Vérabuccia®: New bio-based materials from fruit peel. | Vérabuccia®

Name of the submitted project or idea (in English or both English and your language)

Vérabuccia®
URL of a video introducing the work（under 5 minutes）

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZlj8PS7NQ
Detailed explanation of the submitted project or idea (in English or both English and your language)

The years we are living in are increasingly characterized by the consumption of processed and packaged foods with related waste to be disposed of, the world's resources are scarcer every day and food is not for everyone. Rethinking waste by considering them no longer waste but resources becomes a moral duty towards current and future generations as well as a source of new policies aimed not only at reducing and recycling, but at the solution of finding new uses for materials that would be lost, at the same time, the birth of a new consumer looking for more guarantees in the quality of materials, traceability of the supply chain as more sensitive to animal welfare, directs growth towards more positive materials for living. The idea of using the peel of fruit rather than animals, starts from the pineapple, was born from the creative intuition and strong appreciation for the natural raw material of the designer and entrepreneur Francesca Nori. Topic explored in depth in the thesis "Organic matter as a new metabolism of fashion" and put into practice with an Italian chemical company and Fabrizio Moiani. Hence the idea of Vérabuccia®, because the waste used will always be the peel. To date of pineapple, where the production process originates the material AnanasseTM. Every year approx. 30 million t of pineapple are harvested for the food industry, Fresh Plaza 2022 with related waste to be disposed of. In Italy, with an import of approx. 140 thousand t for year, ICI Business 2022 and processing of IV and V range products generate approx. 98 thousand t of pineapple waste. Only 30% of the fruit is edible for human consumption, 70% is waste to be disposed of, Fresh Plaza 2022. The peel is the most wasteful with 36% compared to the crown 27% and the core 7%. The ultimate goal is to generate other materials from other peels besides pineapple.
How does your work address the 3 P’s (for Planet, for People, for Profit) for Sustainability?

One of the key objectives of Vérabuccia® is to make the fashion and design sector concretely more sustainable without giving up the aesthetic and tactile component. The innovative (patented) process in fact allows a non-edible agri-food by-product, such as pineapple peel, to become a new raw material for another sector and therefore attributing new value and profit to various players in the supply chain; providing a possible solution to the agri-food industry starting from the Italian one in reducing their impact on waste and then extending to the international scene, on an economic level (saving €4.5 million for the disposal of pineapple peels) and environmentally (avoiding the introduction of 3,350 t of CO2 into the air from this fruit alone) while also avoiding further waste on the planet as companies and brands in the fashion industry better meet the demand of consumers, even younger ones, for more environmentally friendly products. Furthermore, the consumer takes on a leading role and can become the driver of sustainability. This happens when purchasing, sending the waste to the form of valorisation for which it was designed and recognizing the environmental properties of the product.
Where (country, region, etc.) have you primarily carried out your project?

Italy- Bracciano (Rome)
What is the timeline your project has taken place over?

2018-Present
Keywords

#PlasticFree #Circulareconomy #Innovativematerial
If you have a website for your submitted project or idea, please provide the URL

https://www.verabuccia.it
If you have a social media account for your submitted project or idea, please provide the URL

https://instagram.com/verabucciabrand?igshid=2ekk9el9h20j https://www.facebook.com/verabucciabrand/
Special Prize Question 1: Is there a mechanism in place to inherit culture and industry as assets for people living in that area 100 or even 1000 years from now?

Since ancient times, man has always used and introduced references to nature into his spaces, initially as an act of conquest, later as a direction of taste, today mainly as a necessary affirmation of recovery and contact with a nature that immersion in the world technology is making it increasingly virtual. Taking care of and integrating fashion, design as well as other sectors beyond the fashion industry, not only through the inclusion of nature but by acting with respect for the planet and its habitat is increasingly immovable knowledge. It is in this context that Vérabuccia® moves; having memory and therefore inheriting the Italian mastery of leather processing but moving into applications, with totally new methods and tools, and this thanks to its patented innovation, because innovation allows us to be sustainable. This allows us to generate further tools at the global level of great inheritance for the current present but also for the generations of the near future.
Special Prize Question 2: What is the positive impact on biodiversity? Is the project creating a cycle not just from a human-centered perspective but for the entire ecosystem?

Vérabuccia® is able to create economic value ethically by combining sustainability, functionality and aesthetics. This in practice translates into the underlying choice to use a non-sustainable but regenerative business model of ecosystem services such as through a production strategy based on an economy that intentionally regenerates, acting on the materiality of the product or on its reconversion, but also on the durability of the life cycle. This allows us to move differently and change the point of view used up to now, so that the ecosystem is no longer a tool from which to take without giving but the fulcrum from which to start to operate in symbiosis, in a continuous virtuous circle until it reaches man, who by reaching a state of happiness because he is in balance, achieves sustainability.
Special Prize Question 3: Are you enabling new forms of collaboration with others? New forms of collaboration might include cross-industry cooperation, co-creation with consumers, or role transformations within the supply chain.

Yes, because the innovative and patented technology can be replicated in other countries around the world and is expected to have a positive economic and social impact capable of generating new prospects of value in environmental, social and employment terms from waste, in Italy and abroad. Adding value to this waste creates a new source of income on globally common waste, peels. For example, AnanasseTM is obtained from the reuse and processing of pineapple peel, a by-product of the fruit industry that is inedible for human consumption and traditionally discarded. The objective is both to be able to collaborate with research institutes in order to invest as much as possible in R&D and to sign pineapple peel supply agreements with tropical fruit companies abroad as well as in Italy as well as to extend the process also to agricultural communities to establish a new industry to benefit this sector. Innovation is therefore both in the process and in the business model, capable of providing a concrete response to 5 of the 17 SDGs: sustainable consumption and production; decent work and economic growth; industry, sea and ocean conservation, innovation and infrastructure and partnerships for the goals.