Green Alley Award Finalists

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/

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/

Rheiazymes (Switzerland)

Molecular Bio-Recycling to help the fashion industry solve the plastics recycling problem for sportswear, swimwear and outdoor textiles with biological scissors separating materials at the molecular level back into their main raw components.www.rheiazymes.com

Jan Patrick Schulz, CEO of Landbell Group and founder of the Green Alley Award, emphasizes the important role of circular economy initiatives in Europe: “We are happy to reveal the six finalists of this year´s Green Alley Award. 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.

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