How one Dutch company is making vegan leather from mangoes
Fruitleather gets the mangoes from Total Exotics, a Dutch firm that imports 6 million kilograms of mangoes each year. Around 1,500 mangoes go to waste each week because of the quality control process.
"I wanted to have an outlet for that instead of just throwing it away like trash," said Anneke Bouman, the quality assurance and sustainability manager at Total Exotics.
In addition to reducing food waste, Hugo and Koen said they also wanted to reduce emissions from the leather-making process. 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.
"Leather is not primarily what's driving the cattle industry," said Elizabeth Cline, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Remake.
"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."
