This project is more about entrepreneurship-as-activism as a practice. I define a problem in my familiar food space, conduct research, and design a solution to achieve sustainability and resilience.

Have you ever wondered about those little “do not eat” packages of silica that accompany many shipped goods? That’s desiccant (from Latin, to “make thoroughly dry”)—widely used to absorb moisture from the air and reduce the humidity inside sealed containers. Desiccants are typically made from non-biodegradable materials like silica, but a more sustainable solution has been reimagined.

The inspiration for starting up this company came from the observation of deeply-rooted tea culture in Guangdong province, China. Tea drinking is a prevalent practice in the region and produces a considerable amount of waste. According to the research, Guangdong's tea consumption amounts to about 250,000 tons per year. Most of the corresponding tea leaf waste is disposed of by landfill and incineration. There is an opportunity to make something sustainable (and surprisingly profitable!) with this waste byproduct.

It is worth noting that these tea wastes have a high recycled value which can be transformed into a new product, natural tea desiccant, and make money in the desiccant global market. Noting the dried leaves’ naturally absorbent properties, a system was established to collect tea waste from local tea shops, next to be dried and ground in a factory, and finally packaged as natural desiccant.

Compared to the most commonly used desiccants (like silica gel) currently on the market, dried tea desiccant is made of 100% recycled natural materials, harmless to people and the environment, and fully biodegradable.

Tea Waste Desiccant plans to run a business model that thrives on the free collection of tea leaf waste from tea shops, reusing this waste to produce natural desiccant, and selling it to packaging production factories for profit. Meanwhile, Tea Waste Desiccant also considers rewarding tea shops to prompt more businesses to participate in the process. Check out the business model diagram below:

The biggest success was I received a lot of positive feedback from my audience on the completeness of this project. From a personal perspective, I've never thought through what could be done as an entrepreneur, I enjoyed the process of applying a framework of entrepreneurship-as-activism.

The biggest challenge I had was to figure out the processes and systems necessary to bring a real solution. In this design process, I took it for granted that free collecting tea waste is a simple matter, but it's the hardest part. Although I didn't come up with a perfect solution in the end, I learned a lot from this.