Amid burbling espresso machines and towering stacks of cups, six teams in the NextGen Circular Business Accelerator are taking waste-free cup solutions to the next level. Venturing back of house at restaurants and into the world of waste management, see how teams use five design thinking practices to advance solutions for a more circular future.

The U.S. as well as other developed countries were taken by surprise when the Chinese government implemented a ban on the importation of recyclables on January 1, 2018.

Throughout Circularity 19, it was encouraging to see how much progress has been made on circularity, as well as important to see how far we still have to go on this journey.

With only 9% of the world’s plastics getting recycled and global plastics demand forecasted to triple by 2050, we’re in desperate need for tangible, investable solutions to avert a crisis. The good news: solutions already exist.

Start-ups from across the globe showcased their recovery technologies for a fast-growing category of hard-to-recycle flexible plastic packaging, and one winner was selected to join a mentorship program with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition & Closed Loop Partners.