Flowers cast into the Ganges River contain highly toxic pesticides. Phool used this floral waste to make a sustainable alternative to leather.
Fleather is a vegan leather made from the floral waste from the temples and mosques of India.
PHOOL initially started as an effort to stop the River Ganges from becoming a dumping ground for over 8 metric tons of toxic floral waste daily by making them into incense sticks.
One day they noticed a thick mat-like substance growing over the unused fibres lying on their factory floor. This mat, they realised, could be turned into a sustainable alternative to environmentally damaging animal and plastic leather. They called the new material Fleather. They invested into R&D to invent methods to convert the temple-waste into biodegradable packaging and bio-leathers on a commercial basis.
One of the 2022 winners of the Earthshot prizes, they continue to go from strength to strength.
To read more about Fleather and Phool: