Sustainable packaging

Waste management has been recognized as an area that requires sustainable innovation on a global scale. Plastic packaging accounted for more than half of all plastic discarded globally in 2015. That is more than 141 million metric tons. 

With plastic and other synthetic polymer forms accounting for a large portion of our waste, half of the plastic and synthetic polymers negatively impacting our ecosystem is produced for single use. Plastic bottles, coffee cup lids, and food and grocery packaging are examples of this. With such a disposable culture, only 5% of the plastic produced is recovered. 

The development and use of packaging that improves sustainability is referred to as sustainable packaging. This entails a greater use of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to guide the use of packaging that has a lower environmental, social, and ecological footprint. It examines the entire supply chain, from basic function to marketing, and then to end of life (LCA) and rebirth. 

Plastics and synthetic plastics are ubiquitous in our daily lives, appearing in everything from grocery bags and cutlery to water bottles and sandwich wrap. However, in our quest for convenience, we have gone too far, and we are failing to use plastics efficiently, wasting valuable resources and harming the environment. 

Ingestion of plastics has been linked to a variety of health effects in both animals and humans, including death, retarded growth and development, the emergence of cancers, and altered physiology. Unscientific disposal of plastic waste causes water and air pollution, as well as leaching and the release of greenhouse gases. 

Overflowing drains, clogged canals, and flooded streets are just a few of the environmental effects that most plastic-polluted areas experience when the rains begin. 

Throwing wastes such as plastic bottles, disposable plates, Styrofoam containers, and other single-use plastic items on the streets is one of the behavioral and attitudinal practices driving this effect. 

At Inqumax, we are attempting to rethink packaging by developing a platform for circular packaging. 

• With the high rate of unsustainable packaging materials circulating globally and their devastating effects, we require a sustainable alternative that meets the functional and economic needs of the present without jeopardizing future generations’ ability to meet their own needs. 

Call for solutions 

Rethinking plastics and synthetic polymer start with packaging. We are looking for entrepreneurs, students and student groups, and cross-departmental alliances to provide sustainable packaging solutions addressing the following touch points;   

• Ecofriendly packaging solutions 
• Packaging solutions that use recycled plastics and synthetic polymers 
• Technology/solutions that uses plastics and synthetic polymers as a raw material for alternative fuel production.
  
  

Opportunity/Perks  

Selected applicants receive the following support; 

• Standard 3 months InquMax incubation and lifetime support;  
• Team development; 
• Product/Service development; 
• Business development;  
• Market development;  
• Legal support; 
• Strategic partnerships and  
• Funding.