To crowdsource new strategies to pull value from the waste stream, the Western Placer Waste Management Authority is offering $20,000 in prize money in a contest starting in the new year.
The authority’s Circular Economy Innovation Competition is being managed by The Carlsen Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at California State University Sacramento.
Applications will be accepted from across the country, but there will be a preference to regional innovations that work for the authority, which is the regional waste handler for the cities of Lincoln, Rocklin and Roseville.
The Circular Economy contest is more sophisticated than just looking for generic waste management concepts. The Western Placer Waste Management Authority is offering access to the more than 60 different waste streams it collects, along with a grade of the marketability of each waste stream and also how far away those markets are.
Some waste streams, like California Redemption Value glass bottles, for example, are highly marketable and barely travel at all. Some of the high-value products end up getting shipped as far away as Mexico and Canada and, in the U.S., as far away as Alabama.
Then there are multiple waste streams that have little market at all and almost no value, such as some construction debris, painted wood, mixed residue, old furniture and polystyrene.
The Carlsen Center is promoting the contest as an opportunity to get startup founders and innovation entrepreneurs experience in pitching market value and market potential to investors.
The application deadline to enter the competition is Feb. 10. The application is available at this link, which includes a link to the spreadsheet of the authority's waste streams.
The Circular Economy Innovation Competition will cull applicants to about a dozen to 16 semifinalists for a video pitch competition, followed by an in-person pitch competition on April 19.
Specifically, the authority is looking for innovations that use currently untapped waste streams, avoid landfill disposal, reduce costs, enhance revenue or decrease volatility of markets.
