2022 NextCycle Michigan Showcase Results
That’s a wrap for the 2022 NextCycle Michigan Showcase!
Photo: Liesl Clark, Michigan EGLE (left), Chris Rutherford, Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit (right)
The NextCycle Michigan Showcase took place October 6-7, 2022, in collaboration with the Michigan Recycling Coalition (MRC) ‘Season of Innovation: Fall into Recycling’ event. The NextCycle Showcase is the closing milestone for participating teams and an opportunity to highlight the innovative initiatives accelerated through the program which are advancing recycling, recovery, and reuse projects across Michigan. This year there was $51,600 in prize money awarded to NextCycle Teams in addition to a special announcement made by EGLE Director, Liesl Clark, announcing $4.5M in grants being awarded to NextCycle Teams and Partners.
Clark reflected in her opening remarks during the award ceremony, “The [NextCycle] solutions demonstrated here these past two days—and the significant investments we have made together recently to grow a robust circular economy—reflect that same spirit and emphasis on building a stronger, healthier, more prosperous and equitable Michigan.”
Photo: Liesl Clark, Director of EGLE (left), Bobby Boyd, WMSBF (center), Dan Schoonmaker, WMSBF (right)
An experienced team of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders were invited to help judge the Showcase to allocate the prize funds to NextCycle Teams. They gave feedback to the finalists and ultimately choose the 2022 Showcase winners.
The 2022 winners are:
Beyond Recycling Award
Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit is the winner of the Beyond Recycling Pitch Award. This team is repurposing materials through the deconstruction of buildings in Southeast Michigan to keep environmental resources out of the waste stream and make affordable housing materials available to low- and moderate-income families.
Photo: Liesl Clark, Michigan EGLE (left), Lola Harmon-Ramsey, American Classic (center), Sam Flanery, American Classic (right)
Pink Elephant Products and Events is the winner of the People’s Choice Award. This team seeks to expand zero-waste event services in Southeast Michigan to recover valuable materials for marketing and diversion from the landfill.
Community-Based Solution Award
The winner of the Community-Based Solutions Pitch Award is the Benton Harbor Team. They have been collaborating with the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum (WMSBF) to develop recycling infrastructure and circular economy opportunities in Benton Harbor.
The winner of the People’s Choice is Pontiac Regional Chamber. This chamber-led team is aligning communities on recycling opportunities and collaborative approaches to improve access and keep value in the region.
Shovel Ready Award
Photo: Liesl Clark, Michigan EGLE (left), Vicki Lewis, VMX (right)
The Shovel Ready Pitch Award goes to American Classic Construction and Supply. This team is addressing a challenging material – asphalt shingles. They pursuing the development of a portable grinding operation for waste asphalt shingles to be reused on Michigan roads.
The People’s Choice Pitch Award goes to BSG Tire Recycling - Porous Pave. Two Michigan companies partnering up to turn Detroit-based scrap tires into a valuable community asset.
Wheel of Innovation Award
The winner of the Wheels of Innovation Pitch Award is VMX International, a team working towards developing a recycling center in the city of Detroit focused on lithium-ion batteries from Electric Vehicles.
The winner of the People’s Choice is necoTECH, a team creating asphalt from mixed plastics that will be used for the replacement of deteriorating roads, bridges, and highways.
Centrepolis Accelerator Award
The Centrepolis Accelerator Award goes to Recharge Recycling. This team is developing a phased approach to collect, discharge, test, refurbish and ultimately process and recycle Lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles and other sources.
RRS Best in Show Award
The RRS Best in Show Award goes to BSG Tire Recycling and Porous Pave. This team was made up of two applicants from the ROADS track who were paired up to participate as a combined team. Turning tire scrap into a valuable community asset in Detriot. They also won the Shovel Ready People’s Choice award.
Photo: Liesl Clark, Michigan EGLE (left), Michael Czarnota, Recharge Recycling (center), Dan Radomski, Centrepolis Accelerator (right)
Photo: Liesl Clark, Michigan EGLE (left), Ethan Dunn, BSG Tire Recycling (center), Elisa Seltzer, RRS (right)
Thank You and Congratulations!
A special thanks to the State Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (ELGE) for supporting this program, our sponsors who have contributed to the award pool which is going directly to teams to support them in furthering their initiatives, the incredible panels of expert judges, and last but not least, thank you to our co-host MRC!
Congratulations to all the winners! This event officially wraps up programming for the Teams who pitched their circular economy solutions who can now call themselves alumni of the NextCycle Michigan Innovation Challenge Tracks. Keep an eye out on our social media and newsletters to find out more about the 2023 programming and more solutions NextCycle Teams are bringing to the table to accelerate a circular economy in Michigan.