Announcing the Beyond the Bag Challenge Winners
Celebrating 9 ideas that are pushing the boundaries of systems design, technology and material innovation as they reinvent how we get goods home.
The Beyond the Bag Challenge, a critical part of the broader Beyond the Bag Initiative, sought to identify long-term solutions that reimagine how to get goods home from an in-store purchase, from curbside pick-up, and in-home delivery. Over 450 innovators from around the world submitted their ideas on how to reinvent the retail bag.
Winners were chosen through a collective process by a panel of 10 subject matter experts alongside the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag’s Founding Partners, Sector Lead Partners, Environmental Advisory Partners and the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners.
In February 2021, the Consortium announced the nine winners of the Beyond the Bag Challenge: ChicoBag, Domtar, Eon, Fill it Forward, GOATOTE, PlasticFri, Returnity, SmartC and Sway. The winning solutions fall into three categories: Reuse and Refill; Enabling Technology; and Innovative Materials.
Winners will receive a portion of $1 million in prize money and are eligible for additional financial support to support testing, piloting and scaling efforts. Depending upon the type of solution, they will either be invited to join the Circular Accelerator or begin product testing to hone performance, customer experience, and more. The Consortium will work closely with winning solutions throughout 2021, supporting prototyping, mentoring, and iterative developments toward piloting select solutions in-market.
