Banana textile wins prestigious prize
A student-led start-up focusing on textiles from banana waste has won the annual $1 million Hult Prize.
The competition challenges student entrepreneurs from around the world to create and launch businesses aimed at tackling some of society’s most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship.
Ideas must create measurable positive impact on people and the planet and support the United Nations in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline.
In total, more than 40,000 students participated in the year-long Hult Prize competition, which started with on-campus programmes at universities in September 2022 and went through several regional elimination rounds. In June 2023, semi-finals were held via online and live events in 12 cities, including New York, Mumbai, Nairobi, Lisbon, Dubai, Taipei, and Rio de Janeiro.
Banofi Leather’s material uses 50% banana stem waste, 30% natural additives and 20% polymers. The company is based in India, one of biggest suppliers of bananas. It claims the country generates four tonnes of waste for every one tonne of fruit.
Banofi was chosen for the Grand Prize over five other finalist teams invited to Paris for the Global Finals, which included:
• EFFCT (Alexandria University, Egypt): Repurposing textile waste to develop board panels for use in furniture, construction, and packaging
• GRAFF INC (Hult International Business School, United States): Manufacturing sustainable material made from textile waste for applications in the fashion industry
• Innovious (Cranfield University, England): Making sustainable and scalable inner packaging, such as hangers and tags, from the leaf sheaths of areca trees
• Labwear Studios (ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland): Using on-demand manufacturing and circular product design to minimize overproduction and reduce fashion waste; and
• RiiVERSE (National Taiwan University, Taiwan): Recycling textile waste and repurposing it into raw materials for other industries.
New this year, the Hult Prize Foundation awarded $100,000 in funding to each of the five Finals runners-up.
The competition and prizes are funded by the Hult family, founders and owners of EF Education First.
