Nespresso has today announced Brisbane start up, Uuvipak as the winner of the inaugural Australian StartCup Challenge; a circular innovation competition with a first prize of AUD$50,000 funding.
The StartCup challenge winner was selected via a public vote from a shortlist of three, selected by an expert panel that assessed entrants based on their innovative thinking and potential for impact within the Australian circular economy. Uuvipak, a tech meets science innovation, claims to be on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic pollution with 100% home-compostable packaging, currently in the form of cups and containers. The winning submission by co-founders Dr Shafali Gupta and Andy Epifani revealed the pair has created a new patent pending edible material made from clean, upcycled organic food waste sourced from food and drink manufacturers across Australia.
The entry states that the material is strong, hot water resistant for over 12 hours, and 100% biodegradable without leaving any toxic or harmful by-products in the process, creating a closed circular loop. This year’s winners, Dr Gupta and Epifani said: “After noticing the amount of packaging that we accumulated every day in our households, we decided to look for a better alternative to soft and hard single-use plastics. Uuvipak was born to eradicate single-use plastic pollution by creating a circular economy: our products are made from 100% upcycled clean organic food waste, without any chemical additives, and are able to biodegrade naturally after use. When you choose Uuvipak, you create zero landfill, don’t contaminate your food with microplastics, and produce zero emissions.”
See Uuvipak’s award entry video here for more details.
Nespresso Managing Director, Jean-Marc Dragoli said: “Congratulations to the Uuvipak team on a remarkable circular innovation which inspired both our jury and the public with its creativity and potential for positive impact. I would also like to recognise our two runners up, Gaia Project and Tackle Lab’s NOGO Bin, for their impressive submissions and thank each and every entrant for taking part in the Australian StartCup Challenge this year. The quality and quantity of submissions leaves me without a doubt that Australia can move, powered by bright ideas and innovation, toward a shared net-zero, circular economy.’
The final three finalists from the challenge were selected by an expert panel of leaders from different sectors who are committed to innovation and sustainable development, including:
• Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Founding Director of the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre
• Nik Robinson, Co-Founder, Good Citizens
• Zoe Mellick, Sustainability Lead, Glam Corner
• Charlotte Connell, Climate Reality Leader, Co-Director and Sustainability lead at Founder Institute and EIR in Sustainability at Fishburners
• Yasmin Grigaliunas, Founder and Chief Evangelist, Circonomy
• Jean-Marc Dragoli, Managing Director, Nespresso Oceania
• Mariah Monaghan, Head of Marketing and Sustainability, Nespresso Australia
This year’s runners up were:
Gaia Project – Recognising the need to reduce waste and improve the way in which we farm and cultivate crops, Gaia Project Founder Nadun Hennayak created the Intelligent Crop Cultivation Module (ICCM). The ICCM is an innovative and unique modular cultivation method that responds to the plants’ natural growth cycle in order to significantly reduce and reuse water, while reducing energy and nutrient usage and doubling crop yield, effectively changing the way we grow produce.
Tackle Lab’s NOGO Bin – Seeing the incredible number of nappies that end up in landfills across Australia every day, Jaci Mata and Meg Connor founded TackleLab with the goal of diverting nappy and wipe waste from landfill. Encouraging the switch from plastic to compostable nappies, TackleLab created the NOGO Bin to allow childcare centres to compost used nappies at scale.
An important next step in Nespresso’s B Corp™ journey following certification in April, StartCup seeks to build on the company’s 30-year commitment to sustainability and innovation by providing a platform for innovative ideas, services or products that contribute to strengthening the circular economy in Australia.
Committed to the circular economy
Nespresso has always taken its corporate responsibility very seriously and has invested heavily over the past 30 years to optimise the sustainable aspects of its processes throughout its value chain. Very early on, Nespresso began to look for solutions to reintegrate the components of its capsules into the raw material circuit and developed a process for separating aluminium from coffee grounds that is unique. In Australia, Nespresso has its own dedicated recycling scheme with four ways to participate. With a view to driving strong engagement, Nespresso has also been innovating with new approaches from the recent Recycling Rewards pilot, which incentivised Australians to return used capsules to Nespresso Boutiques with sustainable gifts, to the 2021 Curby trial, which brought kerbside collection of all aluminium coffee capsules to people’s doorsteps in Australia for the first time.
For more information, visit the Nespresso corporate website: www.nestle-nespresso.com