The winners of a $1 million circular economy challenge – to design a sustainable plastics industry – have been named.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation led the million dollar Circular Design Challenge, supported by OpenIDEO, which is part of its New Plastics Economy initiative.
Over 600 innovators from more than 60 countries applied. The six winners were announced at the Our Ocean conference in Malta. They included Indonesian startup, Evoware, which makes wrappings and sachets using ‘a seaweed-based material that can be dissolved and eaten’ and US company, TrioCup, which produces a ‘disposable paper cup made with an origami-like technique that removes the need for a plastic lid’. Check out all six here.
The challenge is part one of the New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize. Winners of part two – the Circular Materials Challenge – will be revealed at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos in January 2018.