From beer waste to eco leather: Arda Biomaterials gets new investment
Arda Biomaterials has received a funding injection as it continues its mission “to transform waste into valuable, animal- and plastic-free leather alternatives”.
For a taste of its achievements so far, it has created leather made from beer waste.
Because of its intriguing early-stage developments, the company has received a major boost with £1.1 million of new investment, led by UK clean-tech venture capital fund Clean Growth Fund.
Backed by the new funding, in the next 12 months, Arda expects to have reached a finished material that can be sold to brands for the consumer market.
Leather alternatives are a key focus of development at present with materials from sources such as mushrooms and pineapple having made a big impact so far.
Leveraging chemistry and materials science, Arda’s first transformation is turning the waste barley grain from the beer brewing industry into a leather alternative for use in the fashion, home goods, automotive industry, and more.
Called New Grain, Arda’s new material has so far been entirely plastic-free in its development with biodegradability tests soon to be completed. New Grain “supports the journey towards Net Zero and by using waste materials, such as brewery waste, Arda advances the development of the Circular Economy”, it noted.
The company, suitably located in The Leather Market building near London Bridge, is currently working with breweries along the ‘Bermondsey Beer Mile’ in South London, which was also once the leather tanning district of the City of London.
Arda co-founder and CTO Edward TJ Mitchell said: “The advent of cheap plastics wiped out a century of innovation in using natural inputs to make materials. Now, with sustainability in mind, we are discovering that the natural world has all the building blocks needed to create marvellous and sustainable materials. The production of leather is particularly resource intensive and the current alternatives are riddled with plastic. The chemical composition in waste grain is uniquely suited to be transformed into a material that can resemble many of the properties of leather and more.”
Fellow co-founder and CEO Brett Cotten added: “Many people believe leather is a by-product of cows; it’s really more of a co-product that subsidises the continuation of animal agriculture. The spent grain from breweries is typically burned, sent to landfill, anaerobically digested into gas, or fed to animals as cheap feed – all very low-value use cases. I am thrilled that we can skip the cow to create a truly novel product that to date has been 100% animal and plastic-free. Now we can drink our beer and wear it too. This financing round led by Clean Growth Fund will allow us to get to a finished material that we can begin selling to brands and put into consumers’ hands. I can’t wait to see others wearing it.”
