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Our Challenges

We´re looking for startups that have solutions to these challenges.

Circular Economy

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Help close the loop and create a circular global economy where waste is eliminated, resources continually circulated and nature regenerated through new packaging systems, recycling infrastructure, and alternative food supply options. We are looking for the following solutions:

Recycling, Reuse and Returnability

  • Sorting, recycling and reuse schemes in distribution centers and wholesalers
  • Innovations to increase returnability with consumers (convenient waste/return & refill)
  • New washer machine/rinser solution to increase bottle life cycle
  • Post-consumer recycling (one-way bottle/cans, kegs and returnables) including more efficient and convenient logistics system, collection points and separation of materials on-site
  • New technologies to recycle materials (beyond chemical recycling) - including mechanical and enhanced recycling that provides lower carbon footprint than current technologies
  • Re-introduce returnable/reusable packaging into developed markets (linked to traceability and calculation of trips and rotations, as per PPWR)
  • Aluminum (can-to-can) recycling (APAC focus on China and Korea)
  • Returnable and reusable aluminum containers
  • PET recycling (APAC focus on China and Korea)
  • Solutions to recycle amber PET
  • Solutions to increase the recycled content in flint bottles without incurring discoloration; e.g., additives to boost clarity or sorting mechanisms to identify best feedstock from recycling streams
  • Glass recycling infrastructure; e.g., get container spec cullet glass out of the single stream recycling more cost effectively and cheaply, new scalable technologies in glass cleaning and sorting, solutions for recycled mixed glass (amber and green)
  • Replacements or alternatives for plastic liners in bottle caps, without compromising shelf life (Corona Challenge)
  • Plastic free or recycling solution for paper and plastic labels (include PET label that can go into recycling streams w/o sorting)
  • Innovative technologies for recyclable caps including PET caps
  • Recycling solutions for PET label carrier (with silicon)
  • Eco-friendly, recyclable, reusable, or biodegradable branding and marketing materials such as cups for events, furniture for bars & restaurants, racks, shelves, posters, printed material, textiles and clothing and any other material used to communicate
  • New technologies or schemes for waste collection systems
  • Shared reusable infrastructure, possible JV, for collecting/cleaning bottles prior to returning them to the filling line
  • Mobile packaging sorting & recycling center especially in remote/rural areas
  • Scalable businesses that leverage plastic upcycling technologies (Corona Challenge)
  • Recycling solutions for diatomaceous earth
  • Washing solution to increase % of cullet able to be recycled in glass manufacturing
  • New opportunities for recycling aerobic sludge
  • New solutions for label recycling
  • New solutions for carton recycling (i.e., folding carton, corrugated) and reuse
  • Solutions for recycle incentivization & increased convenience for consumers
  • Non-plastic alternatives for flexibles including bags, sachets, etc., includes home compostable technologies that can provide barrier properties for liquids
  • Recycle sortation technologies for small packaging item, for example, recycling of HDPE tubes (e.g., new class of recyclable toothpaste packaging)
  • Washing PCR production residues in dry (without using water)
  • Serialized Deposit Return System (i.e., Digital DRS). Pilots, development of novel collection points (that can also read the end/bottom of the can)
  • Body and end separation technologies after Deposit Return System collection for cans
  • Reusable/returnable secondary packaging for circular system
  • Segregated system enabling collection/recycling of disposable paper/plastic cups and monolayer recyclable pouches
  • Lightweight low carbon high recycled content reusable beverage packaging
  • High-solidity recycled paper for cluster packs (As-is all-pulp)
  • Sourcing for 500ml empty can during can demand explosion of market
  • Using anti-slip hot melt for can packing instead of film
  • Technology that allows recycling material efficiency by using new technology/process & material properties (A.I)
  • Plastic-free or developing recyclable solutions for labels. Exploring recyclable PET & other material caps
  • Dry Washing of PCR Production Residues: Reducing water usage in recycling processes
  • Eco Friendly Ink & coating Development: Creating sustainable & no bleeding inks without compromising to printing quality, or slowing down line capacity

Packaging Material Alternatives & Innovations

Plastics:

  • Food Grade rPP and rPE
  • PET Bottle Ultra-Light Weighting, beyond gram reduction and focusing on optimization
  • Replacement for non-recyclable nylon barriers for PET bottles
  • Replacement for plastic blister packaging
  • Food contacts plastics made with >10% recycled content
  • Biobased plastics, recyclable at scale
  • Food Grade rPP and rPE: Utilizing recycled polypropylene (rPP) and recycled polyethylene (rPE) for food packaging under regulation approval
  • PET Bottle Ultra-Light Weighting: Beyond simple weight reduction, focusing on optimization to minimize material usage by technology/process & material properties
  • HDPE Bottle Ultra-Light Weighting: Beyond simple weight reduction, focusing on optimization to minimize material usage by technology/process & material properties

Fiber Packaging:

  • Coating for dry molded fiber paperboard bottles that allows recycling and meets shelf-life quality standards
  • Carton coating to extend secondary packaging shelf life without hindering recycling stream
  • A multi-pack made of recycled paper or alternative fiber paper
  • Reusable carton packaging – multicycle
  • Forms that provide moisture and oxygen barrier. Must be compatible with fiber recycling
  • Fiber Primary Packaging (Bottles, Pouches, Pods, etc.), that are recyclable/repulpable at scale, with lower CO2 footprint than existing primary packaging
  • Coating for Fiber based packaging: Creating forms that provide either moisture – oxygen – gas – water barriers without impact on recyclability, minimizing no-paper fraction (ideally plastic free) meeting quality standards for shelf life. Can be applied by conventional coating technology or printing or spraying technology
  • Palletization: Developing stretch paper fiber tertiary packaging for transport pallet as alternative to plastic

Cans (Aluminum/Steel):

  • Returnable and refillable aluminum container
  • Can of the future where lid and body are all made from the same alloy for 1-1 recycling and increased recycled content in can sheet
  • Aluminum purification although these often take big investments; e.g., ALCOA ASTRAEA
  • Aluminum Containers coating: a safe, neutral coating for natural water bottles. Prioritize traceability, hygiene, and eco-friendly materials to enhance quality and sustainability. BPA-Free coating

Glass Bottles:

  • Anti-scuff coating for returnable bottles to help increase the bottle lifetime
  • Decarbonated glass material: Glass containers (water & dairy) will have a positive impact on CO2 footprint by using new technology/process & material properties
  • Anti-Scuff Coating for Returnable Bottles: Enhancing the durability of returnable glass bottles

Generic:

  • Recycled/Recyclable secondary and tertiary packaging materials
  • Sachet film technology to advance recyclability, biodegradability/compostability
  • Shrink-wrap alternatives OR reusable secondary packaging/shrink OR new sustainable solutions for secondary packaging
  • Pouches: Monolayer film for water (PET) & dairy products advancing recyclability and biodegradability/compostability
  • Label Alternatives & Multi-Colors/High Contrast Solutions: Exploring label-free packaging options. Beyond traditional labeling, using technologies like direct digital printing and laser marking
  • Alternatives to dairy pots: Technology allows low plastic & low carbon solution as an alternative to dairy classic pots

Palletization:

  • Fiber Primary Packaging (Bottles, Pouches, Pods, etc.), that are recyclable/repulpable
  • Improvements to enable the removal of plastic stretch film, while maintaining transportation quality (Corona Challenge)
  • Scalable technology for bio-based and renewable materials
  • eCommerce ready packaging to avoid overpacking and material waste to be made of majority recycled content
  • Elimination or alternatives of labels on packaging
  • Multi-colors/high contrast solutions without labeling beyond current Direct Digital Printing and laser marking technologies at comparable traditional labeling speed
  • Use of novel packaging materials and technologies in various packaging categories (aluminum, steel, glass, paper, polymer, glue) that enable further light-weighting or reduced material use (e.g., glass strengthening technology that enables super light weighting)
  • Biobased materials in substitution of fossil fuels-based packaging
  • 100% plastic-free bag for the delivery segment
  • Alternatives to disposable paper/plastic cups and multilayer pouches to ensure recyclability

Packaging New Forms

  • Novel ways to concentrate products including low water content forms that are reconstituted or used directly by consumers, CPG focus
  • New product ideas involving re-fillable/replacement product that is stored or otherwise used with a permanent/durable container while addressing hygiene challenges for refillable
  • Refillable Packaging for dilutable products from a concentrated form into reusable packaging (e.g., bottles), novel ways to ensure the consumer maintains a clean and sanitary environment

Materials Tracking & Tracing

  • Solutions to track packaging materials through the entire circular economy. Better tracking and reporting of recycled content across all materials.
  • Visibility and traceability of input materials for packaging
  • Reuse marketing materials in different points of sale, increase marketing materials traceability to know where and what we are using or storing and reduce, eliminate, reuse and/or recycle materials that are used to pack marketing materials
  • Traceability of aluminum and glass across the value chain, from mine to remelt, enabling product passports
  • Track and trace for the precise measurement of return rates for reusable bottles

Upcycling

  • Marketplaces for upcycling co-products from CPG industry
  • Processing technologies that turn our co-products into ingredients for various food applications
  • Palm oil, tallow and other vegetable oil substitutes including waste food, spent grain, and other feedstocks - as use in surfactants for soap as well as food applications
  • Low-cost sulfate free or natural surfactants technologies
  • Natural, sustainable preservative technologies for food, personal and oral care products
  • Processes and materials that incorporate co-products into sustainable packaging solutions
  • Find a second life for all of our co-products through products that generate value to our consumers, especially for: spent coffee and tea leaves, seeds, peels, pulp, dry/wet yeast and brewers’ grain
  • Biological / chemical process to extract valuable properties for skincare products, pharmaceutical products
  • Stabilizing our brewers’ grains which, if not treated, has a very limited lifetime of 4-6 hours
  • Solutions to make transportation economically viable; e.g., low-cost de-watering to reduce original moisture of 80% (brewers’ grain contains only 20%-40% dry matter)
  • New foods and beverages derived from and linked to our co-products that enable healthier diets and address obesity and malnutrition
  • Anaerobic digestion for brewers’ grain (ideally with cogeneration)
  • Renewable or recycled carbon, non-fossil fuel derived carbon ingredients; e.g., surfactants for cleaning products, CO2 for carbonation
  • Energy production from coproducts (BSY and BSG) through anaerobic digestion or other technologies
  • New solutions to fuel/accelerate the fermentation process including alternative carbon or nitrogen sources
  • Solutions to improve the functionality or nutritional profile of brewers’ spent grain or brewers’ spent yeast through fermentation
  • Startups in the plant-based meat or dairy sector who are interested in testing/using novel ingredients derived from barley or yeast including proteins and fibers
  • Bioplastics, composites or other packaging solutions derived from brewers’ spent grain
  • Novel valorizations of brewing co-products for use in biochemicals, cosmetics, etc.
  • Circularity of commercial coolers, 2nd life cooler technology
  • Processing technologies that turn our co-products into (new) ingredients for various food applications (focus on dairy by-streams such as acid-whey, UF permeate, lactose streams, water + monovalent minerals)
  • Find a second life for all of our co-products through products that generate value to our consumers (keeping food / health grade), especially for: spent coffee and tea leaves, seeds, peels, pulp, dry/wet yeast and brewers’ grain, dairy based by-streams from milk filtration and dairy product processes (such as acid-whey, UF permeate, lactose & lactose free streams, water + monovalent minerals)
  • Startups in the plant-based meat or dairy sector who are interested in testing/using novel ingredients derived from barley or yeast including proteins and fibers
  • Technologies or initiatives to valorize oat kara and/or soy okara to create nutritious ingredients for plant-based applications with higher focus fibers
  • Tools to enable accurate real time visibility into DM and protein content of our BSG ( I think actually SCIO can be relevant for this)
  • Opportunities to increase dry matter & / or protein content of BSG / BSY
  • Technologies for efficient (lower energy consumption) to dry our BSG, BSY and Sludge
  • New applications & valorization for BTS sludge, DE

Chemicals and materials from renewable resources and designed for a circular end of life

  • Renewable and biodegradable water soluble polymers with functionality for use in home care, personal care and cosmetics products
  • New biodegradable platform and specialty chemicals from renewable sources for a range of applications
  • New biodegradable chemicals and materials derived from marine biomass, targeting ingredient and materials applications in foods, home care, personal care and cosmetics products
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