Celbrating Circularity Through Innovation and Collaboration
NextCycle Michigan spotlights solutions that divert materials from landfills and bring solutions to Michigan’s circular economy.
Traverse City Mayor Amy Shamroe shared remarks focused on the blue-green economy during the recent NextCycle Michigan Summer Showcase held on June 24th at the City Opera House in Traverse City. Shamroe emphasized Michigan as the place to drive economic growth while preserving natural ecosystems. The mayor also highlighted several Traverse City-based NextCycle connections with proven impact, including Carter’s Compost, which creates rural community drop-off programs; SEEDS, which provides nature-based education and environmental workforce development; and Grove Incubator, which operates collaborative workspaces and facilitates peer support networks.
The showcase is the culminating event for NextCycle Michigan, funded through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). The accelerator, celebrating five years of programming, provides operational and technical support to advance projects and businesses that divert material from landfills and bring solutions to expand Michigan’s circular economy. Since its inception, NextCycle Michigan has supported 171 teams across 21 cohorts. NextCycle solutions are uniquely designed to meet local needs, have a measurable impact on recovering materials, and be financially sustainable.
"What's most important is accessibility and convenience; we want to meet people where they are to increase use," said Megan Alexander with Carter’s Compost.
The showcase was split into two groups: seven teams with recycling technology solutions and eight teams with organic material solutions. Each team had five minutes to pitch their initiative to a judging panel of business and material recovery experts. Judges asked questions and provided feedback to each team before assessing scores and determining awards. Available awards for each group included a $5,000 Best Pitch award selected by the judging panel and a $1,500 People’s Choice award voted on by the live audience. This showcase also featured two $9,000 Innovation awards funded by DTE.
The 2026 Summer Showcase winners:
Best Pitch – Recycling Technologies: RokPaper (Phoenix, AZ) - Building a facility in Michigan to produce a recycled-paper-based foam that replaces plastic packaging foams.
People’s Choice – Recycling Technologies: Sun Sugar Farms (Verona, KY) - Marketing compostable and biodegradable paperboard containers to replace plastic produce clamshells.
Best Pitch – Organic Material Solutions: 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.
People’s Choice – Organic Material Solutions: Carter’s Compost (Traverse City, MI) - Creating rural community drop-off programs to offer food waste collection for composting.
DTE Innovation Award: 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.
DTE Innovation Award: Carbon Free Earth(Muskegon, MI) - Recycling wind turbine blades into lightweight aggregate for redi-mix and pre-cast concretes.
Tracy Kecskemeti, materials management division director with EGLE, emphasized the state’s dedication to supporting circular initiatives by providing $50.7M in recycling and circular economy grants over the last 5 years.
“We’re also seeing incredible attraction to the state. Just today, nearly half of the teams are from out of state who are bringing solutions which can create jobs, fill recovery gaps, and help us meet our goals in Michigan,” said Kecskemeti.
At the conclusion of the showcase, Kecskemeti, along with Julie Staveland, assistant division director at EGLE, awarded every team a $5,000 Harvest Grant to further their initiatives and strengthen Michigan’s circular economy.
Special thanks were extended to the Summer Showcase sponsors, including DTE, RRS, Consumers Energy, the Michigan Recycling Coalition, the Michigan Organics Council, and Petoskey Plastics.
Opportunities through NextCycle Michigan continue. An application period has opened, seeking solutions for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Initiatives can include repurposing EV batteries to power portable energy stations, dismantling batteries to recover critical minerals, and other innovative processes that collect, discharge, reuse, recover or recycle end-of-life batteries and components. A virtual information meeting will be held on July 16, 2026, at 12:00 pm EST, to provide an opportunity for potential teams to ask questions about supported project types, eligibility, the application portal, selection criteria and more. Deadline for EV battery accelerator applications is August 7, 2026. More information can be found at www.nextcyclemichigan.com/apply-ev-battery-recycling-accelerator.
NextCycle Michigan will have another application round in Fall 2026 for organic material solutions and recycling technology initiatives. More information will be posted on the NextCycle Michigan website and LinkedIn page.