NextCycle Washington Awards $28,000 to Circular Initiative Projects

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Four teams took home their shares of $28,000 in funding at the Second Annual NextCycle Washington Pitch Showcase, featuring proposed projects designed to reduce waste in Washington. The Sept. 23rd event, hosted at the Seattle Central Library, attracted nearly 100 attendees and 13 competing teams pitching their projects that advance sustainable materials management and support circular economy development.

NextCycle Washington is an accelerator-style program funded by Ecology and focused on waste prevention, material reuse and recycling initiatives. The awards taken home by winners were funded by program partners. All participating teams receive six months of business and technical coaching to prepare them for a culminating Showcase and the opportunity to pitch their ideas to an audience of business, recycling, investment, and community leaders.

Competing teams were divided into three pitch groups: launch, innovation, and community, and focused on projects to prevent waste, repair and reuse broken and outdated products, and remanufacture recycled materials into new products. The launch groups presented project proposals that were beyond the idea concept stage and demonstrated a product prototype or concept pilot. However, their projects are still at the team, operations, or production building stages. The innovation group included existing businesses and projects being developed or ones that used new and innovative technologies or processes. Finally, the community group included organizations with a positive impact on communities, such as job and community partnership development.

The winners were:

•          NaturallyContained is from the launch group and won the People’s Choice Award for developing renewably sourced, plastic-free, backyard compostable soil packaging using coconut fiber. Based in Whistler, British Columbia, the team is seeking to make inroads with Washington’s gardening industry market.
•          Revino, is based in Portland, Oregon, and won the People’s Choice Award in the innovation group for creating a pick-up service for wine bottles. Revino washes, inspects, and readies the bottles for reuse. The company pitched its plan to bring reusable, refillable wine bottles to Washington wineries and grocery stores, giving consumers the ability to purchase wine and return the empty bottles to the point of purchase.
•          Furniture Repair Bank is a non-profit organization in Seattle that collects worn and damaged furniture to repair, refurbish, or redesign into like-new condition. It won Best Pitch in the community group. The company proposed a service that matches revived furniture to refugees and immigrants in need or offers the items for rent or sale to help fund its operations.
•          Reclaim Project Recovery is part of the community group, winning the category’s People’s Choice Award. Reclaim Project Recovery operates in the Spokane area and pitched a plan to add a new Reuse Rebuild Center offering deconstruction and building material reuse services to support existing workforce development programs focused on construction and “green collar” jobs.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com