During the ‘Best of the Best’ pitch evening with the best Bootcamp concepts from the Euregional Bootcamp Week from the three regions, Team UpcyGran was awarded with the very best concept. The Belgian Limburg team came up with a new and quick floor application for PVB recycler UpcyGran.
UpcyGran is a start-up that has developed a process for producing new film or granules from the gigantic residual stream of PVB from (recycled) safety glass and car windows. Although UpcyGran is very confident that their foil can be a perfect substitute for EPDM or Bitumen roofing, the regulations and standards in the construction world are slowing down their sales somewhat. That is why this SME from Pelt formulated the challenge for the students during the Bootcamp to come up with new and faster applications to market their granulates or foils. These new applications could then provide oxygen for the company in the short term, in order to conquer the global construction world in the long run.
The team consisting of UCLL Chemistry students Niel Staes, Vincent Van Den Broeck, Senne Steuckers, Karel Van Campenhaut and Maarten Declercq; reinforced with Product Design students from LUCA School of Arts Jarno Canu, Emily Bogaerts and Milo Nysten worked for three days under the guidance of professional designer Alain Monnens. The team came up with two concepts, one of which they presented at the Euregional closing ceremony on 9 November: a new ‘temporary’ floor application for the protection of existing floors, for example in sports halls or event locations, but the student team sees a large market for the event mats, especially in outdoor applications. “Festivals often need temporary solutions. The properties of the UpcyGran film are perfect to replace plank floors or the classic rubber variants,” it sounds. In addition, they complete the circle by proposing a leasing formula in which the mats have a long life and can be perfectly recycled into new mats if they become end-of-life.