A tomato that does not make it to the market doesn't have to be thrown away. Entrepreneur Pritesh Mistry's The Bio Company has found a way to repurpose bad tomatoes into bags, shoes and fashion accessories.
With its products, the company develops plant-based alternatives to conventional leather, which can be used to make bags, shoes and fashion accessories. What started as a college project has grown into a business supplying innovative materials to designers and manufacturers.
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The business model of The Bio Company handles two key environmental challenges: use of conventional leather as well as agricultural waste. As per the Times of India, his story began when he was a biotechnology student at Mumbai's Thadomal Shahani Engineering College.
As part of his college trip, he once visited Kanpur, where the sight of polluting leather tanneries created a trigger for him to act. Eventually, he came up with the idea of experimenting with tomato by-products. Ultimately, his tests led him to create a leather-like material called Bioleather.
To use tomato waste, the company focused on its natural components such as pectin, which help provide flexibility and structure. It then used the tomato waste with biopolymers, plant-based binders and natural fibres to create a flexible sheet. For this, The Bio Company collects tomato waste from farms and food-processing units. This waste is then processed and mixed with other natural ingredients to make a material suitable for products like bags, shoes and accessories.
Unlike many synthetic leather alternatives, The Bio Company claims its material does not use PU or PVC plastics. It is also described as vegan and biodegradable. Mistry's innovation received recognition at the 2021 PETA Vegan Fashion Awards, where the company won the Best Innovation in Textile award, according to the report.
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According to a reports, The Bio Company was producing around 5,000 metres of Bioleather every month at its facility, turning food waste into a sustainable business opportunity.
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