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, and the Coca-Cola Co. held the culmination of their second Circular Plastics Challenge. Proposals were submitted in response to this year’s prompt question: How can we increase the supply of recycled PET in order to meet rising demand? Five teams presented their proposals to a panel of judges during NPE2024.

The finalists were chosen from a field of 65 submitted applications, and worked with subject matter experts at Coca-Cola and Hillenbrand to refine their ideas. After deliberations, the panel awarded the Strong Bottle team, from Boise State University, with the top prize.

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The Strong Bottle Team, winners of first prize in the 2024 Circular Plastics Challenge (L to R: Taylor Fackrell, Terra Miller-Cassman and Dr. Aaron Smith). Source: Hillenbrand.

The Strong Bottle team included Terra Miller-Cassman, a Ph.D. candidate in materials science and engineering; Taylor Fackrell, a systems assembly technician pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering; and Dr. Aaron Smith, a professor of mechanical engineering. Their proposal was aimed at the problem of PET bottle under-sorting. An unintended side effect of lightweighting, PET bottles can be easily flattened and fail to be recovered. Strong Bottle’s proposal described a unique bottle design that is less susceptible to being flattened. The design could increase recovery of PET bottles by an estimated 15%. The team’s first prize victory came with an award of $10,000.

The EcoTrace team, led by professionals Aadhithya Sujith and Sowmya Singh, of Kannur and Nagpur, India, took second prize. EcoTrace uses fluorescent markers coupled with tracer-based sorting technology to improve separation and downstream operations.

The third place prize went to rMarket, led by Carissa Tasto and Jennifer Larkin, recent MBA graduates from Presidio Graduate School in San Anselmo, California. The rMarket is a platform that helps transform any retail store into a centralized collection point for communities underserved by municipal recycling programs.

The program collaborators hope the competition will spark interest in careers in manufacturing, helping to build up the talent pool needed to meet the challenges of sustainability. According to Hillenbrand (the parent company of equipment suppliers such as Coperion, Herbold Meckesheim, Milacron and others), companies in the plastics industry are challenged to recruit great engineers who can choose to work in a variety of industries. 

“When you look at the next generation, they are three times more likely to choose a company based on what they do, their environmental market and how it appears — they actually read the sustainability reports,” says Tory Flynn, chief sustainability officer at Hillenbrand.

After the first year’s program (2023), 86% of the program participants said they were inspired to continue working toward incorporating plastics into the circular economy.

“It’s really exciting to to see the the results of program and the educational outcomes. I’m happy to report that 94% of this year's participants reported that they expanded their knowledge of circularity and responsible production and consumption because of the program,” says Hilary Manzo, associate director of programs at Net Impact.

Net Impact is a global nonprofit, with chapters at major 911±¬ÁÏÍø schools and cities, dedicated to inspiring and equipping emerging leaders to use the tools of 911±¬ÁÏÍø to drive social and environmental action.