Pratica di Shadowing: How People Profit Off Pineapple Scraps | World Wide Waste | Business Insider - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
Creazione lezione...
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These pineapple leaves used to be worthless.
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But about a decade ago,
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a designer revived a centuries-old technique to extract fibers from the fruit.
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She used it to create a convincing alternative to leather and a new type of yarn.
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Then we've got this, which is really a metallic.
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It's quite flashy.
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Fashion people love it.
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Pineapple is more popular than ever.
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The crop grows on over 3,800 square miles worldwide,
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enough to cover New York City ten times over.
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But about half of every fruit ends up as waste.
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Carmen Ijosa wants to convince growers they can turn a profit from their leftovers.
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It's really the queen of fibers.
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Famous brands like Nike already use her product, called Piñatex.
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And Carmen is not alone.
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Entrepreneurs in other parts of the world are making money from pineapple scraps.
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Here are three companies turning the fruit into textiles,
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disposable plates, and eco-friendly cleaners.
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The idea for textiles made from pineapples is nothing new.
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It actually dates back to the 1500s.
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Pineapples come from South America,
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but once they made their way to Europe,
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the fruit became a status symbol,
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gifted to royalty, like King Charles II and Spanish King Ferdinand II.
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The Spanish brought the fruit to the Philippines,
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where locals turned it into a fabric called piña.
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It was mainly used to make Barong Tagalog a traditional formal shirt.
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That centuries-old technique inspired Carmen when she first heard about it 30 years ago.
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I was working with leather at the time,
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but I realized the unsustainability of the leather manufacturing processes,
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and I discovered natural fibers.
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Pineapple leaves turned out to have the perfect mix of strength and flexibility,
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and they can grow up to six feet long.
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That gave me the idea of what if I make a mesh not unlike what leather is.
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She spent decades perfecting her process before she launched her company,
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Ananas Anam, in 2016.
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At the start, it was really like, what are you doing?
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You know, why not keep using leather?
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Her research resulted in two different products.
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Piñatex, which mimics the qualities of animal leather,
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and Piñayarn, a replacement for yarn.
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I'm what you can call a serial entrepreneur.
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Ananas Anam partners with the Dole Sunshine Company and independent farmers to employ over 500 people.
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Workers harvest pineapple leaves that would otherwise be burned or left to rot,
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and run them through a machine that extracts the fibers.
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The sun dries and browns them in just a few hours.
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The fibers are then shipped to Barcelona to become piña yarn.
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This machine acts like a guillotine,
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chopping the longer strands into manageable pieces.
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A carding machine straightens the fibers,
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then grinds them until they resemble cotton.
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The baler compacts the mass into tight squares.
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The fibers are then transported to Portugal,
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where they're spun into the final product.
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To make piñatex, a needle-punching machine knits those same ground fibers with threads made from cornstarch.
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The result is a thick fabric.
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The sheet passes through a 30-meter long conveyor belt to be dyed and dried.
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A resin made from plants and petroleum is used for color and adds durability.
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Then a heated roller flattens the textile and dries the resin.
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The company says it's working to make Piñatex entirely plant-based.
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Piñatex is 95% made from renewable resources,
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so we've got a 5% to work on.
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square meter of piñatex uses around 16 pineapple plants worth of leaves.
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The company says it saves 825 tons of leaves from being burned each year.
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Ananas Anam sells its products to big brands like Nike and Hugo Boss,
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along with smaller companies that make notepads, backpacks, and handbags.
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Ijosa says she plans to explore other textile alternatives in the future.
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I'm here in Spain and I'm already looking at what is being used traditionally.
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So come back to me in two years' time and I will answer this question."
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Pineapple leaves might be good for making textiles,
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but what about the rest of the fruit?
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In Colombia, a company called LifePak shreds pineapple crowns to make compostable plates.
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The mixture is blended with recycled paper and turned into sheets that are left out to dry under the sun.
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A machine presses the sheets into form.
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If these disposable plates end up in a place with soil and water,
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tiny seeds inside will blossom in just a few days.
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On a busy day, workers at LifePak can churn out 10,000 eco-friendly plates.
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In addition to plates, the company also makes sandwich containers and coffee cup sleeves that contain seeds from edible plants like cilantro,
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amaranth, and strawberry.
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LifePak caps its own carbon footprint by working with local suppliers.
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To make our paper and paper, we don't cut trees.
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And that's an essential factor because we let 16 trees cut each ton of product made by us.
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resources pineapple waste from a nearby processing plant.
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The plant's owners charge nothing for the pineapple crowns.
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They're happy that someone is willing to turn their waste into a resource.
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Husband and wife team Claudia Barona and Andres Benevides founded LifePak 12 years ago in in the city of Cali.
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The couple has won several small business awards,
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and they even appeared on the Colombian version of Shark Tank.
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Colombia, like nearly every country in the world,
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is trying to reduce plastic waste.
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In 2017, the country introduced a tax on single-use plastics that increases each year.
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And in some cities, informal pickers are now paid as municipal workers.
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But getting consumers to buy these products isn't easy.
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The LifePak plates retail at about $2.50 per dozen.
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That's more than double the price of plastic plates from a big box store.
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Despite their higher price point,
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LifePak has been able to capitalize on growing demand for sustainable packaging,
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which has increased by 40% since the company started.
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Its plates are now sold in three large supermarket chains domestically.
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The company also handles dozens of orders through its website each week,
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with a handful of customers in the U.S.
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We could make about 6,000 and 12,000 plates.
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In fact, right now there's more demand than offer, so we're oversold.
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That means that the answer to the client is positive and that the product has a market.
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Lifepak's next challenge is to modernize its equipment so it can boost production.
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Andres and Claudia also plan to franchise the business and expand into new countries to help more people cut back on plastic,
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one plate at a time.
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Even if you don't eat off of pineapple plates,
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you can still use the fruit to do the dishes.
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In Vietnam, one company uses pineapple peels and cores to make natural soaps and detergents.
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The founder, Le Duy Hoang,
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says they're safer for the planet and people.
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So safe, he drinks the stuff every day.
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We can eat the fruit.
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Fermented fruit is part of a new trend.
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Cleaning with enzymes instead of harsh chemicals.
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Does it actually work?
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Throughout history, people have used all sorts of stuff to wash up.
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Everything from animal fat to human urine.
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In the early 20th century,
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scientists figured out how to make suds in a lab using fossil fuels.
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That paved the way for all kinds of synthetic gels,
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powders, and cleaning chemicals, which are all detergents.
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So much whiter, she can actually see the difference instantly.
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The problem is, they were full of stuff that water treatment plants weren't built to clean out,
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like phosphorus and nitrogen.
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When those elements flood waterways,
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they can make algae grow faster,
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creating thick layers of muck that suffocate life below.
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That's exactly what happened in North America in the 1960s.
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Lake Erie is almost biologically dead.
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Today, detergent pollution has spread around the world,
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foaming up rivers and fueling overgrown algae.
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Fuwa Biotech is betting that fruit cleaners are the next chapter for cleaning products.
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The name Fuwa comes from the phrase fruit warrior.
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The company buys fruit waste from a factory that makes canned pineapple.
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Workers here chop thousands of them every day.
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This pile is from just a half day's work.
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These used to rot in nearby landfills,
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creating bad smells and methane, a powerful planet-warming gas.
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Now, workers load the scraps onto a truck and travel about two miles to the production site.
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Here, the team unloads the fruit skins and washes them.
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Next, they mix together the first ingredients, sugar and water.
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Fuwa uses about two metric tons of sugar every month.
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I eat for the food and the food.
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So if there's no road,
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I can't go to the menu.
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Workers add the pineapple peels to the sugar water and wait for the mixture to start to ferment.
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Fermentation is when microbes, like bacteria or yeast,
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break down complex molecules like sugar into simpler stuff like alcohol.
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It's how barley becomes beer and grapes become wine.
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At Fuwa, fermentation is how waste becomes cleaning fluids.
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But the secret isn't alcohol.
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It's the enzymes and acids the pineapples will release.
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Enzymes are molecules that speed up chemical reactions,
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like digestion in the human body.
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Certain enzymes can fight germs by entering cells and breaking them apart from the inside.
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This can either kill bacteria or just slow them down enough that they probably won't make you sick.
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But to make those germs stopping enzymes from plants,
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you have to ferment the right mix of ingredients for just the right amount of time.
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Workers here stir the mixture every day.
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After about a month, it looks like this.
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It has a smell of smell.
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It's very sweet.
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By two months, this glob of bacteria and microorganisms forms.
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That's how you know it's working.
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The founders don't keep any of their process a secret.
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This is 10 parts of the water.
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10 parts of the water,
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1 part of the water,
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and 3 parts of the water.
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Huang says he learned this technique from Rochocon Pumpanbong.
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She's a scientist and Buddhist nun who figured out the formula,
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then shared it freely for others to use.
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After the mixture ferments for 3 months,
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there's enough acid and enzymes for it to work as a cleaner.
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Now it's ready to be filtered.
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The leftover solids become fertilizer for nearby farms.
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And the remaining liquid is the base for everything Fu Wah makes.
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Fu Wah buys those oils from local farmers,
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who make them using agricultural waste like stems and leaves.
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The final mixture is bottled and shipped to mini-marts around Vietnam,
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or to online customers in most countries.
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One bottle of dish soap sells for just over $2.
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Huang says that's less than the cost of similar imported products.
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Phu Hoa uses an on-site lab to test its products.
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And it looks at competitor stuff as well,
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measuring the pH and testing for other additives.
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Cleaning with fermented fruit is a fairly new concept,
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but there's evidence it has a lot of potential.
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Researchers compared a pineapple enzyme mixture to bleach and water and found it killed one type of bacteria equally well.
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And early research suggests fruit enzymes might even make wastewater cleaner.
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We know more about common chemical cleaners like bleach.
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They kill lots of germs,
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but come with other risks.
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Huang started making fruit cleaners when his wife,
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now the company's CEO, developed eczema.
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One reason is to use the cleaning products.
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Studies have linked cleaning products to skin irritation and breathing problems, including asthma.
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When used and stored properly,
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they're safe for most people.
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But mixing bleach with the wrong cleaners can create deadly gas,
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which happens thousands of times per year in the United States.
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So, could we one day replace household bleach and detergents with fermented pineapples?
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asked an expert.
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You'll be surprised.
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Yes, totally yes.
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But he also said we need more research.
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There's only a certain number of bacteria that has been tested,
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so probably got to do a wide range of studies with a wide range of microorganisms to ensure that it's really effective.
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Enzyme cleaners pose another challenge, shelf life.
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It will be one of the major issues.
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With certain temperature, it might be inactivated.
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Fuwa says its products can last about two years,
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which is about as long as most chemical cleaning sprays.
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Still, Fuwa has more work to do.
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With so much pineapple processing in the region,
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the company says it has lots of waste to work with.
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But mainly, the founders want people to know there's a gentler alternative.
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the ecosystem.
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So they're eager to spread the word.
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academic, and prosecuting, EYWLDOf ngày 12 and 8 November, 2020
Perché praticare la conversazione con questo video?
Praticare la conversazione attraverso il video "Come le persone traggono profitto dai residui dell'ananas" offre un'opportunità unica per migliorare la pronuncia inglese e affinare le proprie abilità comunicative. Questo video non solo fornisce informazioni interessanti sulla sostenibilità e sull'innovazione, ma offre anche spunti per discutere argomenti di attualità come l'economia circolare e l'uso consapevole delle risorse. Iniziare una conversazione su questi temi può arricchire il proprio vocabolario e migliorare la fluidità, due costruzioni fondamentali per chi desidera imparare l'inglese con youtube.
Grammatica ed espressioni nel contesto
Il video offre diverse strutture grammaticali e frasi utili che possono essere incorporate nella pratica quotidiana. Ecco alcuni esempi chiave:
- “I realized the unsustainability of the leather manufacturing processes.” - Questa frase mostra l'uso del passato semplice e l'importanza di descrivere esperienze personali.
- “Pineapple leaves turned out to have the perfect mix of strength and flexibility.” - Qui viene utilizzato il phrasal verb “turned out”, utile per esprimere scoperte o conclusioni.
- “Workers harvest pineapple leaves that would otherwise be burned or left to rot.” - L'uso del condizionale “would” rende evidente la possibilità di eventi alternativi.
Con queste strutture, gli studenti possono migliorare la loro competenza linguistica e applicare quanto appreso nel contesto delle proprie conversazioni. Praticare queste frasi può anche aiutare a migliorare la pronuncia inglese.
Trappole comuni nella pronuncia
Durante la visione del video, potrebbero sorgere alcune difficoltà di pronuncia, specialmente con parole come “sustainability”, “harvest”, e nomi come Carmen Ijosa. Queste parole contengono suoni e sillabe che possono essere impegnativi per un parlante non nativo. È importante prestare attenzione all’accento tonico e alla pronuncia corretta di ogni sillaba. Utilizzare tecniche di shadow speak può essere particolarmente utile in questo contesto, poiché consente di imitare i suoni e il ritmo della lingua parlata. Consiglio di riascoltare attentamente le sezioni del video e ripetere ad alta voce per superare eventuali difficoltà. Puoi trovare ulteriori esercizi di ascolto sul nostro shadowspeaks per continuare a praticare.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.