From converting pathogenic biomedical waste into eco-friendly soil additives to manufacturing vegan leather from agricultural waste like mango peel and banana stem, the CSIR’s lab National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), is busy churning out affordable green innovative technology.

These among others were displayed at the foundation day of the CSIR at Pragati Maidan here recently.

NIIST Director Dr C Anandharamakrishnan said that vegan leather has the potential to replace around 30-50 per cent of synthetic chemicals from the existing leather available in the market.

“Also, the developed leather sheet costs 50 per cent less than synthetic and animal leather and has a smaller carbon footprint as various agricultural residues such as mango peel, banana stem, pineapple waste, cactus, water hyacinth, corn husk, and rice-related waste are being used.

 “Vegan leather has a shelf life of more than three years. It has also shown strong tensile strength, sleek finish, good water retention properties, temperature resistance, and stability compared to other existing synthetic and animal leather,” he emphasised.

Though still held out by the fashion industry as a luxury material, leather is a co-product of the meat industry, and it comes with many environmental downsides.

A leather jacket has a climate cost of 176 kilograms of CO2, for instance, and manufacturers also dump toxic chemical compounds like lead, arsenic, cadmium and chromium into the water as the leather is processed, on top of the millions of goats and other animals slaughtered each year in India for leather.  

About the dual disinfection-solidification system for spontaneous and instantaneous disinfection of both liquid and solid biomedical waste, including urine, saliva and blood, bacterial broths, cotton, tissues, swabs, needles, and syringes, the NIIST Director said the innovative system converts degradable waste into soil additives while lab disposables are prepared for direct recycling.

Segregation, transportation and disposal of such disinfected medical waste are easier and safer with significant reduction in cost for a healthcare facility and less expensive than red-bagging, a method currently in practice for containing medical waste, explained Anandharamakrishnan.