Rosa Hulzebosch and Sophie Reiss, students at TMO Fashion Business School in the Netherlands have won the Meester Koetsier Entrepreneur Award, a prize in The Netherlands that recognizes entrepreneurial talent. With their project ‘Nobi’, Hulzebosch and Reiss found a way to reduce the amount of cosmetics waste by giving cosmetics a second life. The expert jury praised students Sophie Reiss and Rosa Hulzebosch for the credibility of their business concept, thorough research and their contribution to reducing cosmetics waste.
As a result of winning the award, the TMO students receive a cash prize of 10,000 euros with which they can further develop their start-up. The winning concept called Nobi aims to reduce the growing waste mountain of cosmetics.
Nobi gives cosmetics a second chance. Research by Hulzebosch and Reiss among drugstores and perfume retailers in the Netherlands showed that 2.4 million products end up in landfills every year. A large proportion of these products end up here only because the packaging is damaged.
Nobi collects these products and distributes them in Nobi boxes. This allows consumers to buy the products at a reduced price with the knowledge that they may be slightly damaged. The boxes come in four categories: makeup, skincare, hair and a surprise box.
“It would be nice if an UPV for cosmetics is established. A number of beauty retailers have already launched initiatives where leftover cosmetics and perfume bottles are collected. We at Nobi therefore definitely see starting points for collaborations,” Hulzebosch said.
This article was originally published on FashionUnited.NL. Translation and editing from Dutch into English by Veerle Versteeg.