The Western Placer Waste Management Authority awarded a total of $22,000 in prize money to three competitors in its competition, managed by the Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, Sacramento.
ROSEVILLE, CALIF. – The Western Placer Waste Management Authority (WPWMA) and Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship announced the winner of the third annual Circular Economy Innovation Competition as CRDC Global, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturing company that utilizes Plastics #1-7 to create a lightweight aggregate material for use in concrete and asphalt applications.
CRDC, which stands for the Center for Regenerative Design and Collaboration, produces RESIN8TM, a breakthrough lightweight material derived from hard-to-recycle plastics that otherwise would end up disposed in landfills.
“The core focus of the Circular Economy Innovation Competition and the WPWMA’s larger circular economy goals is to utilize material that would otherwise end up in our landfill and transform it into a new, reused product,” said Emily Hoffman, WPWMA Public Information Officer. “CRDC Global’s innovation will help us directly achieve this goal taking a traditionally difficult-to-recycle stream and recycling it into an extremely beneficial product for our growing community.”
The finalist pitch competition was held on Wednesday, April 16 at the Roseville Venture Lab, a public-private partnership between the Growth Factory and the City of Roseville. Eight finalists pitched their innovations to a panel of judges including WPWMA Board Members, Lincoln Councilmember John Reedy and Rocklin Councilmember Bill Halldin; Will Dickinson, former WPWMA Deputy Director and current SPMUD Board Member; Laura Gonzalez-Ospina, Waste and Sustainability Analyst at California State University, Sacramento; Cheryl Beninga, Co-founder of FourthWave; and Thomas Hall, Executive Director of CleanStart.
In addition to awarding $20,000 to CRDC Global, the judges decided to award an additional $1,000 Innovator Award each to two finalists: Lorna M Designs, a Fair Oaks-based company that recycles textiles, rubber, and plastic waste into high-quality backpacks, purses and wallets; and FLUID, a Rancho Cordova-based company that recycles textile waste into products for pets including beds and toys.
The focus of this competition is to catalyze a group of early-stage ventures by elevating their startups and providing capacity to refine their concepts and messages through mentorships and training provided by the Carlsen Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and ultimately the opportunity to compete for funding.
The 2024 competition winner was Fiber Global, an Indiana-based manufacturing startup that recycles cardboard into medium-density fiberboards (MDF). Additionally, in 2024 the competition judges elected to award a $5,000 Innovator Award to Sierra College student-led ECO-Builder which recycles plastic waste into building materials.
“The Carlsen Center and Sacramento State have been wonderful partners to the WPWMA throughout the three years of the competition and we look forward to seeing how our collaboration progresses as the Placer Center is constructed in the coming years,” said Hoffman.
In addition to continuing to support the Circular Economy Innovation Competition, the WPWMA’s Board of Directors also approved funding research projects for Sacramento State faculty related to the circular economy and other forward-looking challenges for the solid waste and recycling industry.
The Circular Economy Innovation Competition has been one of the first steps in the WPWMA’s goals to foster a local circular economy on their campus. The agency has reserved nearly 250 acres of their 1,000-acre site for siting recycling manufacturing and energy generating businesses that will take the WPWMA’s products as feedstock and transform them into new materials or other beneficial use. The competition winners and other existing companies looking to site operations in Placer County will have access to this circular economy and R&D business park. The agency is in the planning phase of this development but anticipates construction of backbone utility infrastructure and other site improvements on this portion of their site to begin in 2026.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines the World’s current economy as a ‘linear’ system, where materials are procured from the Earth to make products and then are eventually disposed. A circular economy vastly contrasts as it aims to stop waste from being produced in the first place. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has based their circular economy model off of three principles – to eliminate waste and pollution, to circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and to regenerate nature.
These ideals are central to the goals of the WPWMA’s Renewable Placer Waste Action Plan and will be enhanced by the WPWMA’s $120 million facility improvement project due to be completed in June that will introduce new state-of-the-art recycling technologies and nearly triple the amount of recyclable material recovered from Placer County’s waste.
Learn more about the Renewable Placer Waste Action Plan and the innovations coming to the Western Placer Waste Management Authority at RenewablePlacer.com.
