The competition looks to recognise people and organisations with innovative ideas to promote recycling, sustainability, educational awareness or waste reduction.
Applicants submitted 60 to 90 second video clips explaining their concepts which were then judged on creativity and clarity of message – illustrating success stories and educational outreach. Each of the 20 winners will receive $500.
They include Chelmsford College in England which won for its various recycling initiatives, including “The Pringles Tub Recycling Programme” and green community app Nexus.
Ranjit Baxi, founding president of the GRF, said: “On this Global Recycling Day let us all pledge to share and promote recycling as an integral part of the Global Circular Economy.
“The danger is that the circular economy becomes regionalised by overarching regulatory controls and increasing protectionism, instead we must work together to allow free and fair global trade as we are contributing to global environmental benefits.
“We need to promote the three Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – as our fundamental drivers. I am heartened by the number of entries in our Recycling Heroes competition which have focused on the use of plastic. They all recognise that we must eradicate single use plastic.
“Recycling saves over a billion tons of Carbon Emissions each year and these savings need to be translated into easily tradeable Carbon or Plastic Credits. We need to agree on harmonised Carbon Credit methodologies that can be easily applied across all recyclables – plastic, paper, metals, tyres and textiles.
“It is high time that world leaders recognise recycling and place it high on the agenda at the COP30 in Brazil as part of Article 6 discussions.”
2025 Recycling Heroes
See the full list of winners here:
- Cartridge Depot, South Africa
- Chelmsford College, England
- Clean Circle Limited, Cameroon
- Ecoact, Tanzania
- Erni Suhaina Fadzry of Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council, Indonesia
- Evan J Schwartz of AMCS Group, North Carolina, USA
- Going green Dubai, UAE
- GreenLite Solutions, Nigeria
- Ittisha Sarah, Founder of Northeast Waste Collective and Director of Azure Lotus Foundation, Assam / India
- Lennart Osthoff of Repartly, Gütersloh, Germany
- Mercy Amarachukwu Abayomi of Ama Shop It, Nigeria
- Mosquito-Shield Potpourri, Uganda
- Princes Town West Secondary School, Trinidad and Tobago.
- Project Kaagaz, promoting Paper recycling by Learning Paths School, Mohali, Punjab, India
- Robinsons Malls, Philippines
- Sabine Janneck of Circle Cook Island
- Safisana, Ghana/Tema
- The Koru Foundation, India
- Torre Plstik, Portugal
- Toys up, Netherlands
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