A group of 5 students (from FPT University Can Tho) developed GreenShield Mekong, an initiative to exploit water hyacinth and lotus leaves, to create biological packaging solutions to replace disposable plastic.
Not only stopping at the idea, the group has entered the commercialization phase with a relatively complete product ecosystem.
Key product lines include: trays, fruit boxes molded from water hyacinth, biological glass lining, water hyacinth leaf cups and plates from lotus leaves. All are fully biodegradable, ensuring food safety and environmental friendliness.
Regarding the production process, the group uses simple but effective biomass treatment methods such as grinding, mixing, molding and drying (for water hyacinth); pressing, shaping and surface treatment (for lotus leaves), creating environmentally friendly products, completely biodegradable.
In general, the packaging is designed to be tight-fitting, with good load-bearing capacity, helping to reduce the rate of crushing agricultural products during transportation, especially exported fruits.
The use of biological materials helps businesses meet increasingly strict standards on environment, traceability and social responsibility in the supply chain, thereby improving competitiveness in high-value markets.
Students recognize that this project's immediate goal is to create stable livelihoods for people through the collection, preliminary processing and processing of water hyacinth and lotus leaves. This will be a suitable job for rural workers, women and idle labor groups along the river.
A longer-term vision of the environment is to contribute to significantly reducing the amount of non-biodegradable plastic waste and improving the river and canal ecosystem in the Mekong Delta. Because currently, in canals and ditches, many water hyacinths invade and cause flow obstruction.
The orientation group focuses on customers who are fruit export businesses, agricultural cooperatives, supermarket systems and restaurant chains; followed by young urban consumers.
Mr. Nguyen Trong Luan (Head of the Startup Department, FPT University Can Tho) - assessed that GreenShield Mekong is a typical project of students when it simultaneously solves plastic waste pollution and the situation of water hyacinth overdevelopment in the Mekong Delta. The project clearly demonstrates innovative thinking, the ability to solve practical problems and market orientation according to the circular economy model.
However, for sustainable commercialization, the group needs to continue to improve product quality, financial models and market strategies.
