I saw this interesting business idea over on UKpreneur. James Dunlop a design student at the University of the West of England is to produce eco-friendly tents made of cardboard. To cope with the British summer, the cardboard has been made waterproof.

Apparently large festivals such as Glastonbury throw away some 10,000 tents at the end of events each year after they are abandoned by their owners. Mr Dunlop, 23, said: “When I spoke to waste managers at the festivals, they said that their biggest problem was the number of tents that are discarded. That’s a big part of the post-festival clear up.”

This is a great example of a good business idea, he’s found a problem; disposing of 10,000 tents and has provided a solution and not just that, an environmentally friendly solution. He’s taken his business idea to the city and managed to raise £500K from finance group Mint.

Having recently watched the fascinating series Filthy Rich and Homeless, and as I imagine the tents will be relatively low cost I wonder if there’s a secondary market providing these to homeless organisations? Beyond that there is obviously massive potential to supply them to disaster relief organisations around the world for use in refugee camps.

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