We work alongside Southern India’s coconut farmers and processing units who find themselves with much ‘waste’ coconut water after they’ve removed the harvest of white flesh from inside the mature coconuts. Normally this waste water would be released into the drainage system, but this in itself causes pollution of water and the soil to become acidified. Every day a small coconut processing unit disposes of up to 4000 litres of this water per day.
We rescue this coconut water, place it into vats and sterilise it, resulting in an energy-rich, entirely natural nutrient upon which our bacterial culture can feed. We combine the nutrient and the culture and then just let the bacteria do its thing. The fermentation period takes between twelve to fourteen days.
The sheet then undergoes a process of refinement. It is enriched with natural fibres, gums and resins to create a more durable and flexible material which may then be formed into flat sheets in a range of thicknesses and textures, or moulded seamlessly into 3D structures. A range colours can be achieved through the addition of natural dyes, if so desired. We use exclusively plant based dyes sourced from India. A patented cold batch dyeing method is used for this process.
