Sápu named as a finalist in Fast Company’s 2020 Innovation by Design Awards (Students Category)

Sápu is an intuitive kitchen product that instils behavioural change within the home. It provides a simple means for consumers to reuse household cooking waste, rather than disposing of it down the sink.

The incorrect disposal of cooking pollutants is the biggest contributor to blockages within the UK water system. Fat, oil and grease (FOG) build-ups are responsible for around 80% of system issues. These result in £100 million worth of damage to infrastructure and the surrounding environment every year (Wilkinson Environment. 2018).

There is a simple solution; FOGs should not be put down the drain. Collecting these cooking by-products in jars for landfill would remove the system blockages, however it would also exaggerate their negative environmental impacts elsewhere. To create a fully future proof solution, we need to give another life to these unwanted waste materials. Sápu does so by providing an innovative way to regularly turn FOGs into something cleaner; soap.

Using techniques that are both traditional and safe, Sápu filters, collects and re-purposes used FOGs. They are transformed from harmful waste materials into a useful and bespoke everyday household necessity.

Sápu makes a difference, not only by reducing the amount of unnecessary cooking waste disposal, but also by building a societal awareness of the positive outcomes of such actions. It provides a simple and sustainable solution for households to give second life to an otherwise problematic waste material, filling consumers with pride in both product and purpose.