Plastic cutlery is cheap and disposable however it harms the environment. This new type of cutlery is edible so not a danger to the environment. It's made of sorghum flour blended with rice and wheat and has been designed to be 100% natural, biodegradable and vegan. It comes in plain, savoury and sweet flavours. www.bakeys.com
China's biggest matchmaking service has teamed up with Sesame Credit to promote clients with good "social credit" scores, giving them prominent spots on the company's website. Sesame Credit is the financial wing of Alibaba which has 400 million users and is the world's biggest online shopping platform. Their social credit scores are individually calculated using its unique database of consumer information. www.baihe.com
The new Cancer Moonshot initiative aims to bring about 10 years of advances in cancer research in 5 years, making more therapies available to more patients, while also improving our ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage. The Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) have received funding of $6 million from the NSW State Government to support collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (USA).
http://www.garvan.org.au/news/news/nsw-government-funding-a-booster-for-the-cancer-moonshot
A new Australian startup allows you to donate to many charities, either collectively or individually, simply by shopping online at many retailers. After you register you pay the same price as you would if you visited the retailer's site directly. The money that's donated to your cause is a commission that the retailer pays Folo for directing a sale to their website. www.folo.world
Layby services used to be offered by traditional retailers so that customers could buy now, pay later. This service is now being offered by online retailers based on a new digital platform called zipPay. Similar to a layby service, online customers are enticed to buy quickly by having access to interest free credit. Archfashion is one of the latest Australian retailers to offer the service. www.zipPay.com.au
While their 10 million users may sound like a lot, it's only 3 per cent of the world's internet-using population, according to Canva, an Australian design startup. Macintosh democratised computers; Google democratised information; and eBay democratised commerce. In the same way, Canva plans to democratise design. It provides free design tools and access to their library of images. In addition they offer paid designs, a marketplace for designers and tools specific for companies. www.canva.com
