Umeå entrepreneur's sustainable chewing gum now in stores

Saad Abdelaziz saw a problem that most people just walk past - spitting chewing gum on the pavement. After years of product development and award-winning innovations, the solution is finally a reality. Keep Gum is now available at OKQ8, Coop Nord, Coop Östra, Hemköp and ICA.

- It has taken years of hard work, but we are finally here. I hope Keep Gum can change the way people look at chewing gum, it should be easy to do the right thing," says Mr Saad Abdelaziz, founder of Wisalsson AB.

A single piece of chewing gum takes between 20 and 25 years to break down in nature, and the clean-up costs for municipalities and property owners amount to millions of euros.

His solution is Keep Gum: a neat, box-shaped pack with space for new gum on one side and a built-in rubbish bin for chewed gum on the other. The pack and refill cartridges are made from recyclable and degradable materials, and via the app Bower users who return the refill for recycling are rewarded with points that can be converted into discounts or money.

The company behind it is called Wisalsson AB and is run by Saad together with his brothers, named after their late mother Wisal. Saad has previously won the Skapa prize in Västerbotten and been nominated for H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf's New Builder of the Year award.

The product is now on the market and the reception has exceeded expectations. Sales have passed half a million kronor and interest has come from unexpected quarters, including printers buying the product as a giveaway. Shops and stations report good feedback from customers.