With 128 entries received, the Student Solidarity Awards broke its own record this year. Among the numerous projects submitted, eleven were shortlisted for oral presentation followed by a question / answer session with the jury members. In the end, four winning student associations received their award from Antoine Frérot, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Veolia, Laurent Auguste, Senior Executive Vice President Development, Innovation and Markets, Jean-Marie Lambert, Senior Executive Vice President Human Resources, and Thierry Vandevelde, Executive Officer Veolia Foundation.
With its "Les Recyclettes" project, the association Recup' (Université de Bordeaux) recovers organic waste in urban areas by distributing Bokashi composters that transform the waste into compost. It won 1st prize.
The second trophy was awarded to Recup-Eau Vietnam (Centrale Nantes) for its REV Action project dedicated to plastic recycling with a single machine. With the Rev-machine, the association will enable the villagers of Liên Son 2, in southern Vietnam, to use a grinder, extruder, injection press and compressor to treat plastic waste.
Envol Vert, from the Perunidad association (Centrale Supélec), received third prize for its awareness raising and agroforestry project in the rural provinces of Chanchamayo and Satipo in Peru.
Finally, the public’s prize, awarded following an open online vote, went to Sea Plastics (AgroParisTech), which is sampling microplastics in the Mediterranean to improve scientific knowledge of this still poorly understood form of pollution.