Finalist project at the ReThink Waste Challenge

Eco-Crafters, is a solution develop by 4 students, to mitigate food waste on cashews that are harvested for the cashew seed and the cashew apple is discarded. The project was finalist for the international ReThink Waste Challenge, and travelled to the Netherlands for the final competition.

The students came from different degrees and institutions, one of them, Alba Ochando from our partner university UCV.

ReThink Waste Challenge is an international contest that calls out young university students to come up with a business idea or a prototype that contributes to a circular biobased economy.

ReThink Waste Challenge is an unique initiative of Wageningen University & Research giving students from all over the world an opportunity to work on this important topic with support of over twenty industry leaders.

“Personally, it has been a very rewarding experience. I have learned a lot of things about business, sustainability, and other areas that I had little idea about before I started this experience. The truth is that it started out as something that I didn’t think was going to be more than an academic competition, but it has turned out to be a great learning experience and has provided me with many networking opportunities.” Says Alba Ochando.

The specific goal of Eco-Crafters is to develop a high-value product from the cashew apple, which will allow the utilization of the whole fruit and the elimination of the wastage from such a nutritious product and also help the local farmers and women workers from developing countries such as India and Africa to earn extra money for their efforts.

The project as coached by one of the partner company’s from the challenge, Corbio, which is mostly interested in waste streams that can be used as a feedstock for fermentations. Corbion’s core fermented products are organic acids and algae derived products.

Follow and support the project by following them on Instagram @eco.crafters.