LEEF Turns Fallen Palm Leaves Into a Simple Plastic Alternative
The story of ditching plastic is basically the story of alternative materials.
Polymers aren’t my area of expertise. Honestly, it’s a domain I don’t fully understand, but when a solution is as simple as theirs, I can follow it just fine.
LEEF, a Potsdam-based company introduced in the conference video below held in Berlin, was making an extremely simple proposal using palm leaf.
GREENTECH FESTIVAL 2022 // LIVESTREAM Day 1
The process is extremely simple.
- Collect large quantities of fallen palm leaves
- Dry them
- Wash them
- Press them (it looked like the same approach as sheet metal pressing)
- Apply heat
The key point is that this isn’t about making a disposable product — it’s about making a product that can be used semi-permanently, as a substitute for plastic.
Here’s LEEF’s website. The lineup is extremely rich, but since all you’re doing is pressing, expanding the lineup itself must be quite easy.
Overseas expansion, including into Japan, still seems to be in a feeling-things-out stage, and the vibe is basically “for now, just contact our Sales team!”
So, will it catch on?
For now, I feel like there’s a certain segment of people who’d think having a few of these at home is cool.
Originally published in Japanese at https://clazytech.com/2022/07/912/. Translated with LLM assistance and reviewed before publication.