York graduate makes it easier to be green

Kenneth Cheung

York Biochemistry graduate Kenneth Cheung is receiving media coverage for his social enterprise, BEEcycle Ltd, and its range of products and services, which make it easier to recycle food waste.

Kenneth founded BEEcycle after graduating from the University of York, where he showed a keen interest in enterprise. The company produces a range of high-tech products to help people compost and recycle food waste, including the OvO—a self-watering plant pot which produces its own compost naturally! BEEcycle also engages businesses and the community through a recycling education programme.

With environmental issues more important than ever, BEEcycle is a promising and exciting new company—Kenneth has been interviewed on BBC Radio, and was a finalist in the Enterprising Young Brits competition—but what sets it apart is its combination of technical knowledge (after graduating from York, Kenneth went on to win a business competition held by Lancaster Environment Centre, where he founded the business with their support) with practical sense. With continued success Cheung has recently won the top prize in the Manchester heat for The  Pitch 2009, and will  compete for a business support package worth £50 000 in the final round in November. Many people are put off home recycling because they perceive it to be inconvenient and difficult—regardless of whether this is well-founded, it is clear that one way into the home recycling market is through accessibility. Composters which don’t smell or require sorting of waste, and self-watering plant pots may well attract custom from the 70% of households who do not currently recycle. Similarly, the lesson plans and interactive section on BEEcycle’s website make it easy for primary schools and parents to provide children with fun environmental education.

With fears over the fates of community recycling programs in the current economic climate, it is easy to be pessimistic about reducing waste—but as a social enterprise with commercial promise, the future is surely green for BEEcycle.

Leeds launches ‘Enterprise Exchange’

Leeds CETLE once again celebrated a successful open day on the 3rd October. The event was extremely well attended with many new faces and returning students alike. It appeared that many students had used the summer to develop their enterprising ideas and were exited by the resources that were available to help them while developing their business ideas.

This event also attracted representatives from all different branches of the University of Leeds. The careers centre came to discuss how SPARK could help our students and the Enterprise and Innovation Office informed students of the business funding opportunities available to them.

All that attended the Open Day were invited to take part in a competition which involved guessing which out of 12 unusual business case studies were actually real or fake. The winner, Junfei Hu, got to take home a huge box of chocolate fingers.

This occasion also marked the launch of our ‘Enterprise Exchange’ event which invites students to come and drop in every Friday to attend ideas and innovation discussions. In addition to this between 12pm- 2pm we offer a relaxed setting for students to network with others who have an interest in enterprise. Once a month we offer a free lunch to all that attend the networking session which has proved popular in the past and we hope that the new students will make use of this event this year.

The event proved a real success, with lots of students now aware of the facilities and services on offer as well as creating a real buzz around student enterprise in general, a great start to the year!