Renewi & PeelPioneers – New materials from citrus peels
Collaboration between Renewi and PeelPioneers helps to prevent food waste by setting up the process that collects and uses citrus peels into valuable new raw materials.
PeelPioneers is the first company in the world that processes the components of citrus peels into valuable new raw materials, such as cellulose and pectin, thereby providing a 100% circular solution for the flow of citrus peels that remain after making fresh juice.
100% circular solution for the flow of citrus peels
The Netherlands produces around 250 million kilos of citrus peels per year. They are mainly orange peels.
Renewi has affiliated to PeelPioneers as a partner. In this partnership, Renewi takes care of the logistics, including the collection at the customer and transport to the production location in Son (the Netherlands). Jumbo Retailers, one of the biggest Dutch supermarket chains are the first company to have residual citrus peels delivered by Renewi to PeelPioneers.
As a result, no fewer than 140 Jumbo branches participate in this project. Through the processing line, PeelPioneers expects to process 40,000 kilos of citrus peels per day into essential oils and citrus pulp which are used, among other things, as ingredients for cleaning agents and high-quality supplementary feed for cattle.
