End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform

Ideas come from anywhere in the world. That’s why we partnered with Plug and Play Tech Center in 2019 to develop the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform—to foster startups from across the plastic value chain, and transform plastic waste management around the world.

City:	San Francisco; Paris; Singapore; Shanghai; São Paulo; Johannesburg
Partner:	Plug and Play Tech Center

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Overview

We have attracted over 2,000 startups across our first 3 hubs—in Silicon Valley, Paris, and Singapore—with 32 eventual finalists participating in our accelerator programmes. These finalists have gone on to secure more than $3 million in capital, and are running over 50 commercial pilots, testing and fine-tuning their ideas to find sustainable, scalable solutions

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The platform identifies innovative ideas in the following key areas:

Collection, management and sorting of plastic waste
Recycling and processing technologies
Extraction and value creation from post recycle plastics

The End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform provides a unique opportunity for the participating startups. Each regional hub in Silicon Valley, USA; Paris, France; and Singapore, Singapore; runs a 12 week residency programme, during which the selected startups will fine-tune their pitching and presentation skills, meet industry experts among our member companies, and get valuable access to potential investors through Plug and Play’s extensive network.

President and CEO of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste

"Innovation is at the core of the Alliance. This partnership has a unique approach to identifying and supporting startups and innovations across the globe to fundamentally transform current waste management practices through new recycling technologies and by creating value for recycled plastics."

The first programme to launch was out of the Silicon Valley hub, where 10 startups were eventually selected based on their pitches from a streamlined list of 50 applicants. In January 2020, we called for applicants from Europe for our Paris hub, beginning that accelerator with 11 finalists. The Asia Pacific programme was launched out of the Singapore hub in August 2020.

Changing The Future Of Plastic Waste Management

The 2020 programme saw many startups benefit from the platform.

Circularise, a startup from the Paris hub, has partnered with our member, Covestro, and non-member, Domo Chemicals, and together they are working to develop a standard for transparency within the plastics industry using blockchain.

Oceanworks is collaborating with member company Avient Corporation to launch new recycled plastic formulations, which could be used in personal care products, lawn and garden tools, outdoor goods, office supplies, footwear, and houseware durables.

Founder & CEO, Plug and Play

"I believe when we bring together all the stakeholders—large corporations, entrepreneurs, startups, and universities—you can create real change. By devoting resources and attention to this global issue of plastic waste, we can make a difference in the environment. Through this platform, I commit to spend more of my time on sustainability-focused initiatives and will invest in 20 startups in this space per year."

We partnered with Litterati from the Silicon Valley hub, to launch our inaugural ALL_TOGETHER Global Cleanup in 2020. Together with participating member companies, partners, and communities around the world, we collected over 774,000 pieces of litter—all of which was tracked using the Litterati app.

But this is just the beginning. The value of acting local is critical to tackle the plastic waste challenge. No matter where startups come from, we want to hear from them. In 2021, new selection rounds will start in all 3 existing hubs, and we are expanding with new hubs in Shanghai, São Paulo and Johannesburg, providing startups from these areas of the world with access to world-class resources and expertise through this accelerator platform.

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