Shining World Invention Award Recipient: Solubag, Earth-saving Plastic Alternative

People produce about 311 million tons of plastics every year. We use so many different types of disposable plastics, which mostly find their way into the oceans. This ends up as tons of pollution which stays in our oceans and will be consumed by sea animals and other living creatures. Fortunately, there have been individuals and organizations who work tirelessly to help ameliorate this increasingly serious environmental problem. A company from Chile has developed Solubag, which works just as well as the traditional plastic bag, but does not contain any harmful chemicals.

We are lucky to have an exclusive interview with Mr. Roberto Astete and Mr. Cristian Oilivares, the two co-founders of the company. “SoluBag started from a detergent we started to develop, and through time we realized that the detergent was not the best idea and we changed into developing a bag.” “However, our material is not plastic, we do not have any plastic traceability within the process. It's a material that simulates plastic and that has led to be a very easy replacement to use. The other thing that stands out as a product is that there is no technology in which anyone could destroy the plastic bag directly in their house.”

During the interview, they showed us some of their products that are available in markets: t-shirt bags, sheet detergent and cloth bags. All are made from their eco-friendly materials. Upon learning of this amazing innovation, our beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai joyfully presented the Shining World Invention Award to Solubag, “plus US$10,000 toward this environment-protecting project. May Heavens bless you.”

“We want to thank you for looking at our invention and for the support that we as a start-up are so in need, that people like Her notice us and can support us to continue growing and to develop this type of technology. That is to say, it was a blessing for us to have received these funds because we were just at a stage where we needed the funds very urgently to be able to patent this worldwide.”