Traverse City hosted a pitch competition this week for local, state and national solutions to diverting waste from landfills.
NextCycle Michigan — an initiative of the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy — brought together businesses to compete for investors, funding and partners for recycling efforts that spanned from composting food in Detroit’s urban farms to reusing materials from decommissioned wind turbine blades.
This story is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Fifteen teams had five minutes to pitch their solution, then five minutes to answer questions from judges. “It’s very ‘Shark Tank’-esque,” said Elisa Seltzer, program director for NextCycle and a senior consultant with Resource Recycling Systems.
Carter’s Compost, based in Traverse City, was one of the teams participating. Owner Megan Alexander pitched her idea to expand food waste collection from downtown to surrounding rural areas through a network of collection boxes.
She said her idea could be replicated in other rural areas.
“Every banana peel counts,” Alexander said. “If you have everybody in every rural region doing this, we will hit goals that will benefit everyone across the world.”
Her company won the $1,500 People’s Choice Award, thanks to audience votes. Plus, the state awarded $5,000 to all participating teams.
The Traverse City event was the state’s tenth showcase, and the first hosted in northern Michigan. Local and state officials said it was a fitting location given the region’s work in food waste management.
“Rural communities can develop systems to ensure that food waste makes its way back into the soil rather than into a hole in the ground,” said Matt Flechter, a recycling market development specialist for EGLE and a Traverse City resident. “I think that we should all be proud that northern Michigan is showing that leadership.”
Bringing the competition to the region “really is just reflective of the values that are embedded in our respective communities,” said Lindsey Walker, who runs recycling outreach and market development for Emmet County Recycling.
Walker was a judge for the teams focused on reducing food waste — half the pitches at showcase were on these solutions.
That’s because food waste is the single largest source of materials that ends up in Michigan landfills and waste-to-energy facilities each year, according to state data. As much as 1.5 million tons of organic materials is wasted in Michigan annually. This also adds an estimated more than 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to our atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
“We have so many materials that are just too good to waste,” Walker said.
With teams from across the state and country, Traverse City Mayor Amy Shamroe said events like this can bring new ideas to the local community.
“No communities are as unique or as isolated as they sometimes think they are,” Shamroe said. “But how everybody approaches it is really different, and that's where really great inspiration can come from.”
Some teams applied to NextCycle Michigan to look for pilot partners in the state, like Georgia Crowther, CEO of Reclamation Factory based in Pittsburgh. The company uses sound sensors and AI technology to improve the process of sorting different types of plastic.
Crowther said these pitch competitions are a reminder that new solutions require initial investment. A lot of older technology like cameras or computers are only relatively inexpensive now because someone put money into them.
“If you want these technologies to be cheap and widely accessible, and the status quo, you need to invest in them now for that future,” she said.
Others at NextCycle are seeking funding to jumpstart their projects, like Meghan Maas, a student at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. She pitched an interactive system connected to campus trash cans that would teach people about where their waste goes.
“A lot of what I stand for is rural leadership and proving that small communities can still make sustainable change,” she said.
