In South and Southeast Asia, there is an increasing demand for packaging, particularly SUPs, dominated by polystyrene and other types of hard-to-recycle plastics including flexibles (films, sachets, and more). By 2025, these are projected to make up more than 70% of the market for food packaging in the region.

The food service industry heavily utilizes single-use packaging, from the purchase of food supplies to preparation. This is especially so for off-premise food services such as deliveries, drive-throughs, and

takeaways, which have increased dramatically in light of COVID-19, becoming a lifeline for some operators. Being entirely reliant on their supply chains, the sector is unaccustomed to working with alternative solutions by early-stage companies.

Alternative solutions are mostly driven by early-stage companies that struggle to overcome various challenges, including a lack of capital, collaborative industry partners, managerial experience, underdeveloped value chains, and complex policy and regulatory frameworks.

To encourage the creation of more sustainable solutions, the SUP Challenge was organized by The Incubation Network, an initiative by SecondMuse and The Circulate Initiative, and The PREVENT Waste Alliance as a regional project to provide support in SUP reduction. Eight projects, including two from Seedstars have been selected to be piloted under the challenge.

The SUP Challenge will be choosing up to 20 participants will be selected to join the Seedstars program under The SUP Challenge and receive support to design and run pilot solutions with the accelerator’s local F&B partners (in Thailand and the Philippines) to help them reduce plastic waste.

Selected participants will get full access to the SUP program activities including F&B partner pilot matching and support; capacity building workshops; 1:1 mentorship; and the opportunity to secure a pilot grant.

“Startups with innovative solutions have the potential to reshape the role of single-use plastics in the food and beverage sector. Through our regional network of partner organizations, such as Seedstars, we look forward to building capacity in these solutions with our support and piloting them in the market with local F&B partners,” shared Simon Baldwin, Global Head of Circularity, SecondMuse.

Qualified participants must meet the following criteria:

Must be an early-stage entrepreneur, startup, or SME based in Thailand or the Philippines

Product/service being provided should be applicable to helping reduce SUPs in the F&B industry

Required to have existing product/services that will be ready to run a short pilot with the accelerator’s local F&B partners in August 2022

This project is funded by the PREVENT Waste Alliance, an initiative of the German Federal Government and ECCA Family Foundation. More information: https://prevent-waste.net/en/.

To become part of The SUP Challenge, send in your applications before May 16, 2022 here: https://seedsta.rs/theSUPchallenge

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ABOUT SEEDSTARS

"They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds." - Mexican proverb

Seedstars is a Swiss-based private company with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The group’s activities cover over 90 emerging ecosystems through a variety of initiatives such as the FTxSDG Challenge, previously known as the Seedstars World Competition, which is the largest entrepreneurship competition in emerging markets; Seedstars Programs that are designed to support entrepreneurs in varying stages of growth via training, education, mentoring, and access to resources; Seedstars 01, a talent incubator providing digital skills and startup-based immersive education for the next generation of changemakers; Seedspace, physical coworking spaces and hubs located in 15 countries; and Seedstars International, a global venture capital fund for seed stage startups. For more information, visit www.seedstars.com.

ABOUT THE INCUBATION NETWORK

The Incubation Network is an impact-driven initiative that sources, supports and scales holistic innovative solutions to combat plastic pollution through strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems with a diverse network of key partners.

Part of a highly collaborative community of startups and entrepreneurs, investors, partners and programs, The Incubation Network works together with industry players to tackle key barriers to address plastic leakage and advance a circular economy. This includes sourcing and supporting, to scaling early stage or pre-investment solutions, and connecting compatible ecosystem players to reinforce the value chain in waste management and recycling.

Established in 2019, The Incubation Network is a partnership between non-profit organization, The Circulate Initiative and impact innovation company, SecondMuse.

The Incubation Network is open to interested collaborators, corporations, and mentors, looking to address plastic leakage and advance a circular economy in South & Southeast Asia.

For more information, visit: www.incubationnetwork.com

ABOUT PREVENT WASTE ALLIANCE

The PREVENT Waste Alliance serves as a platform for exchange and international cooperation. Organisations from the private sector, academia, civil society and public institutions jointly engage for a circular economy. The PREVENT members contribute to minimising waste, eliminating pollutants and maximising the reutilisation of resources in the economy worldwide.

They strive to reduce waste pollution in low- and middle-income countries and work together for the prevention, collection, and recycling of waste, as well as the increased uptake of secondary resources. The PREVENT Waste Alliance was launched in 2019 by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). More information: https://prevent-waste.net/en/.

ABOUT ECCA FAMILY FOUNDATION

ECCA Family Foundation was established in 2020 to support and inspire transformative change with a strong focus on preserving our global ecosystems, especially the oceans and forests and on protecting biodiversity for our future generations.

CONTACTS

Program

Natnicha Lertplakorn

Program Manager

[email protected]

Media

Michaela Villaroman

Media Relations

[email protected].