Your bag, wallet or belt can now be made of 'The King of Fruits' - Mango

With vegan leather and sustainable fashion being widely popularised, India, the world's largest producer of the mango fruit has an indigenous solution on offer, 'Mango Leather' (a leather-like material).

This new material came to be, thanks to the quest for a leather-like material made from organic sources and one that can be degraded naturally.

Scientists and researchers from the CSIR-CLRI (Council for Scientific & Industrial Research- Central Leather Research Institute) in Chennai have been testing a wide-range of agricultural products and by-products including rice straw, wheat straw, sugarcane straw, orange peels, banana peels etc.

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However, based on the specific requirement of a partner firm, they zeroed in on mangoes.

"Estimates suggest that a considerable number of mangoes go waste after harvest, as they are not of a standard quality. The pulp from these mangoes is our primary raw material" Dr. Thanikaivelan, Chief Scientist, CSIR-CLRI explained to WION.

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The production technique involves adding mango pulp to a naturally derived polymer (in both solid and liquid form) and making sheets out of the resultant material.

The team at CLRI implemented the newmanufacturing technique with all major varieties of mangoes - Alphonso, Kesar, Banganapalli etc. and proved that it can be done with mangoes that come in from across India.

While mango-based material can't match the longevity of animal leather, it does offer some advantages over the animal product.

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"The technology of producing the material from mango pulp can be mechanized and we can make a good quantity of the mango-based sheets in three days, whereas the same quantity of original leather would require more than two weeks to make. Animal leather requires huge quantities of water and other chemicals for the manufacturing process, whereas it is minimal for the mango-based material," Dr. Thanikaivelan shared.

The new material based on mango pulp is seen as an alternative to synthetic leathers(based on PVC and PU), as it can last at least five years and then gets degraded quickly after disposal. In case of synthetic leather, the degradation process takes decades. Once manufactured, the pulp-based sheets can be processed further with surface coloration, coatings and exotic print designs, to make it more appealing.

CLRI said, Mumbai-based firm Aamti Green Pvt Ltd has purchased the exclusive rights for the patented production technology of mango-based material from CLRI and hopes to soon roll out belts, wallets, bags, jewel boxes. CLRI has also filed patents for the technology to make leather-like material from rice straw, wheat straw and sugarcane straw.

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