Do you have an innovative idea to process banana waste into profitable products?

A leading factory in Sohag, that processes banana trees and has large amounts of production waste, is looking for innovative solutions and ideas to recycle the waste into useful and profitable products for a chance to win a deal with the factory. Please read the following for more details!

Background

A factory based in Sohag seeks to recycle its production waste to maximize the benefits from its resources. The factory uses banana trees' trunk (pseudostem) to produce wooden panels and veneer rolls.

The factory’s waste includes different sizes of fibres (fine and coarse) and the bark (leaf sheath). This waste requires large storage facilities as it is costly to move them periodically to an external dump area. The waste also represents an environmental problem, slows the factory's flow of production and affects the factory’s resource utilization. Despite several recycling trials, the waste still represents an ongoing issue for the factory.

The Challenge

It is required to find a suitable innovative method to recycle the banana fibres and bark (leaf sheath) that arise from the processing of the banana trees waste. The submitted solution should fulfil the following criteria:

• Produce a profitable end product, byproduct or raw material

• Low tech

• Low operation expenses

• Eco-friendly

• Preference will be given to solutions based on locally and commercially available additives/components on the industrial scale

How to participate?

1. Download and fill the solution form here and attach it to your submission

2. Submit a complete proposal form (Click submit solution button above) before the deadline of 30/03/2020. Your application should clearly demonstrate:

   • How the outlined criteria will be met

   • What is the final outcome or product of the solution

   • Any resources (material or machines) that will be needed to implement the solution

   • An estimated budget outlining all costs associated with developing a final prototype of the solution.

   • A clear plan of action including implementation stages to produce the final prototype, timeline, required tools/materials, and technical support required (if applicable)

   • You may attach any relevant document to elaborate your solution

Reward and Conditions

1. After the deadline, complete solutions only will be selected and sent to the factory’s management team for evaluation review (this phase may require feasibility study of the solutions)

2. A winner (or more if possible) will be chosen to sign a contract with the factory to implement their solution in full effect. The factory will be responsible for covering the expenses of developing the prototype. The innovator(s) will be responsible for the implementation phase according to the signed contract.

As per our platform Terms and Conditions, in case the intellectual property rights are not registered, the innovator should include the minimum details required to judge the technical validity and feasibility of the solution without full technical specifications.

You can submit a solution at any time. Before doing so, we strongly recommend you to read the rules and FAQs.

This challenge was submitted as part of the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises Project (PSME) in collaboration with GIZ Egypt.

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