Recycle plastic anywhere in the world

Plasticpreneur develops and sells machines that can recycle plastic waste anywhere in the world – even in small quantities. The startup from Lower Austria thus helps local initiatives around the world to turn waste into valuable products. In doing so, Plasticpreneur fills a gap. Because the recycling of plastic waste has so far mostly only been thought of on a large industrial scale.

The proceeds from the Gexsi search engine will be used to finance a machine that will enable villages in Nepal to upcycle plastic waste in a variety of ways in the future. These can be items for local use, such as bowls or cups, or even souvenirs for tourists. In this way, tourists can take their waste home again in a new form and also strengthen the project financially.

Inclusion through the refurbishment of used IT equipment

AfB refurbishes used IT equipment and in doing so creates permanent jobs for people with disabilities on a large scale. Equipment that can no longer be marketed is dismantled and professionally recycled. This protects the environment and saves a considerable amount of CO2 and raw materials. AfB stands for “Work for People with Disabilities”. All process steps are barrier-free. At AfB, people with and without disabilities work hand in hand.

And that’s not all. In many cases, AfB adds another dimension to its positive impact. Companies often donate their used IT hardware to non-profit inclusion organizations. This enables them to make refurbished hardware available free of charge to social initiatives such as Jesuit Worldwide Learning, Mobile Learning, or Labdoo.

A disability becomes a gift

Discovering Hands trains blind women to become medical tactile examiners for the early detection of breast cancer. This is because the sense of touch of blind people is usually much more sensitive than that of people without visual impairments. In this way, Discovering Hands turns an impairment into an aptitude. The positive effect is twofold: improved early detection of breast cancer and a new job profile for visually impaired women.

One focus of Discovering Hands in Vienna is training by medical tactile examiners for breast self-examination. For this purpose, Discovering Hands works closely with companies that offer this service to their female employees on site.

Clean energy for remote island worlds

Swimsol is developing floating solar systems that supply islands in the Maldives with clean energy and replace the existing diesel generators – and do so without consuming additional land. In this way, the Viennese company not only contributes to climate protection but also reduces the risk of oil spilling into the sea during transport and destroying the protected coral reefs.

Even if, in the first step, mainly vacation resorts benefit from the technology. In the future, there will be many opportunities to improve the living conditions of people in remote regions in many parts of the world with the help of floating solar systems.

Swimsol was the first project that Gexsi had supported in Austria. Unlike the current projects above, the support here already took place during the beta phase of the search engine – in the form of participation in Swimsol’s crowdfunding campaign at that time.