The brooklyn-based biomaterials startup company, Tomtex – the company that is developing alternative leather from seafood shell waste or mushroom waste – has raised $1.7million in pre-seed funding to boost its operation.
Although leather is regarded as an ethical source – leather production uses extensive chemicals and water and the byproducts of tanneries have substantial environmental consequences.
While Tomtex’s seafood shell waste or mushroom waste leather alternative is both ethical and sustainable. As it eliminates any type of use of plastic compounds that are petrochemical-based and reliant on fossil fuels.
Tomtex uses an exclusive process that excerpts a biopolymer, chitin, from the shells of castoff seafood and mushrooms and then mixes this with coffee grind waste to advance a near-leatherlike textile that can be customized to customer requirements.
The near-leatherlike textile material is all tough, 100% biodegradable, plastic-free, and does not need tanning or chemical-intensive dying.
