Silvia Frieda Sopranzetti

Frieda Sopranzetti is Italian Ambassador for Matter of Trust and Co-Founder and CEO of Ecomat Italia, a circular agritech startup in Merano, South Tyrol. Matter of Trust was founded in 1999 by Lisa Gautier and hairstylist Phil McCrory, who realized that hair could absorb oil after seeing the Exxon Valdez disaster. Its hair mats and booms were used in the 2007 Cosco Busan and 2010 Deepwater Horizon spills. In Chile, the Petropelo project uses mesh booms filled with hair to trap oil in lakes, streams and coasts.

Building on this legacy, Ecomat Italia turns post-consumer keratin waste, such as human hair and animal fur, into biodegradable mulching mats for plastic-free farming, booms that absorb hydrocarbons and pollutants to protect marine and aquatic environments, and biodegradable pots for seedlings.