Accessories out of industrial food waste

We create accessories of industrial food waste contributing to up-cycling and a circular economy. The premise of a social circular economy is to design out of waste from industrial systems by keeping raw materials and products in use for as long as possible. By swapping harmful materials such as leather and plastic and by producing accessories that look, feel and function just as good but with materials that are considered industrial waste such as Apples and wheat straw we can contribute to up-cycling and a circular economy. We design accessories out of Apple waste from Northern Italy. A region which farmers are faced with a significant amount of waste from the apple-juice industry every year. This natural waste is used to substitute other raw materials of chemical originated products. Lowering the emission and the consumption of energy through the entire production chain = a 100% circular and biodegradable product.

The animal leather industry is one of the most damaging ones there is. The interesting part is that the animal leather is no longer a by-product to the meat industry. The price for the leather is higher than the price for meat, making it more of a threat to our planet. Farmers that could focus on growing plants that can become a substitute for both meat and leather focus on creating pastureland for more cows. 

When the cradle to gate environmental impact study compared each type of fibre used in fashion with their impact on chemistry, global warming, water scarcity, abiotic resources depletion, fossil fuels & eutrophication cow leather was a clear winner.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the annual global impact of animal leather is approximately 130MT Co2e. This is the same amount as those from 30 Million passenger vehicles each year. Mintel's luxury goods retail (international report August 2018) showed 66% ( 2 out of 3 ) luxury consumers would rather buy vegan-leather fashion if it existed in the high-end market.

We want to move away from products having a lifetime warranty to having an afterlife warranty. Our accessories are made to look just as good as non sustainable products with comfort, functionality and unique designs in mind.

By providing a strong alternative as well as eye-opening products we can prove that sustainable food waste does not equal boring or less functional products. We can encourage more people to choose greener products. We can effectively change the trends and put pressure on bigger companies to choose materials that contributes to outgrow schemes, new work fields and helps the agricultural and food waste-management.The vegan leather market is expected to grow by 49% within the upcoming 4 years. Expected to become a 100 USD Billion dollar market by 2025-According to a new report by Infinium Global Research. We believe that the number will be even higher after the current pandemic and the fears for new zoonotic diseases.

We are able to affect every single individual on this planet and our future generation by proving to the consumers that our accessories look as good while sparing our environment and helping with the waste management within the apple-juice industry.

We will spare our worker and those living in surrounding areas health by not using chemical materials or leather tannery.

Studies of leather-tannery workers in Sweden and Italy found cancer risks “between 20% and 50% above [those] expected. Many people in surrounding areas die of cancer possibly caused by exposure to toxic chemicals used to process and dye leather. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the incidence of leukemia among residents in an area near one tannery in Kentucky was five times the U.S. average

We are able to contract workers in our supply chain to outgrow. Our suppliers will be able to employ more people in return helping them out with the apple waste-management.

By using biodegradable material from the many food waste alternatives such as pineapple, Mango, mushrooms, cork and apples we can encourage farmers to integrate with a very polluted industry: fashion. The truth is if leather "goes out of fashion" because people realize the damage and the many alternatives. The price for meat will naturally become higher. People will then look for alternative food and stop consuming as much meat. Focus will instead shift and the demand for alternatives will grow stronger.

Leather is not a by-product in the meat industry it is the main product.

We are tackling:  The Food waste, waste management, agriculture, the leather and plastic industry and animal ethics.

 "The rise of the conscious consumer" There is currently a gap in the market for transparent, sustainable, up-cycling, biodegradable, fair and ethical accessories. The fashion industry is so polluted but at the same time so easily affected. All it takes is for one company to make the change and create the new cool. 

By creating popular products made out of food waste we can encourage people to start looking at agriculture and food waste in a different way.

We wanted to put food waste in the spotlight. As a team of skilled copy writes, with fashion industry knowledge and experience of social media influence, website development and content creation. All these important factors that is needed to make a change, start a movement and spread awareness in today's social media society. We sourced and eventually found our manufacturer that produces the apple leather in Northern Italy.

The technology of creating this apple leather as well as designing products that can encourage buyers that would normally not look at the vegan section is the challenge.

There are currently no world-renowned fashion brands using food waste. Fashion an industry that drives a tremendous amount of money each year.

We know through our social media community, magazine endorsement, celebrity endorsement and research that the leather impact VS food waste is a very overseen topic where people are willing to change but the alternatives doesn't really exist.

We believe for people to change their ways from one product they are happy with or comfortable with to another it needs to reassemble the first product. By providing a product in the same price range, with the same functionality that looks the same you can win the consumer over.

The importance is to educated and notify the consumer of the impact their small changes make. By swapping to circular products their strengthening the economy and thereby their own economy. To highlight the benefits, purpose and social impact you can win the non-vegan consumers over as well.

Our production and products will inspire people to choose greener options as the difference looks wise today between a leather sneaker and a apple sneaker is none. However the environmental impact between the different products is huge.

Direct impact

We estimate our health impact to be:
By sparing workers from using harmful toxins and fumes in tanneries
<80 people working in the factory 
We estimate >400,000 in surrounding areas

We estimate our economic impact to be:
By creating new jobs.
<20 new jobs within our supply chain

We hope to triple the jobs in our supply chain by depend upon more material within the next five years.

We believe if we can effectively change the trend about leather and meat more capital and interest will be put into agriculture and out grower schemes, re-using, reducing and recycling. We believe that our economy will grow stronger if more companies choose to work with circular products with an afterlife. We also believe that food waste can be a resource and be used for many more things than within fashion. All sectors could effectively change from using leather seats, sofas and interior and use materials with an afterlife. Forests that have been cut down for pastureland can be recovered and the levels of methane can be reduced if we stop breeding cows for leather.

We are currently working on new research and extending our product range in order to make sure we can attract any consumer in our first target market Europe. We believe that a certain capital is crucial when changing a trend something that we today don't have as this is a project we have invested in ourselves. 

The sales cycle is longer with new products and you have to be creative and knowing your target market to attract consumers via ads.

We believe that we need to get more exposure from bigger corporations and organizations in order to get the approval and recognition 
to push towards building the new way in the future of fashion. We would be able to attract partnership and by that scale up much faster.

We will continue to spread awareness and build our community on social media to be able to showcase evidence of interest. We will look for partnership in terms of financing and exposure through like-minded organisations.

2 main partners

Contractors <15

Felizia is Swedish & Caribbean born in Gothenburg, Sweden and is the founder of Poa London. Francesca is Italian born in Genoa Italy and the project leader. Both have a big interest in music, minimalism, Scandinavian design and sustainable living. Inspired by the Scandinavian way of developing new ways to keep their society sustainable and fair and their encouragement that spreads throughout the population to contribute to this cause. Our pattern which we call Stockholm Syndrôme comes from our Swedish heritage and reflects on the fact that movements in sustainability often starts in Scandinavia and spreads as an inspiration something we hope to do with our brand by shifting to biodegradable and greener materials

Felizia has worked for various men’s & women’s brands in-store and back office. She knows what the consumers want and she has a huge interest in fashion materials. She can trend forecast and the passion for sustainability comes naturally after growing up in Sweden a very "Green country" . She studied digital design in Sweden. Francesca has worked as a store manager in a fashion retail store in London and knows what consumers are after. She has worked in major department stores such as Selfridges in the accessories department and has developed a great brand knowledge. Francesca has studied at the prestigious Italian university for fashion design in Milan Politecnico di Milano where she specialized in fashion accessories design She is also a very skilled graphic and CAD designer.

We are currently not collaborating with any organisations.

Our business model is to operate via our E-commerce platform on a made to order basis. Which makes it easier for us to be able to control our stock, what our consumers like, what they don't like as well as making it more exclusive and transparent for the consumer.

Today's consumers want transparency and to feel seen. They want to personalize their products and they don't mind waiting for a product that they know is made just for them.

They like to know what impact they are making and to follow the entire supply chain. By creating a larger range of designs but only creating one prototype for content creation we can let customers pick and choose their favorable designs and pre order it. The benefits of made to order is it reduces your upfront capital risk by not carrying larger stock or ordering products in a bigger quantity risking they will not sell as well as not overproducing and sparing the environment.

The exposure and approval a company receives after being a part of Solve justifies the problem we are trying to solve and encourages more people to solve it. To receive mentorship and strategic advice from Solve and MIT networks would help us build like-minded partnership and advance ourselves.

We would like to get new ideas and feedback from the network. Marketing ideas and exposure in media. Partnerships and collaborations with like minded companies or organizations. Funding from Impact investors. Assistance from advisors in taking crucial decisions.

We would love to partner with other food waste organisations to see whether we can create designs out of the waste. Companies founded by young women. Bigger impact companies and organizations.