Animal leather alternatives like Polyurethane and PVC leather may have solved the fashion industry's animal cruelty problem, but they are not the most environmentally friendly solutions. Piñatex - a new leather-like material made from pineapple leaves - on the other hand, may just be the all-around eco-leather we've all been waiting for.

 

类似聚氨酯和PVC革的动物皮革替代品或许已经解决了时装业的动物虐待问题，但它们并非最环保的方案。而现在，一种类似皮革的新材料Piñatex横空出世。这种用菠萝叶子做成的材料可能正是我们期待已久的全能环保皮革。
 

 

Piñatex or "vegan leather" is the invention of Dr. Carmen Hijosa and her innovative¹ materials company, Ananas Anam. While working in the Philippines as a consultant² to the Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines in the '90s, she discovered the properties of pineapple leaf fibers³ and dedicated⁴ her life to creating sustainable alternatives to leather and petroleum-based textiles. After years of research, Ananas Anam has finally come up with what it believes is a viable⁵ alternative to animal leather. It recently showcased the versatility⁶ of Piñatex during a presentation held at the Royal College of Art in London, where designers displayed various clothing items and accessories made exclusively from the revolutionary material.

 

This new vegan leather is made from bonded⁷ fibers that are extracted from pineapple leaves on plantations⁸ by farmers before they are cut up and layered. These fibers then go through an industrial process that yields the innovative Piñatex textile. The canvas-like materials can then be dyed, printed and treated to give it different thicknesses and types of texture⁹, including leather. The production creates a byproduct of biomass which can be returned to the farmers to be used as fertilizer on their plantations. To produce one square meter of medium thickness Piñatex, 480 pineapple leaves are required. That may seem like a lot, but it's only the leaves from 16 pineapples, leaves which are otherwise just left to rot in the fields after the pineapples are picked.

 

Piñatex is still in development, and currently includes a non-biodegradable protective top layer for durability¹⁰, but Ananas Anam is looking into natural alternatives in the hopes of soon making the material fully¹¹ bio-degradable. Dr. Hijosa admits that it will take some time before vegan leather becomes market ready, but brands like Puma¹² and Camper have already created sample shoes out of Piñatex, and designer Ally Capellino has turned into fashionable bags, and they all turned out quite well. As for how well items made of Piñatex actually perform in real-life usage conditions, that remains¹³ to be seen.

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