Sustainable Concepts Shortlisted for Wege Prize ’23 Offer Real-World Solutions for Circular Economy
Wege Prize announces 15 semifinalist student teams for global student innovation competition, with participants from 23 countries, including Mozambique, Costa Rica, China, the U.K. and Canada
From agricultural waste and discarded clothing to plastics pollution and hunger, new and impactful solutions are turning these critical challenges into new products and resources, thanks to 15 student teams from around the world competing for cash prizes in the 10th year of Wege Prize.
The promising, real-world ideas for the future circular economy include making solar cells out of plastic garbage, recycling food waste from restaurants and farms as new fertilizers, creating faux leather from banana peels and solving malnutrition by reviving appreciation for indigenous African vegetables. Other competitors will debut new cellulose-based plastic wrap, lumber from recycled pulp, scrap-metal solar concentrators and cooking fuel briquettes made from farm waste.