ABOUT US

DropHarvest was created by a team of high school students from SOU "Ljupcho Santov", Kochani, North Macedonia, brought together by a shared passion for engineering, environmental science, and practical problem-solving. Our team combines skills across chemistry, product design, business development, and presentation — making us well-rounded for both the technical and commercial sides of this challenge.

MEET THE TEAM

Hi, I'm Ana — a 17-year-old figuring life out. I’m a third-year high school student who’s into math, business ideas, and building things that actually matter (like my eco-startup concept). I like solving puzzles and figuring out how things work. Sports - skiing and tennis - are my passion. I’m not afraid of challenges — just sometimes overthink them. I care a lot about becoming someone I’m proud of. Just taking it one day at a time.

Hi, I’m Eva Miteva, a 17-year-old student at SOU Ljupcho Santov in Kochani. I’m passionate about fashion and creativity, and I enjoy exploring how style can be both expressive and sustainable. Through this eco-business project, I’m combining my interest in design with a meaningful purpose—developing ideas that are innovative and environmentally responsible. I believe that even small, conscious choices can make a big difference for our future.

Mateja Tasova is a curious and creative student from “Ljupco Santov” primary school who loves exploring new ideas. She enjoys learning through games, turning every challenge into a fun experience. Mateja is always ready to help others and cares about her environment, believing that even small actions can make a big difference.

I am Mila Gjeorgjieva, a student at “Ljupco Santov” Primary School. I enjoy learning new things and exploring creative ideas. I like solving challenges and finding interesting ways to complete tasks. I am friendly, hardworking, and I believe that even small positive actions can make a big difference.

BUSINESS CONCEPT, MODEL AND MAIN PRODUCTS

Every city in the world has the same problem sitting on its window ledges. Bird droppings. They are not just unpleasant — bird guano has a pH of 3 to 4.5, the same acidity as vinegar. It dissolves limestone, concrete, sandstone, and metal through a process that is irreversible. Once a historic stone facade is acid-etched, it cannot be restored. In the UK alone, this costs over £500 million per year in cleaning, repairs, and heritage restoration. In North Macedonia, Skopje's old bazaar area, public monuments, and commercial buildings face the same damage every single day.

The entire industry's answer to this problem is spikes, nets, and gels. Every solution is reactive. Nobody catches the guano before it touches the building. Nobody recovers any value from it.

DropHarvest is the world's first passive facade guano intercept and neutralization device. It is a slim tray module that clips onto existing building ledges with no drilling and no power. Guano lands on a PTFE non-stick surface, migrates by gravity into a ceramic neutralization channel, where a calcium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate buffer tablet raises the pH from 3.5 to neutral in under 90 seconds, stopping the acid completely. The neutralized material collects in a sealed PP5 cartridge that we swap monthly.

That collected material — now pH-neutral, nitrogen-rich organic matter — is processed and sold as “UrbanGrow”, our premium certified organic fertilizer, at 800den per kilogram.

We generate revenue through three streams. First, hardware kit sales at ден 25,000 per building. Second, monthly subscriptions at ден 3,500 per building covering cartridge swap and restock. Third, UrbanGrow fertilizer sold through garden centers and agricultural cooperatives. The business model is circular — waste goes in, premium plant food comes out, nothing goes to landfill.

DropHarvest is a passive, retrofit facade intercept module — a slim tray system that clips onto existing building ledges, window sills, and cornices. No drilling. No power. No chemicals added to the environment. It sits there, catches the droppings, neutralizes the acid through chemistry alone, and collects the material in a sealed cartridge that we swap monthly. We then process that collected material into “UrbanGrow” — a premium certified organic fertilizer — and sell it.

DropHarvest directly addresses UN Sustainable Development Goals 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 13 — Climate Action.

In summary: we identified a problem that costs half a billion pounds per year in the UK alone, that every building in the world has, and that the entire industry has been solving with a mop. We built a device that catches the problem before it starts, using nothing but gravity and chemistry, and turns the waste into premium plant food.

How DropHarvest works

1. The Intercept Surface

A replaceable hydrophobic membrane tray sits proud of the building surface by approximately 40mm — just enough to catch falling and deposited guano before it contacts the facade. The membrane is made from a smooth, non-stick fluoropolymer (similar to PTFE (teflon)-coated bakeware) — guano doesn’t bond to it, and rain helps flush it toward the collection channel. The tray clips onto existing ledge geometry using stainless steel brackets that require no drilling, no adhesive, and no structural modification.

2. The Neutralization Channel

Collected droppings migrate via gravity into a narrow channel running the length of the tray. The channel contains a slow-release calcium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate buffer tablet (like a large effervescent tablet embedded into the channel wall). As guano contacts this, the pH of the material rises from 3.5 to a near-neutral 6.5–7.0 in under 60 seconds. This stops the acid attack instantly and stabilizes the material for safe handling and collection.

3. The Sealed Collection Cartridge

Neutralized, semi-solid material collects in a sealed, odor-containing cartridge at the end of the channel run. The cartridge is swapped monthly by either a building maintenance team or a DropHarvest collection operative. Collected material — now pH-neutralized guano rich in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium — is bagged, quality-tested, and sold as certified organic slow-release garden fertilizer

Elements

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