Berlin’s Kaffeeform came in second. The company is producing reusable cups from waste coffee grinds, keeping both food waste and coffee takeaway waste from ending up in landfills. AlgaLife, a company producing pigments and fibers from algae took third, while edible six-pack rings developed by Salt Water Brewery, We Believers, and Entelequia took fourth. The rings are 100% biodegradable and will not harm wildlife if ingested.
Other innovations on the list included DB Export, a New Zealand brewery that crushes empty beer bottles into sand that can be used in construction, and Coral Vita, a company that grows coral and replants them back into the ocean—at 50 times the rate they would naturally grow on the ocean floor.