Luis Sarmiento

Revolutionized sustainable agriculture in South America through biodegradable packaging

Luis Sarmiento is a Peruvian inventor and founder of Kion, a company producing edible packaging materials from agricultural waste. Born in Lima in 1990, he observed the environmental impact of plastic pollution during his studies in environmental engineering at Universidad de San Martín. In 2015, he developed the first prototype of ChocoPack—a biodegradable film made from cacao husks and corn starch.

Kion's products now include EdibleClamshells for fruit packaging and AgriWrap for meat preservation, reducing plastic use by 80% in Peruvian supermarkets. By 2020, the company had diverted 12 million kg of agricultural waste from landfills annually. Sarmiento's breakthrough came in 2018 with the BioSeal Technology, a coating that extends produce shelf life by 40% without refrigeration.

His partnership with the UNDP in 2021 expanded production to Colombia and Ecuador, creating green jobs for 3,000+ rural farmers. Sarmiento's TEDx talk "From Waste to Wonder" inspired similar initiatives in Southeast Asia. In 2022, he launched the Amazonia Packaging Alliance, a network of 50+ startups developing plant-based materials from regional crops like quinoa and guarana.

His 2020 book 《Waste Not, Want Less》 became a bestseller in sustainability circles, detailing Kion's zero-waste supply chain model. Recent innovations include a partnership with Nestlé to trial edible coffee pod packaging, which could eliminate 2 billion plastic pods annually. Sarmiento's work has been featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 and Time Magazine's Environmental Heroes list.