App against food waste wins Challenge Circular South-Holland
On 10 November the app called 'Expiry' won the Challenge Circular South Holland at the Festival of the Future in The Hague. This app combats food waste in an intelligent and fun way.
The Challenge
The Challenge Circular South Holland, in which mostly students competed against one another, is a collaboration between the province South Holland, the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability, and the Nature- and Milieufederation South Holland. The goal was to have as many ideas for a circular economy, the big ambition of South Holland.
The €3.500 idea: Expiry App
The winning concept called 'Expiry' is a pretty simple and practical app to be used at multiple supermarkets. A loyalty card registers al of your groceries and information regarding the expiration date of the products. The app is coupled to a customers loyalty card and gives the consumer a signal when a product is about to expire. In addition, Expiry gives recipe suggestions for cooking meals, by combining as many about-to-expire products that the consumer can pick from his or her shelves.
Second prize: New Batteries
According to the jury, this idea contributes to the transition towards a circular economy within the South Holland region. Therefore, the second place winner was Genesia: a new kind of battery. When these non-regular materials become abundant, this idea can be applied on a large(r) scale. As such, new opportunities for the collection of sustainable energy will grow.
Both teams get a financial recuperation of respectively 3500,- and 1500,-, as well as professional coaching to further develop their ideas.
Out of a total of 40 participants, 8 teams and their ideas were chosen for the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of a jury during the Festival of the Future on 10 November.
Gertjan de Werk, associate director of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability explains
The core of the contest was: help the smaller ideas further, and couple them to the challenges of the system. Ironically, all these ideas will face similar boundaries before they are realized. Moreover: especially with those ideas, you can show the faults of the system and what needs to be changed. The teams with the most appealing ideas were selected to present these ideas during the Festival of the Future.
Jury
The jury consisted of of Adri Bom-Lemstra (deputee province South Holland), Arnold Tukker (scientific director LDE Centre for Sustainability), Alex Ouwehand (director Nature and Environmentfederation South Holland) and Marijke van den Hoogen (manager sustainable development at Heineken).
The province South Holland, Leiden-Delft-Erasmus, Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability and the Nature and Environment federation South Holland want to contribute to the circular economy the coming years. As a first step, they will help the winners of the challenge to realize and further implement their ideas. Last but not least, they will go through the ideas that didn’t make the finals, and see if those can also be helped further towards contributing to a circular South Holland.
Find out more about the winning ideas:
The App Expiry http://circulairzuidholland.nl/de-challenge/finalisten/expiry/
Genesia: http://circulairzuidholland.nl/de-challenge/finalisten/genesia/
These were the ideas that made the finals http://circulairzuidholland.nl/392-2/