FIVE CIRCULAR ECONOMY START-UPS THAT YOU WILL INVEST IN

Here is their story:

MilkBrick

Net-zero water building is the goal set by Giangavino Muresu, CEO of Milk Brick. This Sardinian company has developed a technology that can recover milk waste from the dairy sector and large-scale distribution to obtain water and milk fibre.

Water extracted from milk is used as part of the mixing process in the construction industry, reducing the use of clean water. Furthermore, milk fibre – derived from casein through an extrusion process – is used as a strengthening additive in construction.

This material is breathable, antibacterial and a good insulator. Years of research and development to tackle the problem of excessive water use in the construction sector led MilkBrick to design a technology that cuts or eliminates the costs associated with the disposal of milk waste.

The end product can be used in the production of concrete, thermal insulation bricks, prefabricated objects, 3D printing and pre-mixed mortars.

In 2019, MilkBrick won the Italcementi-HeidelbergCement Group Special Prize at the Premio Gaetano Marzotto awards.

Working with Italcementi, the start-up is perfecting its technologies and their industrial viability at the iLab innovation centre, located in Bergamo's Kilometro Rosso science park.

Today, the company has launched the first products on the national market by starting the industrialisation phase, and with it, Maresu and partners also aim to export the Sardinian brick made with milk abroad, where they have already attracted interest from various companies.

CIRCULARITY, enabling the circular economy everywhere

Founded in 2018 by Camilla Colucci and Alessandra Fornasiero, Circularity addresses the topic of circular economy and does so with a model reminiscent of natural ecosystems.

In nature, not only competition between species exists, but also cooperation and mutualism. Circularity is a business matching system based on the reuse of one company's waste by complementary companies. The start-up has developed a matching algorithm that analyses materials, production processes and complementarities in the business model, stimulating matching between companies that may need each other and where the waste of one may be useful to the other.

As of today, there are 20,000 companies on the platform, and after three years of investment, this innovative company finally achieved positive EBITDA this year.

Camilla Colucci called Circularity the Airbnb of the circular economy. It is an interesting metaphor that, combined with the ecological spirit, makes this start-up a win-win model for all parties. It is good for the environment but, at the same time, stimulates the emergence of business opportunities between companies.

Camilla Colucci

It is an example for sustainability, which today struggles to find the balance between profit and social impact. The project reached break-even in 2022, and is now in the process of growing and strengthening. In addition, the start-up is an example of female entrepreneurship precisely because of the talented Camilla Colucci, the company's founder and CEO.

Sapient Industries: software-as-a-service against electricity waste

Sapient Industries is a software-as-a-service platform that analyses commercial buildings and offers energy and wealth management based on the distribution throughout the whole building of smart sockets and power strips.

The platform developed by the Philadelphia-based start-up collects and analyses energy use data in real time for each device connected. Devices can be controlled, turned on or off, by Sapient’s cloud app. It uses automatic learning to identify each device and build behavioural patterns based on use to optimise energy supply.

Sapient also improves operational efficiency by reducing power load, identifying superfluous devices and optimising space use. Well into the Covid-19 pandemic, while the occupancy of commercial buildings fell by 96%, energy consumption only fell by 15%. This outlines the need for technological systems to dynamically control energy use, saving on costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

At the end of 2020, the Circular City Studio pilot project – launched in Brooklyn in 2018 by New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) – offered a 50% annual reduction of sockets’ load, amounting to an energy saving of 8,964 kWh, thanks to the identification of high energy use sources and other waste areas of all devices monitored by the Sapient platform. It was also calculated that this led to a reduction of 620 kg in CO2 emissions.
 

READ ALSO: Circular procurement: companies leading the way in the private sector

Mimica Touch, the tactile label cutting food waste

“I created a label to stop good food being thrown away,” explains Solveiga Pakštaitė, Mimica’s founder and CEO. The British start-up created a label and a cap providing information on food freshness. Mimica Touch’s objective is to store food at the right temperature and, above all, to cut food waste by showing when it actually starts to spoil, rather than relying on perhaps excessively cautious expiry dates.

Mimica Touch is a patented technology, a tactile interface that offers an accurate perspective in real time of any product’s state of freshness. When the cap feels smooth, it means that the product is still edible, whereas when it becomes bumpy, it means that it is no longer safe to eat. The plant-based gel contained in the label is calibrated in accordance with the various food groups, and when the packaging comes to the end of its life, it can be removed with the food residue so as not to compromise its recyclability.

Packtin, biopolymers for supplements and edible packaging

Packtin develops nature-based products for use in food preservation and packaging from food industry waste. Besides curbing excessive plastic use, the Italian start-up aims to cut outbreaks of food-borne diseases while improving food hygiene.

Created as a spin-off of Modena and Reggio Emilia University, Packtin recovers by-products such as orange, apple and tomato peels and beetroot pulp – which would otherwise end up as waste or, at best, be sent to a biodigester – to extract biopolymers to be used both in edible and biodegradable packaging as well as in films, supplements, coating and gel for meat and fruits and vegetables with antimycotic and antifungal properties.

The treatment process comprises two steps. First, stabilisation, i.e. very gentle drying to preserve the most delicate components such as vitamins and antioxidants. Then, thanks to an extraction process that separates the various molecular fractions present in by-products – such as vitamins and sugars, phenolic compounds, soluble and insoluble fibres – natural polymers and bioactive compounds are obtained. These natural molecules have a positive action on short shelf-life fresh food preservation and protection. Products, 100%-derived from organic material, have properties equal and sometimes even superior to those of synthetic polymers.

Long Ripe (a natural coating for post-harvest fruits and vegetables), Shell Pec (a coating that improves food safety) and Frutti Fresh (an edible coating that blocks fruit oxidation) are just some of Packtin’s products. Others are still in the research phase, including Bio Pack, an organic film with 50% extensibility, while for others, Packtin is looking for an industrial partner for their production. For example, Planet Cleaner, a patented natural detergent against mould, bacteria and viruses. In addition, innovative flours are currently in the testing phase through its partnership with bakery companies.

An article by Emanuele Bompan & Antonella Totaro