Circular Agro-Processing: The “Orange” Dynasty

We often talk about “comparing apples to oranges”.

But what if we choose not to compare but to create something out of oranges.

“Yeah…duh..”, you say.

But we know that oranges give us a juicy pulp which we could eat or convert into that classic, coveted orange juice.

True.

But then what do we do with the peels?

A story is told of two people who needed to share an orange for their needs by cutting it into halves.

One guy got all the pulp out of his half and discarded the peels.

The other guy got all the peels from his hand and discarded the pulp.

You see, the first guy wanted to make orange marmalade while the other wanted to create a bubbly orange zest soap.

They could have talked earlier to know each other’s needs.

That way, the first guy could have taken the whole pulp and the other, the whole peel.

Well, this analogy paints to us a “citrus” dilemma.

A stroll into a market in any Sub Saharan African nation will expose just how much fruit waste is a big issue.

But it needn’t be so.

What if we use each and every part of an orange so economically that no waste remains?

We already know the uses of the pulp.

It’s converted to refreshing orange juice.

However, it could still be used in jams, marmalade among other things.

The seeds could be used to grow seedlings for sale.

Hey, imagine the benefits we get from trees.

Now compound that with them giving us fruits.

Fruit tree seedlings are increasingly becoming a thing for those who desire perimeter trees in their compounds.

But let’s set the seeds and pulps aside and invest a bit of our minds into peels.

PEELS

The citrus peel is a natural wonder in many ways.

First, it could be dried and pulverised into zest.

Now zest could be used in various applications including in the kitchen or making soaps.

But citrus – or orange – zest is the final product probably after more valuable commodities have been extracted from the peel.

So whether we are talking about limonene – an antioxidant – or essential oils used in fragrances, the orange peel stores loads of benefits for us.

And we’ve not even mentioned vitamin C which is also present.

Orange peels extracts could also be used to make cleaning agents to substitute conventional detergents manufactured using harsh chemicals.

Several antioxidants could be extracted from it and concentrated into a healthy candy bar for kids.

Yet after extracting all this, the remaining peels could be crushed and used in soap making and other applications.

In other words, it’s possible to have a zero waste orange agroprocessing industry.

IN CONCLUSION

Oranges are all around us.

So.why not find ways of converting their peels into something useful?

Here, we’ve discussed a few ideas.

Maybe some experimenting could unearth more value.

So roll up your sleeves and dig in.

Originally posted on Cleannovate Blog