In June 2024, UMACS awarded $12,000 grants to Bemidji State University (MN), Central Community College (NE) and Northern Michigan University to conduct a Circularity Assessment in their local community this summer and/or fall. Awardees will use a standardized protocol to collect community-level data that serves as a snapshot for both making decisions about interventions and quantifying the impacts from interventions on the ground to reduce waste leakage and increase circular materials management. Funding is provided from Sphericity, through a National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator grant.
The Jambeck Research Group in the New Materials Institute at the University of Georgia (UGA) developed the Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP). In Phase I of a National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator grant, UGA’s CAP team began working with a team at the University of Pittsburgh and formed SpheriCity.
The Jambeck Research Group in the New Materials Institute at the University of Georgia (UGA) developed the Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP). In Phase I of a National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator grant, UGA’s CAP team began working with a team at the University of Pittsburgh and formed SpheriCity.
SpheriCity then created the first Converged CAP framework and expanded the material to include plastics, organics, and molecules (PFAS). The build environment CAP framework is in the process of being developed.
More details about the grant and its required deliverables can be found in this Scope of Work, and you can learn more about Sphericity here. To see examples of how conducting a CAP has benefitted communities, please scroll down for some examples.
More details about the grant and its required deliverables can be found in this Scope of Work, and you can learn more about Sphericity here. To see examples of how conducting a CAP has benefitted communities, please scroll down for some examples.
IMPORTANT DATES
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SELECTION CRITERIAProposals will be reviewed by four UMACS Steering Committee members and Sphericity staff based on the following criteria:
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How much time do you think this project will take?
SpheriCity has done a lot of CAPs, but the number of hours it takes has really depended on the number of people involved. A rough estimate is:
What are the questions on the Grant application?
Here is a list of all the questions that you will find on the application. (Carrie, I’ll send you a PDF to upload)
Does the grant mainly provide funding for staff time or materials?
There are few materials needed for this project, so it is likely that you will want to use most of the grant for staff time, student stipend, community partner honorarium etc.
The grant says they want data collected by December- how flexible is that deadline? Is this something that could be started next summer?
At this time, we will only fund projects that can complete the project by December 2024. It is SpheriCity’s hope that there may be additional funds for campus grants in the future. If this timeline does not work for you but you would be interested in future grants, please email [email protected] so that we are able to convey to possible funders how many campuses are interested.
Would you like to see the application questions in advance? Click HERE
SpheriCity has done a lot of CAPs, but the number of hours it takes has really depended on the number of people involved. A rough estimate is:
- Pre-prep work: Maximum 10 hours
- Training 10-15 hours
- Fieldwork: approximately 60 hours (split up with multiple people)
- Data/analysis/report engagement: approximately 20 hours.
What are the questions on the Grant application?
Here is a list of all the questions that you will find on the application. (Carrie, I’ll send you a PDF to upload)
Does the grant mainly provide funding for staff time or materials?
There are few materials needed for this project, so it is likely that you will want to use most of the grant for staff time, student stipend, community partner honorarium etc.
The grant says they want data collected by December- how flexible is that deadline? Is this something that could be started next summer?
At this time, we will only fund projects that can complete the project by December 2024. It is SpheriCity’s hope that there may be additional funds for campus grants in the future. If this timeline does not work for you but you would be interested in future grants, please email [email protected] so that we are able to convey to possible funders how many campuses are interested.
Would you like to see the application questions in advance? Click HERE
BENEFITS OF CONDUCTING A CAP
Data from conducting a CAP can be used in many ways. It is common to use the leakage data to apply for grants, in workshop conversations, grant applications, city planning, stormwater planning, etc. Check out some of the specific examples below.
Hilo, Hawaii
Multiple cities that conducted a CAP in are working with Perpetual to put in reuse systems – and Hilo was awarded a 1.5 million SWIFER grant to do this. They are doing a CAP before they put in the system and a CAP after to evaluate the impacts on the ground.
Miami, Florida
Conducting the CAP provided a better understanding of the plastic pollution in a United States-based riverine, urban and coastal environment. The CAP results were used in stormwater management design guidelines and to identify local policy actions that will empower local communities to take action and reimagine a healthier and more accessible Miami and Biscayne Bay. You can learn more here.
Seychelles
This island had policies to ban single-use plastic in place, but allowed compostable plastics, which we found in stores and the environment. However, they did not have composting infrastructure, and they were unaware that these items would not biodegrade in the environment. They also changed the way the waste pickers in the community were referenced (they were previously referenced as scavengers).
Blytheville, Arkansas & Vicksburg, Mississippi
Sphericity finds that often there is a mismatch between products/design and infrastructure, both in plastics and alternatives. These cities along the Mississippi River do not have composting or litter recycling. They are now trying to find ways to aggregate and recycle themselves in partnership with Replenysh.
Semarang
Semarang learned they could reduce overall litter by 29% and 32% (by item count) if it eliminated cigarette and all tobacco products litter, respectively. The collected waste composition in Semarang is ∼60% organic material, and 79% of litter was plastic, including 50% FMCG products such as plastic food wrappers, tobacco packaging, bottles, and caps. Stakeholder interviews indicated that source separation of waste, which increases the value of recycling and results in more effective waste management, is a challenge, and the local landfill is rapidly reaching capacity. Moving up the lifecycle from leakage to collection, implementing and enforcing source separation could encourage reuse of durable products, maximize collection, and increase efficiency of the waste system. Measures that put responsibility on producers and brands to work with communities to rethink product packaging, redesign product delivery systems to minimize waste, and implement schemes to recapture packaging could have a transformative impact on the local circular economy for plastic products in Semarang. Semarang proposed an integrated SWM model that leverages community-based management and waste banks to increase collection and equitable economic growth.
Melaka & Chennai
Melaka could reduce litter by 8% if it eliminated litter of all Unnecessary, Avoidable, and Problematic (UAP) Plastic (US Plastics Pact, 2022), by 11% if it eliminated litter of plastic food wrappers, by 32% if it eliminated litter of cigarettes, and by 34% if it eliminated litter of cigarettes and all other tobacco products. Chennai reported similar percentages for potential litter reduction. However, those interventions would mainly impact the leakage spoke of the CAP. An intervention such as source separation of waste could immediately impact collection, end of cycle, and leakage but indirectly impact other spokes such as input and product design. Litter prevention coupled with upstream interventions, such as replacing UAP items with a city-wide reuse system or halting sales of MLP items, could impact other CAP spokes through reduced input of UAP items into the city, incentives for innovations in product design, increased reuse by the community, less recycling contamination, and increased efficiency of WM (Fig. 4c). Melaka plans to create a clean river and coastal area by enhancing recycling infrastructure, building upon governance frameworks and policies, and increasing education, with a focus on single-use and MLP.
Can Tho
Can Tho could reduce overall litter by 29% and 33% if it eliminated cigarette or all tobacco litter, respectively. If the city were to implement a behavior change campaign or policy to reduce the use of tobacco products, this would likely improve community health, enhance collection, and improve WM with less multi-material packaging ending up in the waste stream. In Can Tho, rethinking design and delivery of tobacco products could impact every CAP spoke, e.g., 20% of MLP film documented among FMCG products came from tobacco products, and top tobacco products had the lowest average and median distance between stores and manufacturing plants, suggesting that local EPR could reduce plastic packaging and incentivize recapture and redesign (Fig. 4d).
Panama City
The main landfill that services Panama City is anticipated to reach capacity in 2022 and poses human and environmental health threats (Torrente-Velásquez et al., 2019). Increasing PET recycling may help decrease litter and increase collection and management by diverting from landfill. Basura Cero is a public–private partnership that placed recycling drop-off locations throughout Panama City (Alcaldía de Panamá, 2018; ANCON, 2019). The highest density of public waste bins and the highest percentage of overflow (60%) were observed in Panama City, suggesting that enhancing maintenance of public waste bins could impact collection, WM, and litter in the city. Looking upstream to EPR, 22% of manufacturers and 17% of parent companies for FMCG products in Panama City were based within Panama. Most FMCG packaging (68%, including 98% of snack products) was some form of plastic film, a top litter item in Panama City. CAP data suggested that domestic products are more popular among local consumers, which could allow for increased circularity within Panama and opportunities for EPR (Fig. 4e). Panama City intends to increase recovery of recyclables, starting with innovative processing technology for waste traps in local rivers.
You can learn more about some of these projects and others here.