Ananas Anam

Anam PALF® by Ananas Anam

https://vimeo.com/873639143

After seeing the impact of leather production when consulting on the leather export industry in the Philippines, Ananas Anam founder Dr Carmen Hijosa was driven to create a sustainable and plant-based alternative.

Carmen used pineapple leaf fibre to invent a new textile called Piñatex®; a low-impact textile that pioneered the way for plant-based alternatives to leather. To create Piñatex, the fibres of pineapple leaves were transformed to textile-grade fibre through an efficient process without the need for any harmful chemicals. This process resulted in Anam PALF®; a premium textile-grade fibre which formed the base of all Piñatex materials.

Anam PALF has been developed using Ananas Anam’s innovative technology platform and traceable supply chain. It is made from agricultural resources that were previously considered to be waste and serves as an alternative to cotton, linen and polyester.

Anam PALF is made using a unique proprietary method to process the pineapple leaf fibres to premium textile grade, with no bleaching, no pulping and no dyeing. An enzymatic process is used to remove impurities without using any harmful chemicals, while the rest of the process is fully mechanical.

Anam PALF is traceable from plant to product and comes with a Certificate of Origin. It is a strong and durable fibre, with a mostly-cellulose composition meaning that it is easy to dye using natural or conventional dyes. Due to the unique processing, Anam PALF remains in its most natural form and processed to a staple fibre grade, helping to mitigate microfiber pollution.

The premium fibre Anam PALF can be used widely within the textile, footwear and automotive industries and provides brands with a low-impact textile solution to help meet their climate targets and reduce their impact.

Ananas Anam’s unique business model focuses around the three pillars of sustainability; creating a business that brings positive environmental, social and economic impact.

Anam PALF® has a positive environmental impact on the planet. The leaves of the pineapple plant are often burned following the pineapple harvest, releasing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and damaging the ground on which they have been burned. By transforming these leaves into textile solutions, we save CO2 emissions and preserve the quality of the soil.

As Anam PALF is made from an agricultural waste product (pineapple leaf fibre), this means that no extra land or water are used to grow the raw material. Ananas Anam use a unique method to transform the pineapple leaves into the textile-grade fibre Anam PALF, using a water and energy efficient process that is mostly mechanical and entirely free from harmful chemicals. Anam PALF is made entirely from renewable materials and 100% plant-based. The fibre is processed to staple-fibre grade, which helps to mitigate microfibre pollution.

Anam PALF also brings positive social impact to people, developed in remote areas and creating new jobs in rural communities where job creation is challenging. The use of an agricultural waste like pineapple leaf fibre gives pineapple farmers an additional and diversified income stream, which provides them with more security as they are not solely reliant on the income they receive from the fruit alone. By working with agricultural waste, Ananas Anam can offer textile solutions that do not compete with food production.

Through Ananas Anam’s unique business model, Anam PALF offers a solution that is environmentally and socially positive, whilst also being profitable. The innovative technologies used to convert agricultural waste into textile-grade fibre are scalable, which means that through this process, Anam PALF is available at an industrial scale for the wider industry.

Philippines, Spain, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, UK

2016 - present

#Textile #AgroWaste #SocialImpact

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Our unique business model is strongly linked to the farming communities we work with and helps to bring socio-economic stability to these rural areas that otherwise have limited employment opportunities. Creating Anam PALF provides an opportunity for agricultural waste, which can prevent it from being burned after the harvest and brings benefits for the long-term quality of the soil due to not burning the waste. The business model is applicable to many farming areas around the world, and as demand for lower impact materials grows over the years, the extent of the positive impact created by the production of Anam PALF can also grow.

The industrialisation of pineapple leaf fibre through Anam PALF offers a solution to the textile industry to help end the reliance on non-renewable and resource-intensive materials, which is essential for the future of the planet. The supply chain that has been built by Ananas Anam to bring Anam PALF to the industry has been designed with longevity in mind, offering a model that can continue to benefit people from the farming communities to the end consumer for many years to come.

With 27 million tons of pineapple leaf waste produced around the world each year, there is an abundance of raw material available to be converted into textiles. Renewable and plant-based materials, ideally coming from waste, are necessary in the climate crisis to help end the reliance on non-renewable and resource-intensive materials.

Anam PALF offers an innovative plant-based solution with a low environmental impact that, due to its origins as agricultural waste, does not exhaust land or resources. Anam PALF offers a low-impact textile, helping the industry in the long term to move away from resource intense natural materials (like virgin fibres) and non-renewable fossil-fuel-based materials, helping to protect the future of our planet.

The production of Anam PALF® takes into consideration the entire ecosystem, through its resource efficient production. Valorising agricultural waste provides a use for the leaves discarded after the pineapple harvest, which prevents them from becoming waste and being burned. This saves CO2 from being released into the atmosphere by the burning of the leaves, while also protecting the quality of the soil of the pineapple farm, which would be damaged if the leaves were burned.

Using waste pineapple leaf fibre means that the raw material for Anam PALF requires no extra land or water to grow, helping preserve these valuable natural resources. The process used to transform the waste pineapple leaves into textile materials is thoroughly assessed to make sure it uses the fewest resources possible, using a mostly mechanical process that is entirely free from any harmful chemicals, helping to prevent pollution into waterways and the environment.

Anam PALF is kept in its staple fibre form, which helps to mitigate microfibre shedding and as a 100% plant-based and bio-based fibre does not contribute to plastic or microplastic pollution. Anam PALF is fully recyclable, compostable and biodegradable and helps industries to reduce their reliance on virgin natural fibres that can be intensive to produce, while also providing a renewable and plant-based alternative to petroleum-based textiles.

Ananas Anam has engaged in collaborations globally to build an entirely new and unique supply chain to support the production of Anam PALF®. Prior to the introduction of Anam PALF, the use of pineapple leaf fibre was generally kept very local, with textiles made using traditional and hand-made techniques. To provide textile solutions from pineapple leaf fibre on an industrial scale, Ananas Anam has created a global supply chain created through collaborations with partners at all stages, from the pineapple farmers to brands.

The development of Anam PALF for textile applications has also involved collaborations with educational institutions around the world, helping with research and development for innovative textiles. Through these educational collaborations, Ananas Anam has worked with universities, schools, academic leaders and students to also provide education on sustainable textiles and expand use of low-impact materials, such as those made from Anam PALF like Piñatex and Piñayarn.

Developments between Ananas Anam and partner brands and manufacturers working with Anam PALF involve an in-depth and collaborative approach to working, as pineapple leaf fibre is a relatively new material for many industries and requires technical experience to apply into textiles. Ananas Anam collaborates directly with industrial partners, with cross-industry collaboration between textile and automotive industries to develop new applications for Anam PALF.

Collaborations with farming communities and groups are also essential for Anam PALF, providing the raw material and also giving a use for the agricultural waste created from the pineapple harvest. Working closely in collaboration with rural farming communities provides the opportunity to optimise the efficiency of the supply chain and increase positive social impact.

Collaboration with other innovators helps to find ways to combine materials and processes that have been born from the same values.