NEW YORK CITY — The NextGen Consortium, convened by Closed Loop Partners, has announced the winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge — an open-sourced, global innovation challenge to redesign the fibre to-go cup and create a widely recyclable and/or compostable alternative.
Following a rigorous four-month review process by an esteemed group of judges including NextGen Consortium business leaders, as well as experts in recycling, composting and packaging, the challenge narrowed the nearly 500 submissions from more than 50 countries down to 12 winners.
Many of the largest players in the food and beverage industry have united within the NextGen Consortium, including founding partners Starbucks and McDonald’s, as well as The Coca-Cola Company, Yum! Brands, Nestlé and Wendy’s. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) acts as an advisory member of the consortium and OpenIDEO is an innovation partner.
Up to six winners will enter the NextGen Circular Business Accelerator, where they’ll gain access to a network of experts, business and technical resources and testing opportunities to ensure these innovations can successfully scale to serve the needs of the industry while maintaining performance standards.
“By working across the entire value chain and engaging key stakeholders, winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge are tackling a complex problem in a holistic way, sending valuable material back into the supply chain — benefiting people, the planet and businesses,” says Erin Simon, director, Sustainability R&D, WWF.
A complete list of winners is available here.
