Green Alley Award Finalists: Meet the startups shaping the future of Europe’s circular economy
The 2024 Green Alley Award finalists represent a diverse array of innovative solutions ready to drive the circular economy forward. Among them are pioneering concepts such as repurposing electric car batteries for a second life, developing compostable and biochar-based packaging, advancing plastic recycling technologies, crafting new products from orange waste, introducing completely compostable clothing price tags, and innovating textile waste recycling methods to bridge the gap in synthetic yarn blends recycling.
Mainz, 21st March 2024 – The Green Alley Award, Europe’s first and longest-running award for startups and entrepreneurs pioneering the circular economy, has announced its finalists for 2024. Six startups have been selected from a total of over 300 applications and will pitch at the Green Alley Award finals on April 25, 2024, live in Berlin. The winning startup will be awarded a prize of €25,000.
Since 2014, Landbell Group, a global provider of environmental and chemical compliance solutions, has presented the Green Alley Award to startups whose innovative products, services or technologies help to make the most efficient use of resources and reduce waste drastically. This year’s finalists provide new solutions for sustainable packaging, smarter recycling, and the use of food, plastic, and textile waste to create useful products.
These are the 6 finalists:
AraBat (Italy)
Arabat presents an advanced and sustainable technology to help battery users and manufacturers with the recycling of spent batteries and recovery of raw materials with biomass-based processes that use fruit and vegetable by-products and waste. https://arabat.it/it/
Carbon Cell (UK)
A carbon-negative, biodegradable rigid foam, developed from waste with competitive thermal and acoustic insulation, strength, and fire resistance to help companies use polystyrene packaging (e.g., consumer electronics) to protect their product from impact or temperature changes during transit. https://www.carboncell.co/
Ecopolplast (Poland)
Innovative technology and manufactures Ecoplastomer®, a brand-new product category – circular TPEs made with 100% recycled content: to help reinvent the use of recycled materials in manufacturing and reduce CO2 emissions, limiting environmental and CO2 impact with mechanically blended, without chemical additives or stabilizers. https://ecoplastomer.eu/
NOOSA (Belgium)
This Belgian startup has the answer, NOOSA® fibre, creates textile from corn, 100% recyclable thanks to their NOOCYCLE® technology. Noosa guarantees that every textile made from their product will be recycled back into a pure, virgin, and strong fibre. https://www.noosafiber.com/
Novapedra (Spain)
The startup is developing a sustainable material made from organic waste as an alternative to ceramics, without the use of natural gas for its manufacture. https://novapedra.com/
PulpaTronics (UK)
Sustainable RFID tags, simplify material sourcing and transport and streamline manufacturing, cutting CO2 emissions by 70% and halving cost to help retailers looking for affordable inventory management solutions while achieving sustainability goals and customers focusing on more conscious shopping the waste of natural resources. https://www.pulpatronics.com/
Each of these startups embodies the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and commitment to sustainability that the award champions. From groundbreaking recycling technologies to pioneering circular business models, these finalists are leading the way towards a more sustainable future. At Landbell Group we believe that startups will drive meaningful change on our road to a circular economy.”
Established with a vision to distinguish and support startups pioneering circular economy solutions in Europe, the Green Alley Award has played a pivotal role for the last ten years in shaping the future of some of today´s well-established companies that started as startups, such as traceless materials, S.Lab and Sulapack.The number of applications for the award has grown tremendously from year to year, reflecting a global commitment to fostering circular economy practices and addressing environmental challenges creatively. This edition is the champion so far, with 339 applications from across Europe, which represents a growth of 50% considering the previous edition. Notably, the majority of startup applications originated from Germany (19%), followed by the UK (16%), Italy (11%) and Spain (9%). Multiple types of solutions are on display, ranging from waste prevention (36%) to digital solutions and recycling (both with 32%). These projects represent excellent circular economy solutions, featuring innovative business ideas and strong, dedicated teams.
Press Contact
Filipa Moita, Marketing Manager, Landbell Group
Mail: f.moita@landbellgroup.com Phone: +351 91 223 79 62
About Green Alley Award
The Green Alley Award is Europe´s only startup prize specifically for the circular economy. The mission is to turn the linear into a circular economy and transform the waste and recycling industry as we know it today. The annual European prize was created in 2014 by Landbell Group, the leading supplier of global environmental services, along with Germany’s crowdfunding pioneer, OneCrowd. The Award is also supported by our media partner Positive News, a UK based news platform. The jury is made up of experienced leaders from Landbell Group as well as external experts including Katrin-Cécile Ziegler, Environmental Economist, Digital Expert and Tech Journalist; Martin Wright, circular economy speaker and Chair of Positive News and the founders of last year’s startup winners.
For more information, please visit https://green-alley-award.com/
About Landbell Group
Landbell Group is an international provider of comprehensive take-back, consulting and software solutions for environmental and chemical compliance. Landbell was founded in 1995 as a waste management company in Germany and has since evolved into a global service provider. Today, Landbell operates takeback/collection systems for various waste streams in 17 countries worldwide, supports over 40,000 customers in more than 63 countries in fulfilling extended producer responsibility, and has already collected over 120,000 tons of batteries, 4 million tons of e-waste and more than 7 million tons of packaging. Landbell AG, specifically in Germany, operates a certified and independent dual system for manufacturers and retailers to meet their legal requirements.
For more information, please visit https://landbell-group.com/