Brewed, not moo’d: Arda advances beer waste leather
In London, Arda Biomaterials has created a leather alternative from brewer’s spent grain. Dubbed New Grain, the material is supple and durable, and because it reconstructs proteins to resemble the structure of animal proteins, it doesn’t require the plastic binders and coatings many other plant-based leather alternatives require.
“Plant proteins come in this really coiled up, kind of messy state,” Arda commercial lead Camelia Hamdi-Cherif told Dezeen. “We basically unravel these fibers into longer chains and then link them to each other, so that you get the building blocks for something that looks like collagen.”
She added that New Grain is one of the “extremely few solutions” that have remained completely plastic-free. “The interim class of materials [made to replace leather and synthetics] still ended up having to rely on adding different petrochemical or plastic binders or top coats to perform, and that’s kind of become the standard,” Hamdi-Cherif said. “We really don’t see that as a long-term solution, and neither do customers in textiles and fashion.”
Accessories brand BEEN London is using New Grain to make handbags and tennis racquet covers.
Category: Chemicals & Materials
