INNOVATIONS AROUND THE WORLD
Kenyan Startup Founder Nzambi Matee Recycles Plastic To Make Bricks That Are Stronger Than Concrete
Nairobi-based startup company Gjenge Makers, founded by Nzambi Matee, has created a lightweight and low-cost building material that is made of recycled plastic with sand to make bricks that are stronger than concrete material. Nzambi Matee, a 29-year-old trained engineer and schooled in biochemistry, founded the new ways of converting waste into sustainable materials. With her initiative, Matee has recently been named a Young Champion of the Earth 2020 Africa winner at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
When an army of women came together to revive a river
The Naganadhi river with its catchment area in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts had dried up many years ago. The groundwater in the area reduced subsequently making the area bore-well dependent.
Over a 1000 women from 21 villages of a revenue block in Vellore district built recharge wells and check dams to recharge groundwater which, in turn, revived the river. The groundwater recharge work has now been extended to nine other districts led by close to 20,000 women.
Click here for full story.
Indonesia Rice-Fish Farming
Mina Padi is a form of combined farming (combined farming) that uses paddy fields that are being planted with rice as a pond for freshwater fish cultivation. The technique is good for both the fish and the rice. Safely hidden from birds, the fish thrive in the dense rice plants, while they in turn provide a source of fertiliser with their droppings, eat insect pests and help to circulate oxygen around the rice field.
Click here for more.
Drone Delivery Start-Up Zipline Beats Amazon, UPS And FedEx To The Punch
More than two billion people lack adequate access to essential medical products, often due to challenging terrain and gaps in infrastructure. Because of this, over 2.9 million children under age five die every year. And up to 150,000 pregnancy-related deaths could be avoided each year if mothers had reliable access to safe blood.
Through a partnership with the Government of Rwanda, Zipline will deliver all blood products for twenty hospitals and health centers starting this summer, improving access to healthcare for millions of Rwandans. https://flyzipline.com/
Made in Malaysia | This could solve waste management and keep Malaysia clean
Roland Tee a retired auditor came up with the solution by inventing The Asher, a machine that turns almost all kinds of garbage you put into it to ash. The Asher does’s burn waste like a conventional incinerator, instead it bakes the trash in high heat thus turning them into ash. The ashes can later be used as fertiliser or mixed with other materials to make sand bricks.
The Asher has been deployed in 13 countries so far including Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Qatar, Bahrain and Australia. Pamarai Sdn Bhd is the sole distributor of The Asher.
Unleash the ducks! 10,000 ducks “cleaning” rice paddies in Thailand
After the rice crop was harvested on a farm in Nakhon Pathom province in Thailand, a flock of around 10,000 ducks was released from a pen – and instinctively streamed towards the flooded fields to devour pests such as snails hiding in the rice stubble.
Drone footage, capturing the spectacle that resembles naturally-occurring animal migration, shows the birds zig-zagging across the fields as they headed towards the nutrient-rich rice paddies. Click here for full story.
The story of Tonester Paints
Tony Piloseno was just an average guy working for a national paint manufacturing company in Ohio last year, making videos of himself mixing paint colors, adding some music and posting them on the TikTok social media platform. @Tonesterpaints amassed quite a fanbase with the trend — not only on TikTok but also Instagram and YouTube.
He aimed to pitch his profile as an example of what the company could do with their social media presence, thinking it could be beneficial for them from a marketing point of view. However, his ideas weren’t met with any support, and they instead chose to fire him from his job.
Ghost Kitchens: How The New Cooking Concept Is Giving The Industry A Lifeline
The global online food delivery market is projected to generate revenues of nearly $165 billion by 2024, and companies like Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Grubhub are all trying to get a slice of the multi-billion dollar pie. To keep up with consumer demand, ‘dark’ or ‘ghost’ kitchens are on the rise. The new ecosystem of ghost kitchens, or kitchens without seating areas for costumers, are saving the restaurant industry.
https://www.karmakitchen.co/
Sustainable Innovation - Nike Innovation 2020
Learn about Nike’s “Move to Zero” and how the brand keeps circularity in mind with Seana Hannah, Vice President of Nike Sustainable Innovation.
Recycling fashion: The town turning waste into clothes
Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. But a small town in Italy called Prato has built its fortune on transforming old scraps into new clothes, particularly knitwear and wool.
5 Singapore Startups Taking Innovation to the Next Level
In Singapore, it’s hardly business as usual. Startups are pushing the boundaries of technology to improve the quality of life for everyone. Join us as we visit five companies making everything from sponges that can soak up oil spills in the ocean, to robotic hands for people with neurological disorders, to laser communication devices designed to bring the internet to everyone: https://bit.ly/33EFDRo
Pink foods take root in Vietnam as COVID-19 hits dragon fruit exports to China
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what if life hands you dragon fruit – and lots of it – instead? It’s a question that Vietnamese businesses have been pondering for weeks now, and they seem to have found the answer.
Pink foods have taken over the Southeast Asian nation since February with baguettes, noodles and rice papers taking on a bubblegum hue as eateries infuse local favorites with dragon fruit. While millennials might be tickled pink with the new offerings, the trend reportedly serves a cause greater than racking up Instagram likes: keeping farmers afloat amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Click here for more.
On Circular Economy: The Chair Made from Malaysia's Ocean Bound Plastic
In this episode, Ole Boleh explore the idea of circular economy and its importance in the development of the Lourve chair, a chair made from recycled ocean-bound plastic. Circular economy is when we keep resources in use for as long as possible. This is done by recycling and reusing the same resources, extracting the maximum value it can produce.