Okinawa is Japan's southernmost prefecture.

It produces 99% of the country's domestically grown pineapple.

Fashion apparel made with fibers extracted from Okinawan pineapple leaves are now starting to attract attention.

CEO Uda Etsuko and her company are behind the project.

Her company specializes in producing and selling various items

that center around using Okinawan agricultural waste products as a key ingredient.

In 2019, she noticed piles of pineapple leaves left sitting in a farmer's fields

and wondered if she might be able to use them for something.

I was shocked when I first saw the massive mounds of leaves that were being left out to rot.

I thought, if we could figure out how to use them, we might have found ourselves an untapped resource.

Because pineapple leaves are extremely tough, farmers usually have no choice but to discard them in piles on their land.

Once the fruit and crown have been separated, the leaves are useless for us and just get in the way.

After doing some research, Uda discovered that some traditional textiles in the Philippines were made out of pineapple leaf fibers.

Wanting to give it a try herself, she imported an old piece of machinery.

A metal blade first crushes the thick outer-skin of the leaves,

then the machine uses a scraping tool to remove the fiber strands.

The entire process required more than 10 different steps, many of which had to be done by hand.

Including drying, the total time took about 12 hours, so Uda decided it just wasn't worth the time and effort.

But rather than giving up, she spent 3 years working on developing...

...a water-based fiber extraction machine.

It uses a high-pressure stream of water to break up the surface of the leaf...

...and remove the flesh surrounding the fibers in one single process.

Once a leaf is inserted, it takes only about 10 seconds to extract the fiber.

By creating their own machine, the company is able to complete the entire process 10 times faster than before.

With conventional machines, the fibers would come out with a green hue to them,

but with this machine, they come out white or almost clear.

This allows us to skip several of the follow-up steps and greatly increase productivity.

The company is working on implementing a water recycling system

so the machine can further reduce its environmental impact.

While the leaves seem indestructible, the fibers themselves are relatively weak,

so 30% pineapple leaf fiber is blended with 70% cotton to create a more durable fabric.

Offering greater absorbency and moisture wicking properties than hemp,

the pineapple fibers also feel soft and smooth to the touch.

These traits have allowed the fibers to be used in a variety of products, including locally made aloha shirts.

These specially designed jeans contain 14% pineapple fiber.

Since being released by a popular high-end Japanese denim maker in January of 2021,

over 200 pairs have been sold at a price about $300.

Uda plans to have 20 of the machines up and running in Okinawa by March of 2024,

and is also working on expanding to various other pineapple producing countries throughout Asia.

I believe Okinawa can serve as the source for a new domestic textile industry here in Japan.

I also think that fiber made from discarded pineapple leaves can offer a natural

and more environmentally friendly option for the fashion industry.

Located in northern Nagano prefecture, the town of Iizuna is famous for its apples.

This small town is also home to a project that is turning locally generated waste into something positive -

a collection of synthetic leather bags, wallets, and other goods made with an apple-based powder.

The mastermind behind the project is Ito Yuri.

After working at a fruit processing company in Nagano for 10 years,

she became upset with the amount of waste she was seeing within the industry.

So much usable fruit ends up getting thrown out just because it doesn't meet high industry standards -

and it's not just the fruit - it's the time, money, and labor that went into growing it!

Around the same time, she attended a sustainable fashion exhibition

and discovered vegan leathers made using fruit as an ingredient.

In 2022, Ito proposed creating goods made from a synthetic leather that incorporates Nagano apples to the Iizuna government.

And soon after, they began working on a joint project together.

Each year, farmers in the town of Iizuna produce over 8,000 tons of apples.

Of that amount, about 20% are used for making juice or other processed products.

On heavy production days, over one ton of pomace or waste pulp is produced.

A local cider producer is also participating in Ito's project.

Up until now, the only use we could find for it was feeding it to cows,

but through Ito's idea, we were able to use it to make new products like wallets and bags.

It's pretty exciting!

After drying the apple pomace for 48 hours,

the company uses a special machine that was procured by the town of Iizuna to turn the pomace into a fine powder.

Ito's company then purchases the apple powder from the town of Iizuna and sends it to a synthetic leather manufacturer...

it specializes in making synthetic leathers used in car interiors.

It normally creates synthetic leather by adding several layers of polyurethane to a base cloth.

They were able to reduce the amount of polyurethane needed by adding 30% apple powder to one of the layers.

Despite the apple additive, the final product is just as strong and resilient as standard synthetic leathers.

The Japanese word for apple is "ringo," so the new material was named Ringo Leather.

This Nagano-based bag maker is currently using Ringo Leather to create a variety of new products.

I find the material to be quite soft and supple.

Plus, it's much more uniform than real leather, so it's easy to work with.

In May of 2023, the company began selling Ringo Leather bags for just over $400 and wallets for about $270 on its website.

It also offered several other products through a crowdfunding project, which brought in an additional $21,000 in sales.

By teaming up with local businesses and using Nagano apples,

I hope to create a successful brand that not only can become a representative product for our prefecture,

but that can help to expand the circular flow of the economy here.