What’s happening: A total of 17 teams cleaned up at the annual NextCycle Michigan Summer Showcase this past June, an industry showcase for companies and organizations working to advance reuse, recycling, composting, and recycled-content projects in Michigan.
What it is: The
NextCycle Michigan Summer Showcase features the work of those organizations enrolled in the
NextCycle Michigan business accelerator program, an initiative of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
Why it’s important: “It’s imperative that we move toward a sustainable future, not only to ensure that our children and grandchildren enjoy the wonders of the Great Lakes State – as we have – but to continue leading in a rapidly changing economic landscape,” says EGLE Director Phil Roos. “EGLE is proud to lead the NextCycle initiative, which is leveraging public and private investment in Michigan’s recycling system to put materials that were headed to the landfill back into the supply chain.”
Who won: Hemp 4 Humanity, based in Three Rivers, won the $10,000 FLOWS Best Pitch Award and a $500 FLOWS People’s Choice Award on the strength of their utilizing industrial hemp production waste, agricultural waste, and building deconstruction waste as viable building materials.
Grand Rapids’
Design Declassified won the RIT Make it in Michigan Award of in-kind technical support, which is valued at $10,000, for their utilizing plastic waste to manufacture plastic sheets.
Also winning was
PittMoss of Ambridge, Penn., which wants to develop a Michigan facility for processing locally-sourced recycled paper fibers into soilless gardening mixes, soil amendments, and animal bedding ($500 RIT People’s Choice Award).
And
Chippin’ In of Detroit and
Beaver Island’s St. James Township split the $5,000 Business Growth Award; the former for their repurposing foil-lined products into sleeping bags for the homeless, and the latter for their plans to reduce organics and food scraps shipped off the island to onshore landfills.
But that’s not all: In a surprise announcement, EGLE awarded each of the 17 participants with $5,000 Harvest Grants. EGLE also announced that the
Michigan Materials Marketplace, an online platform for exchanging materials that is free and open to companies and organizations in Michigan, was being upgraded in partnership with Rheaply.
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