LEEF Turns Fallen Palm Leaves Into A Plastic Substitute
The move away from plastic is fundamentally a story about alternative materials.
Polymers aren’t my specialty, so honestly it’s a domain I don’t fully understand, but a solution as simple as this one I can follow just fine.
A Potsdam-based company called LEEF, featured in the conference video below from an event held in Berlin, was proposing something extremely simple using palm leaves.
GREENTECH FESTIVAL 2022 // LIVESTREAM Day 1
The process is extremely straightforward.
- Collect a large quantity of fallen palm leaves
- Dry them
- Wash them
- Press them (it looked like the same approach as press-forming sheet metal)
- Apply heat
The key point is that this isn’t about making disposable products. It’s about making products usable on a somewhat permanent basis — a substitute for plastic.
Here’s LEEF’s website. The lineup is extremely rich, but since all you’re really doing is pressing, expanding the lineup itself must be quite easy.
They still seem to be feeling out how to expand overseas, Japan included, and the vibe is basically “just contact Sales for now!”
So will it catch on?
For now, I get the sense there’s a certain segment of people who would 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.