Textile wastes from exhibition centre will be transformed into innovative construction material

Polish company VIVE Innovation have developed the technology that can be used to transform all the carpets into textile composite that can be used as a building material. Moreover The company is located in the same city as Targi Kielce. The composite could be used for constructing many objects which could be used also by Targi Kielce in the future. “In the nutshell our idea is to transform all the carpets used in Targi Kielce and reproduce it into the textile composite that can be used for further construction of expo stands, small architecture outside and indoor too and storage shelf, thing like that”, said Krzysztof Skoczyński, Sales Manager at VIVE Innovation.

Targi Kielce representatives was very excited about the whole hackathons process and presented solutions. “Hackathon seems to be a quite good tool in the case of innovations. The results are not obvious, are not well-known. We want to solve our problem but we want to help make companies profit by solving our problem. We are quite happy and satisfied and very optimistic”, Andrzej Mochoń, CEO of Targi Kielce. The company already have plans to start cooperation with the winning team but they are open for other presented solutions. “I’m thinking about our cooperation with the winner or winners because in this case the final two companies presented very good solutions so it’s very probable that we will cooperate with two companies”, Mr Mochoń added.

It is important to highlight that the winning solution could be used not only in Targi Kielce but also in the entire trade fairs and exhibition industry. “All the ideas which were presented were very interesting for us and I’m sure that we could cooperate with the winner in the future. It will be very good for Targi Kielce and maybe for another trade centres to solve the problem with the wastes (…) they have similar problems with textile wastes after the exhibitions so maybe in the future another trade fairs centre will also organize such event”, Joanna Marcjan, Deputy director of the trade fair department at Targi Kielce.

The hackathon was organized for Targi Kielce by PRO CIVIS Foundation together with Investor Service Centre for the City of Kielce. The teams were very satisfied with the organizational side of the event “It’s a wonderful event and we were very grateful that we could join because it was a great opportunity to meet you all guys and have a significant impact on the trade industry which is crucial for the green transformation. We think that this kind of initiatives be more and more.”, Dominik Kołodziej, Lindstrom. In the hackathon the teams were supported by eight mentors which provided their expertise and knowledge in different areas. “We were very impressed on the knowledge level of the mentors and the questions: from deep technical ones to the business.”, Markku Vantunen, Greenful.

Targi Kielce Hackathon was launched in February 2024. It all started with an open call to find solutions to propose innovative and more environmentally friendly product and/or technological solutions for covering the surface of various types of floors for the trade fairs industry, implementing the principles of circular economy. The carpets used by Targi Kielce are 100% polypropylene fiber. Carpets in most cases are suitable for single use. After the event, which usually lasts 2-5 days, these carpets are almost entirely treated as waste and only a small part of it (about 20%) is taken by exhibitors or reused (a second time), but ultimately constitutes waste. The purchase and installation of carpets for each organized trade fair event generates a huge amount of waste each year (approx. 100 thousand square meters, 250 – 270 containers per year), which ends up in landfills.

The call was promoted in the Baltic Seas region. Five teams from Poland and Finland were selected to attend the final stage of the innovation competition. The selected for the Hackathon were Lindstrom, Greenful, VIVE Innovations, Karteko, Kamil Zawadzki and Tomasz Sikora Team. Paticipation in the process gave a lot of new insights to the teams, new contacts and cooperation opportunities. “Hackathon process is very fine to contact with the companies, to solve problems and it showed us that working in a group gives us another point of view for any solution.”, Daniel Gołębiowski NORDISKA EKOFIBER POLSKA Sp. z o.o. (Karteko Team). “It was very smooth, very quick, very efficient in our opinion. This is all about of better future so more innovation, more networking will bring us faster to our better sustainable future.”, Dominik Kołodziej, Lindstrom.

Targi Kielce Hackathon is part of the international BioBoosters project, led by Jamk University of Applied Sciences and co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. The project brings together nine innovation networks in the bioeconomy sector from countries around the Baltic Sea: Finland, Sweden, the Baltic States, Poland, and Germany. The project organizes 18 Hackathons to support responsible business practices and the transition to a circular economy for bioeconomy companies.

More information about the Targi Kielce Hackathon

https://hackathon.procivis.org.pl/en/

More information

Anna Gajek, 41 345 32 71 ext.810, a.gajek@procivis.org.pl

Damian Kuznowicz, +48 600 435 424, d.kuznowicz@procivis.org.pl

Monika Jedynak, 41 365 13 60, 797 339 431, jedynak.monika@targikielce.pl

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