Soon you might not need to worry about wasting your food — you could just turn it into leather instead。

也许很快你就无需担心浪费食物了，相反，你可以把食物变为皮革。

Undergraduate design students in the Netherlands have come up with a new, eco-friendly process that converts leftover fruit and vegetables into durable, leather-like material, possibly strong enough to be used for car seats, handbags and other products in the future。

几个荷兰设计专业的本科生想出了一种有益生态的新型工艺，可以把剩余的水果蔬菜转化为经久耐用、类似皮革的材料，这种材料相当牢固，足够可以在将来用以制作汽车坐垫、手提包还有其他产品。

The project, Fruitleather Rotterdam, began as a school assignment. After brainstorming, the group of six decided to focus their work on social issues at the same time, and tackle the widespread problem of food waste。

这一项目名为“鹿特丹水果皮革”，一开始是学校的作业。经过一番头脑风暴，六人小组决定关注社会议题，解决食物浪费的普遍问题。

"The academy gives us a perfect view over the Binnerotte Square in Rotterdam, where they have a market each Tuesday and Saturday," Hugo de Boon, who focuses on spatial design，said so. “We saw how the square would be completely littered with food waste (at the end of the day)， so ... we realized this was a problem we would want to solve from a designer's point of view."

“学院让我们对鹿特丹比诺洛特广场有了全方位的认识，那儿每周二、六都有集市，”专注于空间设计的雨果·德伯恩如是说道。“我们看到广场每天(日落时分)是怎么垃圾遍地的，所以.。。我们意识到这很成问题，想从设计者的视角来解决。”

Fruitleather Rotterdam began taking leftover food off vendors' hands, and started using fruit — mangos, oranges, nectarines, apples and more — to manufacture material. De Boon said the exact manufacturing process is "the group secret," but he offered the basics: After collecting food waste from the market stands, the team makes sure all seeds are taken out of the fruit before they cut it up and mash it. Then they remove all bacteria from the fruit by boiling it, to ensure that it won't rot. The next step is spreading the paste onto a "specific surface," which de Boon said is "crucial in the drying process." Once it's dried, the raw Fruitleather material is produced。

“鹿特丹水果皮革”项目小组开始从摊贩手中取走剩余食物，着手开始用芒果、橘子、油桃、苹果等水果来制造材料。德伯恩称，确切的制造工艺流程是其”团队的秘密“，但他说了基本原理：先从集市摊位收集食物余料，接着团队确定水果所有的籽儿已取出，再把水果切碎、捣烂。然后，煮沸水果，祛除所有细菌，确保不会腐烂。下一步是把这团糊糊涂到”特定的表面上“，德伯恩称这是”干燥过程关键的一步“。一经干燥，水果皮革的原材料也就制作完毕了。

They're hoping to develop new steps in the manufacturing process to improve the quality of the material, and also to meet the needs of specific products, such as furniture and clothing. However, de Boon wants to be clear that they are not focusing on any products in particular. "Many people make the mistake that we are currently just making bags. We used the bag as a visual for the public to show that products can be made out of the material, but it is the material itself that we produce," he said。

他们希望可以在生产过程中多研发几道工序以提高材料的质量，同时也要满足特定产品的需求，如家具和服装。然而，德伯恩明确表示，他们没有特别想着力研究哪一款产品。“许多人误以为我们目前就是在做包。我们用包向公众作视觉展示，这种材料可以用来制作产品，但我们制造的是材料本身，”他说道。