PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE

The PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE is a global crowdsourcing collaboration open to anyone in the world; inventors, innovators, engineers, enthusiasts, designers and dreamers regardless of age, nationality, gender identity, cultural identity, or political viewpoint.

This Challenge has Two Stages.

Stage 1 consists of three Tracks. Stage 2 consists of three Rounds.

The Overview, Timeline and Guidelines presented are for Stage 1 with references to Stage 2.

The Plastika Reparabilis Challenge is a Cash prize competition. Winners of Stage 1 will be selected based on how promising their ideas are, and how willing and able they are to work with other Innovators. Winners will receive larger amounts of cash prizes as they move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and from Round one to the third and final Round.

We are committed to implementing solutions from back-of-the-napkin ideas to fully-fledged business models that emerge from The Plastika Reparabilis Challenge.

No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the Plastika Reparabilis collaborative competition.

If you are considered a minor in your country or in the Province of BC, Canada, you will need your parent or legal guardian to register on the HeroX platform and submit your idea or solution for you.

You will be able to select your preferred structure for intellectual property rights on the submission form.

OVERVIEW

The Problem

Why Does this Problem Exist?

• Today's recycling is fragmented, confusing and driven by waste management and the plastics industries.
• Plastic designers, manufacturers and recyclers work in isolation from each other.
• Solution providers, NGOs and governments deliver only National solutions that do not address global needs.
• There is NO harmonized and standardized system for the collection and processing of waste plastic.
• The plastics industry acknowledge the problem of plastic pollution and promote reuse and recycling while fighting local regulation of plastic products.
• We ALL need to tackle the problem, TOGETHER NOW.

ONE SOLUTION FOR THE TOOLBOX OF SOLUTIONS :

The PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE is a race to build functioning and valuable ecosystems for plastic waste elimination and plastic re-utilization and to replicate those ecosystems all over the world.

• Pre-cycling and preventing plastic waste before it happens.
• Accelerating a synergetic and symbiotic flow of plastic resource recovery.
• Delivering plastic-free solutions and alternatives.
• Providing recycling receptacles wherever garbage receptacles exist for ALL types of plastic in ONE bin everywhere on the PLANET.
• Extracting the most value from all types of recyclable, non-recyclable, biodegradable and compostable plastics.

To register for the challenge, click the “ACCEPT CHALLENGE” button above.

The Challenge Breakthrough

• The PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE' breakthrough is to boost the recovery of plastic waste, increase the value of plastic scrap, and optimize resource re-utilization in the global supply chain.

What are the positive transformations that come from this Challenge?

• Local Solutions Globally. The connection of local solutions on a global scale to create -PPaaS- Plastic Packaging as a Service.
• "Glocal" solutions for the entire plastic supply chain to work collectively and collaboratively to turn-off the tap on plastic pollution of earth and ocean.

Why is now the exact right time for this problem to be solved?

• Plastic recycling programs are limited to each municipality
• Municipal recycling programs are slow and lag behind of what is recyclable and what is not recyclable resulting in well-meaning, but confused and partially motivated end-users
• The present system for collection and sorting of waste plastics is intricate and fragmented and it is the main driver for littering and for lack of recycling
• Worldwide bans on single-use plastics
• the Chinese National Sword Program banning plastic scrap imports
• the growing market penetration of bio-based and nature compatible plastics
• Fossil Fuel Companies' colossal $180 Billion investment in plastic factories
• the UK' standardization of its recycling policy and the banning of single-use disposable plastics
• France's pledge to recycle 100 percent of plastics, and
• Administrations the world over pushing ahead with separate approaches to recycling

All factors above prove the timeliness for the PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE.

What You Can Do To Cause A Breakthrough

• Click ACCEPT CHALLENGE above to sign up for the challenge
• Read the Challenge Guidelines to learn about the requirements and rules
• Share this challenge on social media using the icons above. Show your friends, your family, or anyone you know who has a passion for discovery.
• Join or start a conversation in our Forum, ask questions and connect with other participants.
• The Challenge Forum is your space to share thoughts and ideas and join or create teams to develop and implement an integrated flow to eliminate waste before it happens simultaneously with plastic (bar)/coding/tagging, tracking, collection, sorting, separation and transfer to firstly local, secondly regional, thirdly national, and lastly international markets to be reused, restored, repaired, upcycled or recycled leading to an optimal circular life-cycle.

You will be able to select your preferred intellectual property rights structure on the submission form. Choose only ONE structure.

Click "Accept" to continue for the Legal Agreement section instead.

STAGE 1 - Three TRACKS

You can ask to join one or more teams and ask as many teams as you want to join yours.

Track Skip caters to countries and economies where levels of plastic pollution are very high and there is a minimum to non-existent collection and recycling infrastructure. These countries have the opportunity to Skip the business-as-usual model of waste management to create and implement unique, tailor-made, low and high-tech ecosystems of solutions capable of creating jobs and contribute to overcoming their problems of poverty and low income.

Track Resource Evolution caters to countries and economies that have limited or no collection and/or recycling infrastructure and at the same time, their strong and growing economies and population can support low and high-tech ecosystems of solutions.

Track 7 caters to the world' seven most industrialized countries - Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy that can afford to implement state of the art high-tech ecosystems of solutions in urban areas while remote and rural communities in Canada and the US will benefit from low and high-tech solutions.

Each TRACK operates as a separate competition with its own innovators during the same timeline. The same innovations can be applicable to one, two or all three tracks.

Refer to the TIMELINE section of this Challenge for information about the duration of these three simultaneously-run tracks from Stage One.

Each TRACK has three deliverables,

1. Designing, developing and testing one bin for ALL plastics; whether they are flexible, rigid, disposable, reusable, recyclable, biodegradable, compostable or non-recyclable; whether they are clean or contaminated.

This deliverable includes:

• Development of intelligent bins that are capable of:
  • Identifying ALL types of plastics visually and/or according to their Material Disclosure in the following two deliverables below and report that information in real time to all stakeholders involved
  • Separating the different types of plastic from biodegradable, compostable, OmnidegradableTM, PET, HDPE, LDPE, PVC, mixed resins/multiple layers, contaminated (with food or other) into their own separate compartments
  • Compacting materials to optimize resource collection by weight and prevent bin overflow
  • Selling the collected resources to the closest and/or highest plastic waste processing bidder

2. The development of hardware/software, and/or apps for MATERIAL DISCLOSURE through LABELLING/BARCODING, CODING, MARKING PLASTICS to collect, track and identify ALL types of plastics from their chemical and/or biological source.

(Bar)coding/RFID/(laser) tagging and/or block chaining Brand packaging enables precise sorting according to polymer composition and colouring.

This deliverable includes:

• Hardware/software, apps for buying and selling plastic resources.
• Ideas and proposals for capturing emissions from plastic factories and converting them into raw materials and/or products
• Solutions to utilize another' solution by-product or waste to produce raw materials and/or products

​Purpose of this deliverable: Tracking allows Producers, Brands, Waste Management Companies, Recyclers (and the public, through transparency campaigns) to quantify plastic packaging & products, consider their lifecycle from raw material and address directly where, how, and how much of a particular packaging gets recycled and how much is recovered from environment cleanup operations when they fall out of the recycling system.

3. The development of technology or combination of technologies for sorting the plastics according to their polymer/resin content and colour. A new technology or combination of technologies that enables the recycling industry to identify and separate plastics based on content type, colour and content quantity. These sorting processes can include and it is not limited to manual, mechanical, air, optical, sensor, near infrared, electrostatic, magnetic density and polymer tracers/markers identification and/or any existing or yet to be developed technology and combinations thereof.

This deliverable includes:

• Ideas and proposals for marking, identifying, tracking and sorting ALL types of plastic including biodegradable, compostable and OmnidegradableTM plastics
• Non-conventional recycling, reusability, and upcycling solutions.
• Solutions for preventing waste before it happens through systems, methods and business models that eliminate unnecessary packaging and provide packaging re-use before recycling and/or upcycling.

Purpose of this deliverable: When a certain type of packaging is identified as non-recyclable in a country or municipality, and it is not desirable or economical to create infrastructure for its recyclability, the coding and tracking data will provide predictive strategy for municipalities, brand names and plastic producers to take action together and substitute that non-recyclable plastic in a timely and speedy manner with package-free solutions and/or compostable and/or OmnidegradableTM alternatives.

Tips to get your application selected

A strong, well-written idea/proposal is powerful and compelling to the judges. Even though the Submission Form is simple, consider these points when completing it:

• Tell your story:  No need for Humility. Tell us why your solution is exactly what the world needs.
• Understand the evaluation process: Focus on the criteria that the judges look for.
• Make it engaging: Your story should be truthful, vivid and engaging. Make it stand out.
• Be concise: Don’t fall in love with your words. Edit, edit, edit. Brevity is a virtue here.
• Explain possibilities: If your idea is brand new and there are no results yet, tell us how it will achieve results.
• Demonstrate results: If you already quantified growth, then use specific numbers, percentages and statistics.
• Collaborate with others: How can you collaborate with other Innovators? What can your solution offer to make another better or faster or more effective? Can your solution use the waste by-product of another? Convey those factors, remembering that judges may be unfamiliar with your industry.
• Persuade: Convince the judges that you and your solution are real winners. Be authentic. Be enthusiastic. Tell the judges how your solution will change plastics or the present plastic waste management system for good.
• Polish: Write it and then, take your time to make it shine.

Be on time: Be aware of the changing deadline date(s) and submit your proposal on time.

Challenge Breakthrough

The PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE' breakthrough is to eliminate plastic waste before it happens, boost the recovery of plastic waste, increase the value of plastic scrap, optimize resource re-utilization in the global supply chain and turning off the tap on plastic pollution of the earth and ocean.

The Challenge and its cash prizes promote and facilitate the proximity principle advocating that land and marine plastic waste should be treated close to the point at which it is generated or salvaged and that the network shall be designed to enable the Community as a whole to become self-sufficient in plastic recovery and processing operations.

After this Challenge is solved, The world will have:

• One bin for “all plastics only”
• Collection of ALL types of plastics in ONE bin everywhere on the PLANET
• Fully scalable and replicable Plastic Resource Recovery Operating (Eco)System
• Fully scalable and replicable business model for PPaS Plastic Packaging as a Service
• A single platform and app of solution providers for the entire plastics supply chain

The positive transformations that will come from this Challenge are:

• Local Solutions Globally. The connection of local solutions on a global scale.
• "Glocal" solutions for the entire plastic supply chain to work collectively and collaboratively.

Background

No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE.

Everyone is Welcome!

We are committed to implementing solutions from back-of-the-napkin ideas to fully-fledged business models that emerge from The Plastika Reparabilis Challenge.

Not all Challenges are solved by industry experts.

The genius of crowdsourcing lies in tapping into previously inaccessible talent groups, whether geographically distant or segmented by industry sectors.

Proposals being submitted could be (non-exhaustive list):

• Well-defined ideas requiring additional research or planning;
• Implementation-ready strategies or projects; or
• Initiatives or best practices that have already been implemented and could be replicated elsewhere

We are searching for the Innovators most willing to work together to make plastic re-utilization collaborative and intelligent and to scale and replicate each other's solutions as winning ecosystems worldwide.

Ecosystems of solutions are Innovations that work collaboratively by complementing each other to offer a (smaller or larger), better, faster and more profitable solution to plastic tracking, collection and recycling or upcycling. Ecosystems are Innovations that if they do not complement each other, then they can use the by-product or waste from one Innovation to convert it into a product, raw material and/or revenue stream.

You will be able to select your preferred structure for intellectual property rights on the submission form.

Prizes

The Challenge offers 30 million money in cash prizes to innovative solutions for the barcoding/coding/tagging, collection, sorting, tracking and transporting of ALL types plastics from anywhere on the PLANET. 

The Challenge Sponsor will award 3 cash prizes of 10 million money each for the teams that work best together in creating a flow for a New Plastic Resource Recovery Operating System.

The currency of the prize may be in Canadian or US Dollars, in Euros or in a combination thereof the three currencies depending on the Sponsor(s) choice.

Timeline

How Do I Get Selected?

To be eligible for the next Stage and Rounds, your proposal must, at the minimum:

• Satisfy the Judging Scorecard requirements
• Thoughtfully address the Submission Form questions
• Identify yourself as synergistic or symbiotic collaborators along with others, or be willing to be placed in an ecosystem designated by the judges. You MUST collaborate with other innovators to create ecosystems of solutions

Innovators have to focus on the following:

• To win, ecosystems must:
  • complete all their respective track tests (Stage 1) Information about the tracks will be provided during the Challenge
  • demonstrate independence from, and compatibility with, the other winning systems
  • prove their energy efficiency and zero or neutral emissions operations on their own or through their ecosystem partners
  • demonstrate compatibility with and/or improvement of local collection and processing infrastructure
  • demonstrate that they can partner with start-ups and profitable companies alike as a complete system
• The Ecosystem with the fastest method and timing to (bar)code/tag, track, collect, sort, and separate ALL plastic types’ and with the most amount of plastics collected, sorted, separated and processed in the fastest time clocked in the Final Events wins. This includes bio-based plastics and solutions that provide the elimination of unnecessary plastics

Judging Criteria

Judges will be asked to evaluate proposals on the following criteria:

• Feasibility of the actions/ideas proposed in the proposal. Judges will evaluate the technical, economic, and political feasibility of the proposals.
• Noveltyof the proposal's actions/ideas. Innovative thinking and originality in a proposal will be valued more than encyclopedic/academic knowledge. In addition, judges will be encouraged to select proposals that represent a diverse range of approaches.
• Impact of proposed actions/ideas on plastic pollution (e.g. the amount of plastic waste emission reductions or the extent to which the actions counteract the effects of plastic pollution) and desirability of other impacts (e.g. economic, social, lifestyle).
• Presentation quality. Proposals that are well-presented will be favoured over those that aren't. This criterion includes how well written a proposal is, its clarity and coherence, and how well it uses graphics or other visual elements.

Additional Rules

Awarding Prizes

The highest scoring teams will be awarded a prize based on a formal judging process using the judging criteria stated in the Challenge Guidelines. The determination of the winners will be made by a group of people including technical experts, scientists, business leaders and more will select the winning Ecosystems at each Round.

Participation Eligibility

The PLASTIKA REPARABILIS CHALLENGE is open to anyone in the world, regardless of age, nationality, gender identity, cultural identity, or political viewpoint.

If you are considered a minor in your country or in the Province of BC, Canada, you will need your parent or legal guardian to register on the HeroX platform and submit your idea or solution for you.

No specific qualification or expertise in the Plastic or Waste Management Industries or field is required.

UpGyres encourages outside individuals and non-expert teams to compete and propose new solutions. To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement, which will be made available upon registration.

Registration and Submissions

• Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before the stated deadlines.
• Submissions must be in English only.

1. http://translate.google.ca
2. https://www.grammarly.com/

Selection of Winners

• Based on the winning criteria, prizes will be awarded per the Judging Criteria section above.

Intellectual Property

We use 4 common templates to structure our IP Agreements. You can choose which one you prefer.

You will be able to select your preferred structure for intellectual property rights on the submission form.

• Shared IP
• Innovator retains IP
• Transferred IP
• Open Source

Additional Information

• By participating in the challenge, each competitor agrees to submit only their original idea. Any indication of "copying" among competitors is grounds for disqualification.
• All applications will go through a process of due diligence; any application found to be a misrepresentation, plagiarized, or sharing an idea that is not their own will be automatically disqualified.
• All ineligible applicants will be automatically removed from the competition with no recourse or reimbursement.
• No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the Plastika Reparabilis collaborative competition.
• Void wherever restricted or prohibited by law.

No late submissions will be accepted.

Please use Google translate and Grammarly to effectively translate and transmit your idea clearly.