PeelPioneers rescues citrus peels from the incinerator and turns squeezed oranges into new ingredients for the food industry. Orange flavouring for summer drinks, peel pieces for chocolate or cakes and citrus fibre as a natural thickener. Sytze van Stempvoort, one of the initiators of PeelPioneers, talks about the initiative’s mission, its impact and its plans for the future.
From “waste” to foodstuff
Why burn valuable material if you can transform it into an array of beautiful, useful things? What the juice industry sees as a waste stream, PeelPioneers sees as a source of raw material and new valuable products. The factory in Den Bosch processes 50,000 kilos of orange peels a day. Since its establishment in 2017, PeelPioneers has saved around 30 million kilos of peels from the incinerator. This makes the company Europe’s biggest peel farming concern in Europe. A constant supply of fresh peels means it doesn’t need to rely on seasonal oranges or transport from outside Europe. This contributes to the end product’s quality while reducing CO2
emissions.
Joining forces to create a circular economy
As a circular company, PeelPioneers serves as a pioneering example in the Netherlands. During the Week of the Circular Economy in 2023, PeelPioneers was awarded the “Circular Business Award” and earned 30th place in the internationally recognised FoodTech 500 ranking, which features the most promising companies working at the crossroads of food, technology and sustainability.
While this certainly recognises the company’s work and achievements, co-founder Sytze is most proud of the team: “I see the same drive reflected in all of the 50 people who work for us. Everyone believes in the company’s mission and we really cooperate closely.”
Showing that it works
The DOEN Foundation has supported PeelPioneers since its establishment in 2017. First with a grant from the DOEN Foundation, and later through the DOEN Participaties investment company. Sytze: “It’s incredibly tough to set up a production company from scratch, while young people should be given the chance to change the industry. Thanks to DOEN’s support, we could open our first factory and show that you can transform waste into new, valuable ingredients. That, in turn, attracts new investors. The network and our contact with DOEN’s other partners is also important. Take Seepje, for example, which is now a customer of ours. We supply them with our fragrances.”
Plans for the future
Production in Den Bosch is growing and peel farmers are looking across the border for citrus waste. In Spain, tree-grown oranges are processed directly into juice. Unfortunately, the squeezed fruit there ends up as landfill or animal feed. Establishing a PeelPioneers plant next to the juice producer means that the peels can be processed directly into high-end ingredients, needing far less transportation. In addition to fragrances and fibre, PeelPioneers is studying whether it can extract natural colourants, citric acid and valuable enzymes from the peels. To achieve its ambitions for the future and generate further growth, additional funding will be needed. For this reason a crowd funding campaign has been launched.
Sytze’s message to other people wanting to work hard for a better world is crystal clear: “Do it! You have to have enormous intrinsic motivation and a touch of naivety, and ideally, be a bit blind to the risks. Don’t wait until you’ve elaborated a good idea to perfection. Get going, and along the way you’ll find out what you are up against and how best to resolve it. Once you’ve started, opportunities arise, inspiring people appear and your journey takes inconceivably exciting twists and turns.”
DOEN Participaties is investing in PeelPioneers thanks to the players of the Postcode Loterij.
