In partnership with Swissnex and with the support of Nestlé

Dubai, November 9, 2021: The Swiss Pavilion announced the winner of the Swiss-Middle East Circular Economy for Youth Initiative (SMECEYI). Students from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) in Lebanon ranked first for their ‘Plasticycle’ project. Following an interesting competition with five other teams from the region, the Lebanese students made it to the first place thanks to their out-of-the-box renewables ideas for a cleaner environment with a lot of potential to catalyse a circular economy.

The Plasticycle project by the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Lebanon addresses the mounting problem of plastic waste by providing a sustainable solution. The project’s focus is two-fold – to recycle the plastic waste to produce PP and PE pellets which can be used by Lebanese plastic industry that has been impacted by the economic crisis of the country and is unable to import raw materials. 

Mr. Manuel Salchli, Commissioner General of the Swiss Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “I congratulate all the teams for being able to reach so far and compete at an international level. The winning team will be given opportunities to further develop their project and we are very excited to witness it”.
The Swiss-Middle East Circular Economy for Youth Initiative (SMECEYI), which was organised in partnership with Swissnex and supported by Nestlé, aims at identifying and empowering innovative students from the region by giving them the opportunity to showcase their projects to a global audience at Expo 2020 Dubai. This initiative comes in line with the keenness of further strengthen Switzerland’s relations in the Middle East in the areas of education, research and innovation. 

From her side, Mrs. Frédérique Naulette, Nestlé Human Resources Manager Dairy, Europe, Middle East, and North Africa, said: “Our commitments to society include both protecting the environment and empowering youth, which make us a natural partner for this initiative. We are happy to be providing participants with training sessions, proud to have been members of the judging panel and excited to be offering the winners mentoring sessions and the opportunity to join an innovation bootcamp run by the Lausanne-based Nestlé Research & Development Accelerator.” 

Mr. Dante Larini, Project Manager of the Swissnex Network at the Swiss Pavilion, said: “At a time when the world is facing unprecedented risks due to climate change and environmental degradation, the need of the hour is to foster a culture of conservation, innovation, sustainability and prudence in the use of natural resources. Focusing on renewables and circular economy while simultaneously empowering today’s youth to conceive transformative ideas for their tomorrows is the reason why SMECEYI was conceived”.

The six finalists were from the Occupied Territory of Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, short listed from 10 teams in the region. The SMECEYI mandate to the participating teams were to come up with executable projects that can address the issues of electronic, water, food, plastic, and construction waste.