The vegan leather ‘Desserto’ : An ecofriendly alternative to animal leather

Adrián López Velarde and Marte Cázarez, both hailing from Mexico, invented vegan leather produced with nopal (a species of Cactus) and gave it the name Desserto, with the aim of developing an ecofriendly alternative to animal leather.

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So, what actually is Desserto ? It is a highly sustainable plant based material made from the Mexican cacti ‘Nopal’. It has been produced as an alternative to the leather that we all know, which is produced from the animal skins.

Desserto looks identical to its animal skin alternative. Wow! What a novel idea. The products made from the Desserto exudes the same luxury and exclusive vibe as does the animal leather, but without harming any animal or the environment, in any way. Revolutionary !!

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As soon as we hear this, our brain automatically pops up the question, ‘Well, that’s awesome ! But for heaven’s sake, how did they come up with this idea of making leather from cactus plants ??’ Marte Cazarez answers this buzzing question like this :

“We had to brainstorm on which plant to focus our R&D on and being in Mexico where cactus is not only abundant but also a national symbol which can be seen in our national flag, we decided to focus our efforts around this plant. Down the line, we figured that cactus was the ideal plant to work with because of its low environmental footprint. It does not require water irrigation systems to grow, nor pesticides or herbicides given the natural strength this plant has. Also, the growth rate is very quick and is abundant all over the country which makes it a scalable raw material which is affordable and can be planted and harvested by anyone in most regions around the world regardless of climate change which normally affects agriculture. It is important to remark that we don’t kill the plant, we just cut the mature leaves and then process them into our raw material. So, the same cactus plants give us more raw material every 6-8 months. Also, by encouraging cactus plantations we contribute to CO2 reduction given the natural efficiency of the plant to absorb CO2”.

Now, the next question that we hear buzzing in our brain wires is “But, How ??”

Well, they harvest the leaves of organically grown Nopal, these leaves are then cleaned, mashed into a thick green paste and then left in the Sun to dry for three days before being processed, where they are grounded into powder. Finally this powder is mixed with a patented formula to produce the leather ‘Desserto’. Voila !!

Desserto has been awarded with many prestigious accolades, here are a few !

Disclaimer : Images and information has been taken from desserto.pelle and you can find more about Desserto on the official website .