2023 RIT and FLOWS Team SHOWCASE Recap
The Team Showcase was the culmination of NextCycle Michigan’s Circular Accelerator program, comprised of 15 teams focused on work in the circular economy. After having received months of business and technical support, mentoring, and planning to accelerate their projects, teams presented at the celebratory event hosted at TechTown Detroit’s Industry Innovation Center on April 20, 2023.
The event kicked off with a welcome from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Julie Staveland, the assistant director for the materials management division, and Matt Flechter, the Recycling Market Development Specialist. They set the stage for the greater purpose of the NextCycle program in building Michigan’s circular economy and the impact it is having.
Jack Akinlosotu, the new director of the Office of Sustainability for the City of Detroit, gave a keynote address explaining how Detroit is aiming to lead in all areas of sustainability including the expansion of recycling for its residents.
Award Categories and Judges
The teams were divided into three categories: Advanced Materials and Design, Food Waste Systems, and Recycling Process Innovation. They presented their pitches to judges as well as potential investors and project partners at the event. Food Waste Systems teams presented ideas with pivotal partnerships and processes to prevent waste and recapture food scraps for higher and better purposes, feeding people and the land, and reducing harmful greenhouse gases.
Advanced Materials and Design teams presented ideas working on advanced, novel technologies and materials to accelerate the circular economy by tackling hard issues with creative solutions. Finally, Recycling Processing Innovation teams presented ideas that fill critical gaps in Michigan's recycling supply chains by expanding collection, advancing processing capacity, and supporting end-market development.
Teams competed for cash prizes in each category, a $5,000 prize awarded by an expert panel of judges and a $500 people’s choice award voted on by the audience. An experienced team of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders were invited to help judge the Showcase to allocate the prize funds to NextCycle Teams.
Advance Materials & Design Judges:
Jessica Loding, CMP of Schupan
Nadia Abunasser, PhD of Michigan Economic Development Corporation
Divya Patil, previously a part of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Innovation Corp Program
Prem Bodagala of Red Cedar Ventures
Food Waste Systems Judges:
Renee V. Wallace of Doers Edge LLC
Lindsey Walker of Emmet County Recycling (DPW)
Daniel Schoonmaker of West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum
Aaron Hiday of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
Recycling Processing Innovations Judges:
Allan Newman of Recycle Ann Arbor
John Chalifoux of MERA Association of Sustainable Manufacturing
Ray Hugel of Closed Loop Partners
Paul Riser of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation
Award Winners
Detroit-based Scrap Soils won the $5,000 Food Waste Systems judged award and a $500 People’s Choice Award for their organics collections and composting program. The group currently focuses on multifamily housing communities and commercial customers, filling former gaps in two areas of Detroit where only residential food scrap collection service was previously available.
Revex won the $5,000 Advanced Materials and Design judged award. The battery materials company licensed a process innovation from Michigan Technological University which extracts minerals from mine concentrate and mine waste as well as black mass from used batteries while reducing operational expenses by 46% and greenhouse gas emissions by 40% compared to other battery mineral recovery processes.
Goodwill Association of Michigan won the $5,000 Recycling Processing Innovation judged award and a $500 People’s Choice Award to help fund their project designing used-textile sorting technologies to supply a variety of domestic markets and minimize contamination in exported loads.
The Bioenergy Project won a $500 People’s Choice Award. Their product is an elegant, low-cost system made from reused food-grade barrels which can produce clean water from food waste and a variety of other waste materials. The system components need to facilitate shipping for use in emergency situations.
Participating Teams
NextCycle Michigan teams participating in the April 20 Showcase in the Food Waste Systems category included the City of Ferndale, Partridge Creek Farm, Metro Food Rescue, My Green Michigan, and Scrap Soils.
Advanced Materials and Design teams included SCOPS Coating Technologies, Harvest Nano, Revex, Plastus, and The Bioenergy Project. Recycling Processing Innovation teams included Second-Life Solar, Post Rock, Goodwill Association of Michigan, Duro-Last Roofing, and American Classic.
All team projects contribute to NextCycle Michigan’s purpose of building a robust circular economy through partnerships and innovation.
Teams in each of the pitch groups represent participants from the Recycling Innovation & Technology (RIT) and Foods, Liquids, and Organics Waste Systems (FLOWS) Accelerator Tracks. These Tracks will launch new cohorts the summer of 2023 to support additional circular economy solutions.
As NextCycle Michigan grows, it continues to support solutions which are filling different gaps, meeting teams where they are at, and helping accelerate connections. Organizations can explore opportunities and sign up for updates on NextCycle Michigan programming at NextCycleMichigan.com.