Expo 2020 is creating change by funding grassroots recycling projects in developing countries
From collecting plastic bags for school funds to experimenting with kites to harness energy, Expo 2020 is taking its recycling message overseas.
As part of Sustainability Week, it was announced that 13 projects with a sustainability theme have received a US$100,000 (Dh367,300) Expo Live grant for programmes designed to create social change.
The money will be used to develop concepts that include re-using waste, creating alternatives to plastic bags and bringing electricity to remote areas.
“We want to push Expo Live as an incentive for youth and entrepreneurs who are spending time thinking of how to solve problems in waste, water and energy,” said Yousuf Caires, vice president of Expo Live, part of Expo 2020 Dubai.
The first programme of its kind at a world fair, Expo Live aims to show how grassroots enterprise adds social value and can create change to make the world more inclusive.
With funds of $100m, it is an innovation and partnership programme launched by Expo 2020 Dubai to fund, accelerate and promote creative solutions that improve lives and the environment.
“We want people to know there are programmes like ours interested in funding their ideas,” Mr Caires said. “We want them to pursue their ideas and not be discouraged by a lack of funding, interest or support.”
A grant of a $100,000 is available to winners of Expo Live with the assurance that the Expo will fund further innovations.
The programme opens for applications every six months in the run-up to the event and the third round ended in December, with results likely to be announced in April.
In Haiti, as part of the Plastic Bank scheme, people collect plastic waste and hand it into shops. It is then recycled and sold to companies for use in manufacturing.
The money raised pays for the school fees of the children
of those who collect the plastic waste.
“A group of entrepreneurs are helping connect people who collect plastic with companies. With the Plastic Bank, those collecting the plastic make a commitment. That’s why it’s called a bank, because through its resources it supports families to keep kids in school,” Mr Caires said.
Finnish company Paptic has developed a wood-based alternative to plastic packaging and bags to cut waste.
Paptic aims to develop new applications for use beyond shopping bags.
“This project of research requires experimentation and we can have real impact on the ground. This renewable source of fibre can be as strong as plastic and as malleable as paper,” Mr Caires said.
Due to concerns about confidentiality and patenting, Paptic declined to talk about the details of its new material.
Kitenergy is an Italian company using kites to harness energy from wind at high altitude to provide power to remote areas with little or no access to electricity.
The Expo grant will allow Kitenergy to conduct field tests on a remote island in Cape Verde off the north-west coast of Africa. It could give 200 residents there access to electricity and power a desalination plant.
“The grant will help us run tests in real life in marginalised islands off West Africa that may not have many options. It requires more experimentation but it can be an alternative for those without access to the grid, to help them generate their own energy,” he said.
Among projects funded in the UAE is the Smart Labour mobile phone app, which helps blue-collar workers to speak in English and learn safety information in their own language via video tutorials they can access on their mobile phones at any time.
A separate university innovation programme is open specifically to UAE students for a prototype they want to improve.
Funds of up to Dh25,000 were awarded last year by Expo 2020 to 19 groups of university students in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Last year, more than 1,000 students in 280 teams from public and private colleges participated. The programme will continue this year.
“More than half the applications were around sustainability so water, energy, waste and recycling was on top of their minds,” Mr Caires said.
“It’s an opportunity for UAE students to tell us what they are working on and for them to showcase their best.”
Conservation fits in with the UAE’s efforts as a country, said Najeeb Al Ali, executive director of the Expo 2020 Bureau.
“Sustainability is the cornerstone of the Expo and also fits in with the UAE theme this year in the Year of Zayed,” Mr Al Ali said.
“One of the four pillars of the Year of Zayed is sustainability. If we think of this country’s history and our early years, there was always an emphasis on this. The Expo programmes are a chance for us to take it to the next level.”