1st place winner

Haidar Al-fallouji, Mateo Palacio, Amir Asady, Carolina Morales, Natalia Giraldo

We are passionate about promoting the value of second-hand buying: it saves money and reduces waste. We’ve created a brand-new online platform that allows individuals or organisations to pass on unwanted items, and in the process help charities and address social inequality.

We're a young not-for-profit that deliver a unique online marketplace – with the proceeds going straight to your elected charity.

2nd place winner

Donny Chien, Ian Price

With a focus on food retail Y Waste's purpose is to both reduce food insecurity and the environmental and economic impacts of food waste. The app has developed its own mobile API for secure payment transactions, independent from established payment solutions. By encouraging supply chain economic mechanic leftover food is purchased by customers or donated through Foodbank partnership verified platforms through con-tactless delivery within the local economy.

3rd place winner

Rebecca Scott, Will Scott

Crateful targets one of the most wasteful industries: hospitality and food retail businesses. The industry generates over 1/3 of commercial and industrial waste, with low rates of recycling compared to other business types. Crateful is STREAT’s modular growing system for backyard food using diverted waste to create an urban farming initiative that can feed thousands per year, addressing the waste crisis and food insecurity in Melbourne.

Finalist

John Rbeiz

Inspired by the 'milkman model' of the 1950s; we're a closed-loop service that allows consumers to borrow reusable, professionally cleaned containers, whenever and wherever they need them — all with a single-click return process.

Finalist

Nicholas Pearce

Fast fashion in Australia is an industry worth over $2 billion annually, but the damage it is causing the planet is immense. On average 6000kg of apparel is destined for landfill every 10 minutes. We transform garments destined for landfill into desirable one-off pieces, raising money for charity and saving them from landfill. Pre-loved or unsold garments are hand-cut, sewn and altered in Melbourne, creating pieces that encourage a radical rethinking of the industry.

Finalist

Syed Minhaj Saleem Kazmi, Muhammad Junaid Munir

RMIT Rubberised Concrete Processing Technology (RRCPT) can turn a recycled material, rubberised recycled aggregate concrete into traditional concrete material. This is achieved by enhancing the material properties of the recycled material through a novel way of concrete casting without using additional materials. Application of RRCPT in precast concrete industry is expected to save natural resources and reduce CO2 emission.

Finalist

Lia Montserrat, Alvarez Mendez, Simon Stefan Wehrli

We are developing a tool to quantify the total material that can be extracted from a construction/demolition site, that can re-enter new constructions, saving cost, time and up to 40% of the CO2 emissions (approx.20 tonnes of CO2 per household). During our research, we have concluded that the construction sector is ready for this tool since every day the clients and regulations are pushing them towards a more circular economy approach.

Finalist

Amanda Pacheco Bravo, Shimroth John Thomas, Joseph Oliver Yap

The wine industry generates 68,000 tons of grape waste annually. In landfill this waste releases methane, a potent GHG. Bottling & transport account for 2/3 of the wine industry’s carbon footprint and broken glass can cause recyclers to refuse service. T’wine uses emerging biotech to design out grape and glass waste. Through millennial focused product & service design we aim to turn the wine industry into a circular economy

David Halliday, Mr John Lawrence, Mr David Pica Mr Fred Martin

The problem is contaminated organic waste going to landfill. The solution is vertical separation (VS), which separates plastic film and other contaminants from organic matter to produce a product with value. The pulped organic matter is an ideal feed stock for anaerobic digestion either on site or remotely to produce biogas and digestate (bio fertiliser). Current kerbside collection arrangements will not be interfered with.

Wendy Tatiana Fonseca, Carolina Fonseca

Our principal objective is to reuse plastic waste that is thrown away daily. According to National Waste Report 2018 stats and figures, just 12% of plastic is recycled in Australia. Of the 2.5 million tonnes, 20,000 tons are destined to energy recovery, and around 2.2 million tonnes to landfill. In Victoria a total of 88,000 tons of plastic waste were exported to China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam in 2019.

Catherine Jong, Wayne Kavanagh, Ben Loke, Adam Evans

A waste and recycling mobile app targeted at visitors and local Melburnians. Users will be able to scan QR codes on City of Melbourne bins to bring up the most commonly disposed items of that bin. Other features of the app include a database of items answering 'Can I recycle this?’ Google Map points displaying the closest recycling and waste disposal points and a rewards system linked to local business based on the users recycling habits.

Catherine Jong, Wayne Kavanagh, Ben Loke, Adam Evans

An online marketplace, where suppliers, consumers, businesses and government can connect in an ‘eBay’ style platform to buy and sell types of reusable waste. Almost any type of waste product can be reused in some form, but it must be directed to the right destination. A combined platform would benefit the commercial industry. Buyers would include private business and government entities with a share of profits to be put back to the community.

Hayley Rolfe and Narendran Subramaniam

We are working with SMEs to introduce circular economy practices through use of the Ardea Waste management platform. The platform helps businesses identify and engage reuse and recycling options for their waste. Our goal is to meet and exceed government targets of 75% waste diversion from landfill by finding better treatment & uses for commercial wastes within local industries. We aim to reduce waste, keep resources circulating and enhance local connections.

Sathira Ranaweera

My idea is Bin Bot, an AI-driven bot application with cognitive capabilities. It's compatible with popular messaging applications such as Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as smart home devices such as Google Nest, Hub and Alexa Echo. You can ask questions about your waste, and know what goes where and how soon. It’s quick, informative and dare say fun. Most importantly, Bin Bot helps you help the environment and make Victoria a better place.

Narendran Subramaniam and team

BinSense has developed an IoT sensor and platform that solves the problem of contamination in recycling. Mainly due to contamination, less than 30% of recycled materials collected are recycled. In some areas, due to supply issues and recent fires, nothing is recycled and is therefore passed to landfill. Putting recycling into landfill costs councils more per tonne, is a poor outcome for the environment, and not what the population wants or expects.

Stuart McDonald and Adelle McDonald

We are reinventing the reusable nappy to enable easy adoption and increased use of existing infrastructure in treatment plants to reduce landfill. We have sourced a way to make this completely made in Victoria, 100% Australian. We are using our expertise from our Melbourne based nappy wash company and trying to keep our closed loop in Victoria.

Phil Steinke, Ben Cole, Jess Drake

We're gamifying waste collection by using Machine Learning and image recognition to identify what's recyclable. Our Internet of Things device is attached to the top of each Melbourne city bin, it tells someone that a coffee cup isn't recyclable. Our UV camera detects if the recycling bin is contaminated with food. An interactive graph shows how close the bin is to being too contaminated. We can also notify garbage trucks to collect contaminated recycling.

Zeb Parsons

Bricolage Dynamics converts municipal glass waste into a sand resource. It solves the problems of :

• Increased landfill: cost of transportation and disposal.
• Finite resources for material production, as glass comes from sand, which is the world’s second most used natural resource.
• Lost revenue: $1 billion in lost economic potential.

Bruna Iotti Amaral

In our society, there is a false notion that materials are in inexhaustible abundance. For decades, materials have not been used to their optimal value and have left a trail of environmental destruction, social injustice, and financial loss during their life cycle. My idea will address the optimistic path to live within planetary boundaries, by connecting stakeholders and allowing for a unique process of transparency.

Grant McCall

Each year in Australia almost 400 million plastic bottles end up as waste, wreaking havoc on our environment and oceans and devastating our wildlife. Plastic pollution is a growing problem and one of the greatest challenges our planet faces. Bubbler is an app that quickly shows the nearest drinking fountain on a map. Users can contribute by adding new fountains they come across. Quick access to free, clean water will reduce plastic pollution.

Martin Collings, Maggie Scott

Contamination of recycled products creates many problems, including low recycling yields. Charopy is a smart bin that uses scanning technology to eliminate bin contamination across out of home settings. It provides waste and sustainability managers with real-time data on the composition and the fill level of bins they are responsible for, enabling more efficient and effective waste management.

Lia Montserrat, Alvarez Mendez, Fabiola Polli

Australia has a high CO2 emission per capita, the result of the textile industry and burning fossil fuels. Our aim is to improve home energy efficiency through a low-cost insulation material made from the plastic fibres of discarded clothes. The insulation is attached to windows, decreasing the thermal bridge between the material and the interior of the property. This increases the Lumens and decreases the UV rays inside the property.

Allan Cummins, Andrew Swann

We propose the development of a smartphone app; an educational tool to demystify waste management and encourage improvement in waste recovery practices. The app links waste producers with industry, providing a go-to resource for waste disposal solutions and transparency, confidence and choice around how their waste is disposed. Users will be able to measure their waste performance against best practice and discuss waste disposal with others in their sector via a forum.

Dr Nilupa Udawatta and team

This research aims to create an app driven virtual market for construction and demolition (C&D) waste reuse and recycle in the residential construction sector in Australia. The app will match sellers for swap trading and allow users to enter project information for smart alerts on what buyers are looking for. The concept will allow small residential construction firms to advertise and profit from salvaged material that would otherwise be disposed into landfill.

Cynthia Barnicoat, Clarke Kelland, Oliver Kelland

We’re recycling disposable diapers. Used disposable nappies are a global waste problem and 2 billion go to landfill in Australia yearly. They can take up to 500 years to break down, releasing greenhouse gases and toxic leachates. Our solution uses technology to divert them from landfill and recycle into new products. We separate cleaned plastic for plastics recyclers, and using the super absorbent fibre we make new products, such as cat litter.

Kristy Hobson

The 'Waste Aware Community' (WAC) program ©, provides businesses with technical assistance across all of their waste streams. Businesses then receive sustainability recognition. Utilising some of the latest technology, like-minded customers are connected to such accredited businesses. It creates a circular economic community of waste aware businesses and consumers. Behaviour change and positive incentives to do the right thing with waste are an integral part of the program.

Phillip Spring, David Berry, Aaron Moynes, Charlie Spring

A new automated organics waste management solution tailored for large residential buildings that influence and encourage residents to sustainably repurpose their organic waste, while being able to monitor their environmental achievements. The system supports Melbourne's environmental and liveability goals by increasing the diversion of food organics from landfill; solving the environmental issues associated with traditional waste systems.

Alexander Horton, William Hargreaves

econome will create an online learning module designed to educate cafe workers on the principles of waste management. The result will be offered to cafe workers in Melbourne cafes during the induction process. The module will address the knowledge gap that exists in the hospitality industry - specifically cafes - around the supply chain of waste management, how to utilise food waste as a solution to climate change and the principles of a circular economy.

Desiree Riny

With the help of Melbourne as a sister city, we could use our accessible materials that would otherwise end up in landfills to produce a cost-effective versatile lower-limb prosthetic. To increase accessibility to lower-limb prosthetics for 95% of amputees who are currently without access, out of an estimated total population of 40 million amputees living around the world (Greenberg, Mehta & Ritter, 2015) whilst also simultaneous solving an environmental issue.

Swinburne University of Technology

Aulia Qisthi Mairizal

Waste Connect proposes to digitise the collection of electronic waste from handling, tracking and recycling activities. It allows easy e-waste recycling through the Waste Connect website. It connects consumers directly to recycle services so they can choose their waste handling options and receive an award for using the service. The website also automatically produces geographical analysis of the e-waste distribution in the area.

Jess Knollmeyer

Around half of household garbage is food waste. Food can be fuel - not only for our bodies, but our neighbourhoods, communities and cities. This idea starts with 5 main components:

1. In-home food waste 'bins' that are strategically designed.
2. Stickers/magnets that are smartly designed to go on in-home waste bins (no more food scraps).
3. City-wide food waste collection.
4. Communication, education and marketing to back the change.
5. Ultimately, it's compulsory to separate food waste.

Catherine Hutchins, Aniyo Rahebi

We're dedicated to solving the disposable cup problem. 1 billion coffee cups are disposed each year in Australia and 90% of these go to landfill. This equates to ~60,000 kg of plastic waste annually. Some cups claim to be compostable, but infrastructure to manage these cups is limited. We have an innovative solution that solves the problem, an edible cup that is waste free. It functions like a takeaway cup without harming the planet or compromising convenience.

Kimberly Chhen, Alison Fong

Our app “Green Bean” is named to transform youths into ‘keen beans’ on sustainability and promote self-initiated green stewardship in a playful manner. Users are encouraged to recycle by collecting points known as “green beans”. Beans are rewarded through various tasks such as dropping off recycling, purchasing from sustainable businesses, or sharing recycling tips. These beans can then be redeemed for credit or vouchers used at partner businesses or traders.

Alejandra Nunez

Australians use approximately 1 billion of disposable coffee cups (and lids) per day. A-day is a plastic-free coffee cup lid. Its components are natural fibres from on-farm losses (fruits and vegetables), juice factories by-products such as orange peels, and vegetable oil by-products (seeds wax). It's a new recovery strategy for organic waste that can be used in retail industries and will degrade either naturally or in compost. There will be no chemical additions.

Andrea Pufleau

To leverage the City of Melbourne’s position to raise awareness of innovative materials (no-waste edible plates); thus championing and communicating circular solutions. Edible crockery represents an innovative opportunity to eliminate unnecessary commercial waste for the city’s events. Melbourne City can run an outdoor event initiative, introducing edible crockery as a novel thought-starter, challenging our audience’s mental models of what packaging and waste ‘should be.’

Mike Ghasemi

A recycle and reward (R&R) system for coffee cups and other containers using new front-end design, digital technology, an established network and proven behavioural nudges. Our everyday food and drink consumption: tea, coffee, bottled drinks and takeaway food comes at great environmental cost. People can however, change when they see others change and when it's made simple. Our objective is to drastically reduce plastic usage through a highly visible and regular nudge + pay strategy.

Howard Ju

JET Technology focuses on organic waste processing and resources recovery. Our solution is a Japanese aerobic fermentation technology (ERS) that recovers organic resources from waste. It only takes ERS 3 hours to convert organic waste e.g. food scraps and biosolids into fertiliser, animal feed or biofuel for energy. The solution does not generate pollution thoughout the process, saves processing costs, reduces carbon emissions and builds a circular economy around waste.

Len Luxford, Blake Cassidy, Martin McGinty

Waste authorities around the world have a landfill problem. Most acknowledge that the problem must be addressed at source. However, there has been no incentive for the community to avoid or reduce waste landfill and, to date, no scalable method for metering household waste. Matter now introduces a world-first 'smart lid' technology that allows all household waste to be measured and linked to a household application to promote behaviour change.

Thomas and Sarah Oesterlé

Australia’s first Closed Loop Supermarket. Operating as the Zero Waste “Bridge of Feasibility” between manufacturers and consumers who want to reduce their carbon footprint. We provide manufacturers with an immediate, affordable and true zero waste solution for their products. This is through our innovative closed loop system, which is available to our customers through our Supermarket in the form of Reusable Storage Containers and a refund scheme.

Jorge Bravo

Mission Glass will provide locally made eco-friendly glassware from used glass bottles. We will partner with local restaurants to get the used glass bottles and the glassware sets, which will be sold on a Shopify based ecommerce website.

Kirby Clark, Kate Hannaford, Amelia Hermawan, Etta Curry

For creators of events, exhibitions and festivals who want to reduce their build waste, CIRKEL Corp will provide the tools and platform to make the shift toward a circular economy. Our goal is to reduce build waste of semi-permanent spaces in the exhibitions, events, festivals, and brand activation sector across Australia by 70%. It will also provide the support, information, and data required to move our industry toward a circular economy.

Ratih Sari, Mr. Achmad Ginanjar

PickMe boosts community participation in recycling waste by exposing the economic value of the waste itself. PickMe is a platform where people can offer their recyclable household waste to anyone that wants to reuse it. The city council has the advantage of reducing their waste quantity, and waste recycling chains can be shortened. As a result we hope that waste that goes to landfill can be reduced significantly.

Mathew Card and team

We are developing a mobile onsite educational waste plastic recycling and reuse unit to run as an interactive workshop program. Teaching how to live sustainably, promoting circular economy, waste management and recycling awareness. Targeted for primary schools, secondary schools, local community days, council events, summits and expos. We will also offer to implement plastic recycling equipment into schools and business, driving a market to make recycled plastic a commodity.

Ollie Cotsaftis, Javier de Urquijo Isoard, Suri Adlina

Project 2030 is a community-based makerspace and behavioural change program. On one hand, it uses creative technologies to offer citizens and businesses a space where organic waste is used as a resource to make everyday objects on demand. On the other hand, it showcases a way forward and out of our traditional manufacturing processes and consumption behaviours by empowering users to shape the regenerative futures we need.

Marc Torra and team

The excessive waste of resources has become an undeniable worldwide concern. This situation calls for an urgent transition towards a circular economy, which requires:

1. an ecosystem as a software platform for coordinating stakeholders
2. open data on the flows, stocks and processes connected with reverse logistics
3. standardisation.

Resco.io is a software tool that creates multi-platform ecosystems able to generate depersonalised open data for the implementation of a circular economy.

Bart van Bueren

Sanbi is a social and sustainable business based on diverting household products from waste to resell. It uses the smart IoT Sanbi locker and online platform between people buying and selling. Products can be put in the locker, which automatically uploads pictures online. A locker door opens after purchase. Selling and buying will be 2x faster, for a brokerage fee of $5-20%. Lockers placed in high-rise and public buildings in Melbourne can generate $54,000 turnover per month.

Chandan Panda, Vikram Singla, Peter Knock

The textile waste generated in the fashion supply chain is something ignored by many, but proven to have unprecedented adverse effects to our environment. The ‘sample’ products, which are tested, fitted and photographed are generally of no value beyond that. These samples then end up burnt or thrown into our landfill. Our 3D Designs along with virtual try-on tech turns physical sampling to digital sampling and hence reduces over production and trash.

Bernard Fernandez

The Melbourne CBD produces 20,000 tonnes of office stripout waste every year - practically all of this ends up in landfill. Every 5 years the CBD covers itself in office strip out waste piled up to the height of a car. Sustainable Strip Out as a Principal Contractor is committing to divert minimum 60% of stripout waste from landfill, while donating 100% of profit from diversion activities to a charity of the organisations choice.

Layana Franco

Australian women are the biggest consumers of fashion in the world, and they don’t wear 70% of their wardrobe. This leads to massive waste and pollution. For example, in Australia alone every 10 minutes six tonnes of textiles go to landfill. To cope with this, some eco-stylish ladies attend clothing swap gatherings. However, the events are rare and many people can’t attend because of their busy lifestyles. If we bring this concept online, many more women could take part in it.

Akvan Gajanayake and team

A web-based tool enabling an industrial symbiotic network. Users upload information on the inputs and outputs of their operations. The tool matches businesses where by-products of one can be used as an input in another. Businesses benefit from reduced purchasing and waste disposal costs. It tackles the problem of Commercial & Industrial waste at the point of generation, minimises transport and reprocessing requirements and increases economic and resource efficiency.

Alejandra Nunez

TAKE ME BACK is a flat recycled paper design that can be turned into a container in two steps. It's made of recycled unbleached kraft (OCC), which makes it 100% recyclable. It's light and relatively flexible to be able to carry up to 1.5kg. The design does not need glue or any extra assembling materials, and its size makes it easy to pack many of them inside any checkout bag. It encourages a circular economy system in supermarkets and markets to reduce the use of plastic carriers.

Henry Chhen

The manufacturing of building materials accounts for 11% of global greenhouse gas. However under Australia’s system for building sustainability, embodied carbon is largely ignored. The Melbourne Embodied Carbon Scheme (MECS) is a star rating system that quantifies the total embodied carbon of building materials into a simplified score for consumers to understand. This allows informed environmental decisions when choosing products and encourages green competition between manufacturers.

Matthew Yarlett

An online application (WastePlan) that enables businesses to review, assess and exchange data about how they use resources and plan to reduce waste. This will drive innovation and better stewardship by understanding the life-cycle of resources. The application enables challenges and opportunities to be shared and aggregated, providing other businesses, governing bodies, service providers and entrepreneurs a market place of opportunities and insights.

Jackie Sun, Anthony Miller, Meggy Wu

We are seeking to reduce the use of single use disposable cups and containers. tibah is a mobile application that provides eco-friendly consumers a discounted meal or beverage when a reusable container such as a cup or container is used for takeaway. The features of the application include identifying local sustainable cafes and restaurants that allow purchases with reusables, and offering discounts associated with using reusables and personal impact tracking.

Felicity Ford, Claudine Fessey

Reusable cups as a waste minimisation solution has been a great achievement for Melbourne. However, with millions of cups in circulation, there is no program in place to facilitate a circular end of life solution. Our idea is to create a program that connects current users of reusable cups within Melbourne City to a recycling program that closes the loop, enabling products to be appropriately recycled and rehomed into new products rather than ending up in landfill.