Food waste is the true resource of this decade. Until a few years ago, food waste was disposed of, turned into natural fertilisers or used in biogas production plants. Today, kitchen paper and even shoes can emerge from our bins.

The apple is the most widespread fruit on our peninsula, one of the most consumed and therefore also the one that produces the most waste. The peel we take care to remove, or the core that is routinely discarded, become an extremely precious material at the Frumat srl laboratory, founded by Hannes Parth.

Since 2009, the chemical analysis laboratory based in Bolzano has been studying the method by which apple waste can be transformed into sustainable everyday products. Smart products that remain within the production cycle — that is, all those that, after use, can be recycled and put to new purposes. Frumat's firstborn was "cartamela", sheets of paper generated from cellulose enriched with apple processing waste, which has taken the form of kitchen rolls, toilet paper, tissues and wrapping paper.

This year, from 25 to 27 February, during the Food waste management conference and Green chemistry conference and exhibition trade shows launched by CremonaFiere and BioEnergy Italia, Parth will explain how apple waste can become footwear, accessories and even coverings for furniture elements or book covers. Under the name "pellemela", the Bolzano laboratory has managed to find the right formula for recycling waste fibres from agri-food industrial processing to produce eco-friendly leather.

Frumat's results have opened up a new frontier in the sustainable market which, in five years, has seen the recycling of apple waste grow from zero to thirty tonnes per month for the production of goods across the most diverse sectors. Agricultural and food industry waste has a new life in products assembled with materials that safeguard the environment and animals, arousing the interest of an ever-growing number of producers and consumers in Italy as well as in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.