Fleather- The New Vegan and Eco-Friendly Leather, Solving Ganga’s Floral Waste Problem

Synthetic or faux leather in the form of faux suede and PU (Polyurethane) leather has been present in the markets for a while. But is it truly a win for the environment? Perhaps not.  

More sustainable leather alternatives can now be made from cork, pineapples, using agricultural waste and coconut water, fruit waste and even cacti.  A coconut leather company (Read Malai) were the winners of India's first sustainable fashion awards - CDC (Circular Design Challenge) which is an initiative by Reliance India Limited, UN Environment and Lakme Fashion Week. 

There is more good news though! Looks like we have found a solution to India's flower waste problem as well.  A new vegan and sustainable leather alternative called ‘Fleather’ was felicitated by PETA India at the CDC'20.

WHAT IS FLEATHER AND WHO'S MAKING IT?

Image Source: phool.co

Hailing from Kanpur, also known as the ‘Leather City of India’,  Ankit Agarwal, an automation engineer has come up with a pathbreaking version of faux leather called ‘Fleather’.  Fleather, which was a chance discovery, is made from the enormous amount of flower waste from temples and mosques, being dumped into River Ganga. Agarwal is the winner of many prestigious awards like the ‘UN Young Leaders for Sustainable Development Goals’ award, The Unilever Young Entrepreneur Award 2017, The ‘Goalkeepers’ award by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and GSG Millennial Honour 2018. He has also earned a mention in the esteemed ‘Forbes 30 under 30’ list, received a grant from DBS, Singapore and many more accolades for the exceptional work he has done.

Ankit Aggarwal mentions that his startup called PHOOL,  has “pioneered the flowercycling® technology". PHOOL initially started as an effort to stop River Ganga from becoming a dumping ground for over 8 metric tons of toxic floral waste daily.

73 women have been employed full time by PHOOL.
Image Source: Phool.co

Since 2015, more than 11,060 metric tons of flower waste collected everyday from temples and mosques in Uttar Pradesh, has been recycled at PHOOL. Products like charcoal-free, natural incense sticks and cones, holi colours (‘gulaal’), vermicompost etc. and also ‘Florafoam’- a compostable alternative to styrofoam (non-biodegradable plastic) - are made from moulding dried flowers with natural fungi. Brands like Bajaj and Havells are already using  Florafoam to package their products. By the power of flower cycling, team PHOOL stops 7,600 kgs waste flowers and 97 kgs toxic chemicals from getting into the river everyday and  provides livelihood to 1200 rural families and employs 73 women ‘flowercyclers’. Big fashion houses like Anita Dongre have also shown interest in this breathable and tensile material called 'Fleather'.

Fleather manufacturing  in the laboratory
Image Source: Verve Magazine, India

HOW IS FLEATHER MADE?

Fleather was a chance discovery which took place while the team was working on their other flower waste-based products. The process to make it is quite similar to curd. They noticed a “dense, fibrous, mat”, that was growing on a pile of unused flower fibres and the texture resembled that of leather in appearance, elasticity and tensile strength, and voila! That started the process of research into fleather.
The initial few steps are common to all their ‘flower-cycled’ patented organic products:

Image Source: Phool.co

With such innovations taking place in the fashion industry, it looks like unsustainable and cruel products like (animal) leather would be a thing of the past soon!

Like this? 

Read: Mexican Entrepreneurs Create Vegan Cactus Leather

Read More: Leather made out of fruit waste? Yes Please!