PRESS RELEASE

12 June 2019

Today, the European Commission announced the Semi-Finalists of the 2019 European Social Innovation Competition. 30 projects from 19 countries have made it into the next round of the Competition. 543 ideas were submitted from across Europe, aligned to this year’s theme of Challenging Plastic Waste. These cover a wide spectrum of solutions, from optimising supply chains to changing consumer behaviour.

Meet the Semi-Finalists:

Apaga (Armenia)
A recycling reward programme based on a digital platform to foster community, education and commitment.

pana (Spain)
A diaper rental service that provides the delivery, pickup and cleaning of reusable baby diapers.\

DYCLE – Diaper Cycle (Germany)
100% bio-based diaper inlays that can be composted and turned into fertile soil after use.

Edible plates and cutlery (Bulgaria)
100% biodegradable, compostable and edible plates and cutlery.

Ekomodo (Spain)
Locally-made eco-designed recyclable products made from innovative, 100% recycled plastic materials.

Empower (Norway)
A digital plastic waste collection system, through which plastic waste can be deposited for a financial reward.

Evegreen biodegradable material solution (Slovenia)
A replacement material for plastic made from biodegradable materials generated from agro-waste.

FunPlastic Toys (Greece)
Using toys to inspire 4-7 year olds to fight plastic waste in the oceans.

Green Sail (Croatia)
An education programme to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the charter yacht industry.

Interactive map of all free public drinking water sources in Bulgaria (Bulgaria)
A detailed map of all drinking water sources in Bulgaria.

Kidibot Plastic Battles (Romania)
A futuristic educational game that teaches children about the impact of plastic waste on our planet.

Koepala Aterimo (Finland)
Flat and functional takeaway food packaging that reduces plastic use by up to 50%.

LAM’ON (Bulgaria)
A 100% biodegradable laminating film made from renewable resources to seal and preserve printed materials.

Litter Traps & Recycled Park (Netherlands)
Litter traps placed in rivers to collect and recycle plastic waste.

Luft parcel (United Kingdom)
A returnable parcel enabling online retailers to eliminate single use plastic and other packaging materials for postal deliveries to customers.

MIWA solution for plastics reduction (Czech Republic)
An innovative, financially sustainable circular distribution and sale system for food and non-food products with reusable packaging.

Le Pavé par Sasminimum (France)
A recycling system that transforms plastic waste into building materials.

Paving Sustainable Communities of the Future (Macedonia)
A recycling process that turns plastic waste in house-building materials.

Plast’if (France)
A 3D printer that makes use of AI to recycle plastic waste collected from company employees.

The Plastomobile: Mobile plastic recycling workshop (Lithuania)
A traveling plastic recycling studio that takes children through the recycling process, step-by-step.

Plas’tri (France)
An identification tool to make local recycling structures more circular.

pluumo (United Kingdom)
A sustainable thermal packaging material made from surplus feathers.

ReCarbonate (Belgium)
A vending machine that dispenses carbonated drinks into reusable bottles.

ReciclaGaMe (Italy)
A bio-conversion, self-sufficient system that converts plastic into a sustainable silk material.

ReFeel Good (Portugal)
A delivery refill system for laundry & home care products.

RePlast 3D (Croatia)
A small enterprise initiative to boost recycling and reduce unemployment, through the use of plastic waste in 3D printing.

RIS (Slovenia)
Water-soluble shampoo marbles made with natural ingredients.

SAFE public events products and circular business model (SAFE) (Slovenia)
Biodegradable and reusable plates and cutlery to be used at public events.

SpraySafe (Portugal)
An edible spray used on the surface of foods to preserve them, reducing the need for plastic wraps and containers.

VEnvirotech (Spain)
A biotechnological start-up that transforms organic waste into biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) bioplastics using bacteria.

What happens next?

The Semi-Finalists will attend the renowned Social Innovation Academy – an intensive three day residential event, where participants receive training from experienced social innovators and have the opportunity to develop their projects into viable business propositions. This year’s Academy will be taking place in Turin, a city that has successfully transitioned from post-industrial hardship, into a thriving centre of innovation and creativity. It is therefore the ideal city to be hosting this stage of the Competition.

Alongside the Academy, the Semi-Finalists receive personalised support from a local coach. This prepares them for the next stage of the competition, where they submit extensive Development Plans to the Judging Panel. The Judges will then have the responsibility to select 10 Finalists and eventually 3 Winners, each of whom will be awarded 50,000€. Additionally, an Impact Prize of 50,000€ will be awarded to the 2018 Semi-Finalist that has achieved the most significant social impact over the past 12 months. All of the Finalists and Semi-Finalists will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony in Brussels on 24 October.

Social Innovation Playbook

For this edition of the European Social Innovation Competition, the organisers have developed a guiding playbook that aims to encourage and support both Semi-Finalists and other social innovators – whether they’re just starting out, planning to scale up or simply on the lookout for their next bright idea. The Social Innovation Playbook informs readers about nurturing good social innovation ideas and actively helps transforming them into viable businesses by providing worksheets, supporting exercises and opportunities for reflection.

The Social Innovation Playbook can be found here:  https://eusic.challenges.org/resources/playbook/.

The Judging Panel

The European Social Innovation Competition selects 12 Judges every year to sit on the Judging Panel. As a group, these Judges offer a wealth of experience and insights, covering social innovation and entrepreneurship as well as technical expertise addressing the year’s theme. Through their collective voice they review applications and determine which entrants are taken forward to later stages of the Competition, firstly as Semi-Finalists, then as Finalists, and ultimately as Winners. Each year’s Judging Panel returns the following year to review applications for the Impact Prize.

Please see the full list below:

2019 Judges:

Antonia Gawel, World Economic Forum (Switzerland), Carolien Kernkamp, Finest Ventures Holding & Just Strategies Consultancy (Netherlands), David Bustabad, Plastic Energy (Spain), Esra Tat, Zero Waste Europe (Belgium), Fabrizio Barbiero, City of Torino (Italy), Johannes Kisser, alchemia-nova (Austria), Ladeja Godina Košir, Circular Change (Slovenia), Luis Amado, B Lab (Portugal), Milena Glimbovski, Original Unverpackt (Germany), Mircea Ilie, IKEA (Romania), Niall Dunne, Polymateria (UK), Dr. Sarah Miller, The Rediscovery Centre (Ireland).

2019 Impact Prize Judges:

Mikkel Andersen, Danish Social Innovation Club (Denmark), Sabine Biesheuvel, BlueCity (Netherlands), Tuija Hirvikoski, Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Mirna Karzen, Social Innovation Lab (Croatia), Norbert Kunz, Social Impact (Germany), Vincenzo Linarello, Goel (Italy), Carina Lopes, d-LAB (Spain), Klaus Schach, Centre for Social Innovation (Austria), Stavros Tsompanidis, Phee (Greece), Taoufik Vallipuram, OuiShare (France), Magdalena Zawodny-Barabanow, Urbact Network BoostInno (Poland).