Caring for the environment and combating global warming require innovative ideas and flesh-and-blood talents that generate real changes with them. In Chile, there are many who have decided to start a business with sustainability as an objective and are generating clear answers from this corner of the world with a global echo to the problems that afflict the planet. On Environment Day, we present 10 green innovations made in Chile that are creating a better future for the planet.
Glacier Coolers
Saving the glaciers is what this Chilean initiative aims to do. According to estimates by the General Directorate of Waters, glaciers in Chile occupy a total area of 23,641 km2, a figure that corresponds to 80% of the glaciers in South America and are now in evident retreat as a result of global warming. For this reason, during the summer months, the lawyer and former president of Metro, Clemente Pérez, together with the company Suyai, builds removable metal structures to cover large masses of ice with a system of white geotextiles that protect them from the effects of solar radiation and suspended dust, in addition to generating an air pocket between the structure and the ice, thus obtaining a thermal insulator. In this way, up to 65% of the melting of a glacier is avoided.
Modulab
This real textile laboratory, created by the couple of industrial designers Pamela Castro and Felipe Ferrer, has specialized in upcycling or creative reuse since 2001, giving new life to used clothes from well-known brands and using as material all the fabrics decommissioned by different industries such as PVC fabrics from election campaign posters or movie posters. among other materials that take more than 500 years to degrade. They revalue discarded material by combining the study of its components, the application of technology to textile materials, ecology and design, creating everything from clothing accessories to home product lines. Their proposal has earned them several international recognitions, such as being included by the Thames and Hudson publishing house (England) in the book 100 Textile Innovations of the Twentieth Century and since 2002 they have exported to countries such as the United States, Japan, Holland and England.
@modulab.cl
Beewaze
Bee colony monitoring system that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week delivering clear and timely information to reduce the risk of bee mortality through non-invasive sensors, notification system and alerts of possible pests or pest outbreaks. The technology, created by Chilean Monica Herrera, seeks to provide a smart solution to the sharp decline in bee populations around the world so that beekeepers keep their hives healthy and bees, in charge of one of nature's most important processes, well protected.
Algram
With the idea of contributing to the care of the environment, José Manuel Moller arrived in neighborhood businesses with Algramo, a bulk retail sales system that today is changing the way food is bought in the world: he obtains products in large quantities and then sells them in vending machines where beans can be bought. chickpeas, lentils, rice, detergents and other basic necessities in bulk and in reusable containers, which lowers prices, while reducing the waste of polluting plastic packaging. In this way, the pockets of families and the planet are benefited. This successful and award-winning model of refilling and reusing packaging is growing in Latin America, the United States, Indonesia and plans to open offices in Europe.
Imeko
Every day, 15,000 million cigarettes are consumed in the world. And of those, it is estimated that 70% are discarded into the environment. Against this backdrop, in 2018 a group of Chilean scientists created Imeko, a pioneering company worldwide, which is responsible for collecting, transforming and revaluing cigarette butts, transforming them into sustainable products such as coasters, planters, decorative items, among others. All this, through a process that removes the toxicity of cigarette butts and recovers the filter, which is not made of cotton, as many believe, but of a non-biodegradable plastic called cellulose acetate.
Green Bricks
Erwin Uribe and Diego Cartes want to convince the world that the planet can be saved when houses and spaces are built, if it is with the right material. This regenerative company transforms recycled plastics into innovative construction products such as precast sustainable concrete, interior and exterior cladding, among others, under a circular economy model with social, environmental and economic impact. They revalue two to three tons of plastic waste per month and transform that into 300 to 400 square meters of sustainable inputs for construction, without neglecting design and aesthetics.
Food for the Future (F4F)
Supplying global food needs and reducing the amount of organic waste that ends up in landfills are the challenges that Chileans Cristián Emhart and Alejandro Tocigl decided to take on. How? Feeding that organic waste to an insect that is then transformed into food for fish and animals. This project, unique in Latin America, takes advantage of the high protein capacity of the black soldier fly to transform organic waste collected from fairs, casinos and breweries into insect meal that serves not only the salmon industry, but also aquarium fish, pets and even hatchery animals. Thus, they avoid the overexploitation of marine resources and deforestation by replacing fishmeal and soy with this protein, which, they claim, is the most sustainable in the world.
Solubag
Supermarket shelves free of plastic packaging. That's what the creators of Solubag dream of, after launching the world's first water-dissolving food container earlier this year. Its technology is based on the same materiality with which the capsules that coat medicines are created. This milestone aims to replace the classic plastic packaging that contains chips, biscuits and a host of other products that we consume every day with one that disappears when it comes into contact with water.
Solubag has a series of water-soluble products in both flexible and rigid packaging and fabric that it sells in the United States and Europe, and in times of pandemic, its contribution with water-soluble cloth masks stands out, as an alternative to disposable masks.
StatKnows
This statistics and artificial intelligence services company, headed by four Chilean experts in various disciplines, created "Recíclame", an application that, through barcode scanning, allows plastic waste to be traced from production to recycling. It is a blockchain registration system developed in conjunction with ECLAC and Euroclima, which aims to solve the "missing link" in the plastic chain: its traceability once it passes into the hands of consumers. The incentive for the plastic consumer to help generate this traceability is a cryptocurrency that rewards them for registering that plastic, and for finishing the recycling cycle in the smart containers that make the final record of the collected plastic and also classify it, giving a new value to the waste. The information collected, through predictive modelling with artificial intelligence, makes it possible to anticipate which resources are needed – and where – to recover this waste and close the loop, generating projections of consumption and recycling patterns. "Recíclame" is in the process of being implemented and next year will be its massive launch for Chile and other countries around the world.
ViveEko
Reverse vending machine solution that rewards users for recycling, through a positive experience around recycling created by Metro Valparaíso in 2017. It is an intelligent network for the collection of plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans that, through collection machines connected to a mobile application, allows citizens to recycle their packaging and exchange products, access services and various benefits through the Ekopesos that they accumulate for their recycling work.
