Austrian Ambassador H.E. Marian Warba, along with the Trade Commissioner of Austria to Kuwait and Qatar, Caroline Adenberger, awarded young Kuwaiti student, Faisal Al Fozan, with the Energy Globe Award at a small reception held at his residence last week.
Faisal Al Fozan, this year’s winner of the Energy Globe Award in Kuwait, implemented a sustainable and outstanding project called LOOP, which is a youth-founded company and the Middle East’s first 3D printer filament manufacturer using recycled materials, and Kuwait’s first downstream manufacturer using recycled PET.
The project aims to create economic value from waste, reducing carbon footprint by having local micro-manufacturing of filament in order to eliminate long distance shipping associated with international deliveries of filament.
Speaking to the media, the Austrian ambassador said that he will work to attract more Kuwaiti students to study in Austrian universities, pointing to the existence of long-established and renowned universities in his country.
Elaborating on the competition, Ambassador Warba said that participants in this competition are committed to developing solutions to the most pressing environmental problems of our time such as resource scarcity, air and water pollution, erosion, climate change or dependence on fossil fuels.
He added that with more than 180 participating countries, the Energy Globe Award is the most important environmental award worldwide, where projects are presented from all over the world, ranging from small and simple initiatives to high-end large-scale projects.
The names of the award winners were published in cooperation with the United Nations United Industrial Development UNIDO, stressing that “there is a common denominator among the winners, which is the awareness that the environment is not protected by words, but by deeds, and each of us can contribute.”
Faisal Al Fozan told the media that the reason he was chosen for this award was because of his project to recycle plastic and turn it into a filament that is used in 3D printers, which aims to help Kuwait dispose and recycle plastic waste.
He added that he started this project with the help of two Kuwaiti and Dutch people who specialize in this field, pointing out that he faced many challenges and difficulties to complete his project and worked with the Umniah project to recycle plastic to provide plastic water bottles, as well as work with the ‘Deirtna’ Foundation, which supported it to the extent of its capabilities.
He stated that he had previously worked with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences and submitted a grant request to support this project, but so far his request has not been answered, noting that the project costs $7,000, and can produce 7 filament reels per day.
