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UCD Quinn School students Sadhbh Wood (Business & Law), Éibhe Kehoe (Business & Law), Muhammad Memon (Economics & Finance), Jack Tiernan (Business & Law) and Sadhbh Wood’s sister and co-founder, Aisling Wood, won the UCD On-Campus Hult Prize Competition which challenges young people to solve the world’s most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship.

The Hult Prize is the largest student-led social entrepreneurship competition in the world with the goal of encouraging students to create world-changing, sustainable businesses that are in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. This is the first time that the competition has been held in Ireland.

UCD Quinn School’s team, Bean Around, was founded in 2020 by Sadhbh Wood and her sister Aisling. They created sustainable exfoliating soaps and body scrubs made from 100% repurposed coffee grinds, all hand crafted in Dun Laoghaire.

The company was founded to help combat the waste generated from over 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed each day around the globe, which results in over 6 million tons of used coffee grounds going to landfills annually. Bean Around’s solution is repurposing this coffee waste into an exfoliating soap bar and other products. One-hundred percent of the used coffee grounds collected are given another lease of life, bringing coffee waste into the circular economy.

Bean Around’s soap bars are available to purchase in participating retail stores and coffee shops.

In June, winners of the qualifying On-Campus Hult Prize programmes will represent their universities at a summit held in Lisbon, Portugal. The winning team will receive $1M USD in funding to make their idea a reality.