14th Cohort Announcement

We are pleased to announce the 14th cohort for NextCycle Michigan, representing solutions for organic material recovery and recycling technologies.

The teams attended a two-day academy in late January, where they met NextCycle coaches, networked with peer teams, and participated in project planning sessions. The teams will receive operational and technical support to move their projects toward implementation. The program will culminate with a showcase in late June – watch for more details in the coming weeks.

RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES

• Carbon Free Earth (Muskegon, MI): Recycling wind turbine blades into lightweight aggregate for redi-mix and pre-cast concretes.

• Cold Spark (Longmont, CO): Deploying decentralized, super-cooled cryomilling technology to safely and efficiently recover 99% of critical materials from spent EV batteries and e-waste.

• Driven Plastics (Pueblo, CO): Establishing a Michigan hub to upcycle post-consumer polyethylene film into a performance-enhancing additive for hot mix asphalt.

• Hyphae Composites (Chicago, IL): Building a reprocessing solution for post-industrial plastic extrusion and injection molding scrap.

• Reclamation Factory (Pittsburgh, PA): Developing a multi-modal sorting technology that uses acoustic signatures to sort recyclable plastics.

• RokPaper Packaging (Phoenix, AZ): Building a facility in Michigan to produce a recycled-paper-based foam that replaces plastic packaging foams.

• Spaceship Earth Renewables (Pittsburgh, PA): Developing technology to recycle post-consumer/-industrial flexible foam, like that found in mattresses, into high-value functional additives that can be used in new products across multiple industries.

• Sun Sugar Farms (Verona, KY): Marketing compostable and biodegradable paperboard containers to replace plastic produce clamshells.

ORGANIC SOLUTIONS

• Carter’s Compost (Traverse City, MI): Creating rural community drop-off programs to offer food waste collection for composting.

• Detroit Bio Loop (Detroit, MI): Piloting a black soldier fly composting system utilizing institutional (e.g., hospital, airport, university, etc.) organic waste.

• FoodPLUS Detroit (Detroit, MI): Developing a composting network where food waste generated in Detroit is collected and delivered to Detroit-based urban farm compost operations.

• Greenstreet Tree Care (Dexter, MI): Developing the first municipal log recovery yard in Michigan that will transform wood waste into long-lived lumber, soil-improving biochar, clean mulch, and firewood.

• Northern Michigan University (Marquette, MI): Expanding post-consumer composting across campus.

• Partridge Creek Compost (Ishpeming, MI): Seeking engagement with Marquette County municipalities to increase access to composting in the county.

• Takachar (Petaluma, CA): Deploying small-scale, low-cost, portable systems to densify crop and forest residues into higher-value biobased products.

• Washtenaw County Materials Management Division (Ann Arbor, MI): Creating a roadmap to dramatically increase residential access to food scrap composting throughout the county.

You can learn more about each team and find links to contact them via email or visit their websites on the NextCycle Michigan Teams webpage.