British start-up wins half a million euros for sustainable alternative to plastic

The finalists of the Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge 2020 have been announced: six start-ups from Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Norway and Sweden.

SoluBlue (UK) has just been announced as the winner of the Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge 2020. Ayca Dundar, CEO and Francis Field, CTO, both Co-Founders of SoluBlue**, convinced the international jury and received the grand prize of 500,000 euros for her green start-up.**

The runner-up prize of 200,000 euros went to the UK-based start-up Jiva. The other finalists were awarded 100,000 euros each to grow their businesses. In addition to the prize money, the finalists receive six months of support and coaching in furthering their business during the Green Challenge DeepDive. The Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge is an annual international competition in the field of sustainability innovation which encourages and supports start-ups to take their business to the next level.

Grand prize of half a million euros for a sustainable alternative to plastic and bioplastic food packaging

SoluBlue packaging looks and feels like plastic, but is breathable and hydrophilic, absorbing excess moisture from food and preventing mould growth. Not only does the packaging extend shelf life – in SoluBlue packaging, food gradually dries over months, providing a second life for fresh food in cooking, or as animal feed. Being made from seaweed, the material is bio digestible, making it safe for marine life. The packaging is also home compostable, biodegrading as quickly as the food it contains."

Aya Dundar, CEO and co-founder of SoluBlue - winner of the Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge 2020

Ayca Dundar: “Winning Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge 2020 is an incredible achievement and honour for us. Winning the top prize is not only going to revolutionise our growth plans, but it will provide further confidence to investors that our technology is the future. We’ve proven that our packaging works so now is the time to show the food industry and consumers that SoluBlue can help create a cleaner and greener planet!”

Runner-up prize for Jiva
Director Jack Herring of the British start-up Jiva, was rewarded by the jury with the runner-up prize of 200,000 euros. Together with his team, Jack found out that 18 billion square metres of PCBs are manufactured every year and the rising value of precious metals means that efficient recycling of PCBs is a necessity. The organic structure of Soluboard® means the natural fibres can be separated in hot water. This allows the electronic components to be removed efficiently for recycling.

Director Jack Herring of start-up Jiva - Runner-up Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge 2020

100,000 euros for Made of Air, Orbisk, N2 Applied and Enjay

The 100,000 euro prizes went to: Made of Air from Germany, which developed high-value, carbon negative, thermoplastic materials which can replace fossil plastics in manufactured products, Orbisk from the Netherlands, which developed  the world’s first automated food waste monitor to enable restaurants to change processes and reduce waste significantly, N2 Applied from Norway, which developed a technology that enables local production of fertiliser from liquid organic substrates such as slurry or digestate with air and electricity making it an efficient and sustainable fertiliser, and creating a more circular farm system and Enjay, a Swedish cleantech company which offers profitable energy recovery from restaurant ventilation.

More about the Green Challenge.