RERUN: Transforming Food Waste Into Vegan Leather with Polybion's Axel Gómez-Ortigoza

Three Birds with One Stone: Addressing Three Environmental Problems

Polybion’s fabric technology addresses three major environmental problems: livestock, food waste, and plastic by replacing leather and plastic with fabric derived from food waste. Because the leather industry is so large, it helps drive cattle production separately from demand for meat. Deforestation due to industrial agriculture land use (which includes land for cattle and land for the crops cattle eat) contributes significantly to climate change and biodiversity loss; a 2018 study found that about 12.4 million acres of forest — the equivalent of more than five Yellowstone National Parks — are cut down each year to clear land for industrial agriculture. Much of this land is for cattle grazing and feed; cows are ruminants, and require greater amounts of nutrients compared to other animals like pigs and chickens. In addition, cow belching famously emits methane, a very potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. 

Food waste is not just a waste of food; it also is a waste of resources used to make and transport food such as energy (including non-renewable energy), water, and land. Rotting food in landfills also emits large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, if global food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the US and China. 

Finally, plastic trash pollution harms wildlife and humans, and plastics contribute greenhouse gas emissions as they break down. Sunlight and heat cause plastic to release methane and ethylene – and at increasing rates as plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. 

Polybion’s “Celium” is a Solution

A startup called Polybion makes a new kind of leather designed to address these issues. Polybion feeds food waste to bacteria, and this bacteria produces cellulose, the base material for this new leather (what Polybion calls “Celium”). Derived from living matter, cellulose is an organic and biodegradable material, unlike the plastic from which most faux leather is derived. Polybion does not use livestock for its product.  Rather, it puts food waste to use, and can compete as a plastic-free alternative to other faux leather products. Polybion states that Celium is a “...versatile textile with endless design possibilities, it can be customized by color, graining, embossing, and water resistance—all while preserving its exceptional strength”. Celium is further advertised as the next eco-friendly generation of luxury leather: “Due to its biological nature, each piece of Celium™ is unique and distinct as a fingerprint, lending it the hallmark of luxury”.  Whether the marketplace agrees remains to be seen.

Who is Axel Gómez-Ortigoza?

Axel Gómez-Ortigoza is CEO and CTO of Polybion. He co-founded Polybion with his brother Alexis Gómez-Ortigoza along with Bárbara González-Rolón. Axel was included in MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35” in 2018. He is originally from Mexico. 

Learn More: 

Polybion Completes Development of World's First Bacterial Cellulose Biomanufacturing Facility

Polybion: The Future of Biomaterials

Is vegan leather worse for the environment than real leather?

Food waste creates more greenhouse gases than the airline industry - The Washington Post

For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/transforming-food-waste-into-vegan-leather-with-polybions-axel-gomez-ortigoza/