Vegan Leather! Have you heard of it? This is from coconut waste. A sustainable entrepreneurial solution to make durable useful accessories out of vegetable leather. It is assumed that this might be a game-changer in true sense. A startup called Malai is behind this innovation.

They have actually produced a bio-composite material from coconut water that has the look and feel of leather. They use raw materials like waste coconut, banana stem, sisal fibre and hemp fibre that do not require any use of energy or chemicals. They collect coconuts from farmers, and then tap the water, sterilize it and leave it undisturbed for bacterial culture to feed on. The end process results in jelly-like cellulose which is mixed with banana fibre or gum to create the raw material in the form of sheets. In the final stage, the sheets are air-dried and softened with gentle water-resistant treatment. The final product is biodegradable that can decompose within 150 days. To make sheets glossy and attractive they use natural dyes such as indigo, madder or cutch.

Now Malai is supplying their product to prestigious companies like Crafting Plastics, TON, Ma-tt-er, Kazeto which is then changed to utility sling bags, tote bags, laptop bags, belted bags, wallets, mini backpacks and more.