“Solutions to limit the climate impact of plastics” was the topic of this years Climathon in Lund. The 24 hour hackathon gathered 54 participants and was thereby one of the larger among the 113 Climathons held simultaneous all around the world.
By Olof Blomqvist, Project Coordinator – Climate-KIC, Lund University
Climathon in Lund was held at Ideon Science Park and organised by Climate-KIC, Lund University, Lund Municipality, Sysav, Ideon Innovation and Lunds Renhållningsverk. In addition to the organisers, a number of other organisations, supplying anything from speakers and experts to marketing, also supported the event. This variety of the supporters made it possible to supply the event and the teams with all imaginable help during the development of their ideas. Lund was the only City in Sweden hosting a Climathon this year.
Organisers did their best to ensure that Climathon in Lund 2018 was not just 24 hours of hard work and no sleep but also a memorable and event with nice food and engaging activities.
As for the solutions. There were eight teams presenting a great variety of solutions. Starting with the winning team the solutions presented were:
Pow(d)erfull
The Powderfull team
Every year 552 million shampoo bottles are thrown away only in the US. Pow(d)erfull presents a solution to this problem that also includes large savings in transports to stores and great marketing and visibility possibility’s for existing brands. The team also made a kickass presentation!
Circle Center
Cicle Center team
As a student, and especially as an exchange student, you do not own very much stuff. However, you may sometimes want to use special items that you do not need every day, for example a baking form some camping gear or an extra madras. This team presented a solution of a Circle Center where students would get access to a large number of such items, all high quality, checked and cleaned, for a subscription fee.
GoodPack
Presenting the Goodpack solution
Ordering takeaway food means a loot of plastic waste. GoodPack introduce a circular solution with reusable food containers. The solution includes a distribution, collection and cleaning system that makes single use plastics history.
Plastitude
The Plastitude team
Making bricks out of plastic waste is not a new idea. Plastitudes system on how to manage the process of gathering waste, providing machinery for manufacturing and using the bricks for the common good of local island communities is brand new.
Hooke´d
The Hooked team
Hooke´d is the sustainable shopping app that gets you hooked by providing awards for sustainable consumption choices. Creating incentives for consumers to choose more sustainable products.
Smart Plastic
The Smart plastic team
When plastic waste arrives, at a recycling centre it is all mixed and no one really knows what materials it contains. Smart Plastic changes this by applying a barcode to all plastic items. At the waist site, automatic sorters can then identify the different materials and separate them.
Textile Certification
Textile Certification team
We all want high quality textile products produced in a sustainable way. Today you may pay a lot more for a product but often find out that the quality is as low as the cheaper alternatives. What if all textiles products were by law required to go through a Life Cycle Assessment and the products not living up to standards were not allowed to be sold?
Environmental Education
Environmental Education team
The current education systems do not live up to the requirements when it comes to environmental education. The worlds over 2 billion children deserves better. The Environmental Education team came up with a master plan on how to change the education system, and thereby the future.
