Now in its third year, the 2025 Circular Plastics Challenge has once again rallied innovators, students, and professionals from around the world to tackle one of the planet’s most pressing sustainability issues: plastic waste. With over 500 global participants, this dynamic program—powered by Net Impact in partnership with Hillenbrand and The Coca-Cola Company—is accelerating the shift toward a circular economy by inspiring early-stage yet bold, scalable solutions that rethink how plastics are generated, used, and disposed of. As momentum builds, the Challenge continues to be a proving ground for the next generation of changemakers committed to transforming systems for good.
Net Impact and its partners are delighted to introduce this year’s top five teams and honorable mentions, who were selected out of over 50 teams. This year’s challenge question focused on how we might develop business concepts that leverage the use of artificial intelligence in order to drive material circulation and reduce plastic waste.
Meet this Year’s Top 5 Teams
The following are high level descriptions of the team’s business concepts. Each of these teams will work with a pre-assigned subject matter expert mentor to refine their solution and final pitch. The top 5 teams will pitch their concepts to a panel of final judges in June 2025.
Eckeka
Eckeka is an AI-powered tool that aims to deliver value throughout the entire plastic value chain pre-, during- and post- consumer. The tool enables businesses to track their plastic footprint and predict the financial and environmental costs of different plastic packaging. It supports the consumer with reward programs for responsible plastic disposal and supports the post-consumer use through empowering informal waste-pickers to access verified buyers and fair pricing. Eckeka is led by Janerose Gatobu and Enoch Kambale and based in Kenya. The team is mentored by Lisa van der Vorst, a Senior Sales Director at Mold-Masters, a Hillenbrand Company.
LooPlast
LooPlast is a digital platform that brings together MRFs, recyclers, and consumer brands to create a transparent and efficient recycling economy, transforming the currently fragmented system into an interconnected, data-driven ecosystem. This platform provides a dynamic pricing model, ESG traceability, municipality-level transparency, and open data access for academia. This data, processed through the AI robots in MRFs, is then integrated into a centralized Data Management Center. Integrating the real-time supply data from the Data Management Center and demand information from companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, based on their production forecasts, will provide the intelligent pricing model that fills a huge market gap. The team is led by Gaurav Kumar, Warren LaForest, and Elizabeth Bradshaw from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business, and mentored by Bailey Little, Senior Manager, Sustainability & Transformation at The Coca-Cola Company.
Polysorter
Polysorter integrates three cutting-edge technologies: AI-powered scanning, robotic sorting arms, and ultrasonic cleaning. Polysorter is designed to be integrated into the advanced sorting process of recycling, positioned between initial material separation and final quality control. By replacing traditional sorting technologies, Polysorter ensures higher sorting accuracy, reduced contamination, and an increase in the volume of high-quality PCR available for use in manufacturing. The team is led by James Wang, Nuria Escriva Garcia, Kipp Joseph Sande, and Stephen Gregory Kostka from the University of California, Berkeley. The team is mentored by Maxim Ruff, Sales Manager, Coperion, a Hillenbrand Company.
ReVera
ReVera is an accreditation and data analytics platform designed as a centralized intelligence hub for improving circularity and operational efficiency throughout the plastics value chain. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain-based certification, and real-time data analytics, ReVera connects recyclers, manufacturers, and retailers to create a more transparent and reliable Post-Consumer Resin (PCR) market. The team is led by Maggie Moellering, Emily Krantz, Nicole Mammano, and Naomi Stern from Presidio Graduate School in San Anselmo, California. The team is mentored by Mark Rasberry, Senior Director, Digital Workplace Solutions & UX at The Coca-Cola Company.
Voices of Change
Voices of Change is an initiative that aims to utilize AI-powered waste management systems to revolutionize plastic recycling and preserve the Manguo Wetlands in Kenya. At wetland sites, smart bins equipped with machine learning and image recognition will identify, sort, and log plastic waste in real time, minimizing contamination and improving efficiency.This system is designed to recover high-value materials for reuse and feed data into a digital platform that tracks recovery rates, waste hotspots, and bin fill levels—optimizing collection routes and reducing carbon emissions. The team is led by Tex Wambui, Gabriel Martinez, and Hussein Waiaki, and mentored by Taylor Royer, Manager, Global Packaging Development & Innovation - Sustainability at The Coca Cola Company.
Honorable Mention - OptiPak
While the following teams did not advance into the finals stage of the Challenge, their applications were exceptionally well done.
OptiPack is an artificial intelligence-powered computer-aided design platform that aims to reduce plastic usage while ensuring product integrity by applying sophisticated optimization techniques. Utilizing topology optimization, generative design, and finite element analysis (FEA) techniques, OptiPack enables engineers to design packaging solutions with minimal plastic consumption but intact packaging structural integrity. OptiPack uses artificial intelligence to model real-world conditions such as stacking, vibrations, and impacts that occur during transportation and thus independently suggests material-efficient designs. OptiPak is led by Anuva Wardah and Farhan Mukit of Stony Brook University.
The Net Impact team wishes to thank everyone who submitted their ideas for this year’s Challenge, and congratulate the top five teams and honorable mentions! The top five teams will pitch their ideas to the final judging panel at the final showcase for a chance to win the $5,000 grand prize. The first, second, and third-place teams will be announced publicly shortly after the final showcase. Read more about this year’s partnership here.
