Eco:Fibr – All about Ananas

When Niklas Tegtmeier travelled through Costa Rica in 2018, he saw them for the first time, the plantations with the herbaceous, sprawling plants to the left and right of the roads through the interior of the country. Pineapples as far as the eye can see. The plants are so dense that their pointed, hard leaves compete with each other for space. And in the middle of the foliage, about a metre above the ground, a pineapple is enthroned on each plant. However, this story is not about the sweet fruit – but rather about the green stuff that remains after the workers on the plantations have harvested the pineapples and the fruit has been shipped around the world in cartons.

Back in Germany, he and other students drew up a plan as part of the student social entrepreneurship initiative ‘Enactus Germany’: they wanted to produce cellulose for the paper industry from the pineapple leaves, which are considered agricultural waste in technical jargon and are simply burnt in Costa Rica after harvesting.