of microorganisms
to ensure that it's really effective.
Narrator: Enzyme cleaners pose another challenge —
shelf life.
Hetal: It will be one of the major issues.
With certain temperatures,
it might be inactivated.
Narrator: Fuwa says its products
can last about two years,
which is about as long as most chemical cleaning sprays.
Still, Fuwa has more work to do.
With so much pineapple processing in the region,
the company says it has lots of waste to work with.
Fuwa's scale can be up to five or 10 times larger than now
and still won't be facing any material problems.
Narrator: But mainly, the founders want people to know
there's a gentler alternative.
Hoang: It's not just about Fuwa's products.
We want people to be aware of how great eco-enzymes are.
Narrator: So they're eager to spread the word.
Tien: Our mission is to help people around the globe
reduce one worry in their daily lives.
That is the danger of having toxic chemicals in their homes.