We are proud to announce SmartC (also known as Connected-USE), as a winner of the Beyond the Bag innovation challenge, presented by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners and the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag.

 

We currently use 100 billion plastic bags per year in the U.S. alone and less than 10 percent are recycled. Single-use plastic bags continue to be one of the top 10 items found on beaches, contributing to a global waste issue. 

 

The Beyond the Bag challenge is a critical part of the Consortium’s multi-year Beyond the Bag Initiative, led by Closed Loop Partners and Founding Partners, CVS Health, Target, and Walmart, to identify and scale sustainable alternatives to the single-use plastic retail bag.  The ultimate goal is to drive transformational change that positively impacts people, businesses, and the planet.

 

Our SmartC solution was selected from more than 450 submissions around the world, alongside eight other innovators. We will now move into the next phase of the project: testing the viability of our design.

 

Over the next year, the Consortium will work closely with winning solutions throughout 2021, supporting prototyping, mentoring, and iterative developments toward piloting select solutions in-market. 

 

Read more about the project here https://www.closedlooppartners.com/beyond-the-bag-innovations/