CFAs: 100+ Accelerator Program for Circular Economy

Deadline: Ongoing

Apply now for the 100+ Accelerator Program for Circular Economy to help close the loop and create a circular global economy where waste is eliminated, resources are continually circulated and nature is regenerated through new packaging systems, recycling infrastructure, and alternative food supply options.

Subchallenges

Recycling, Reuse and Returnability
Packaging Material Alternatives & Innovations
New Forms of Packaging
Upcycling
Sourcing Traceability and Reporting

Top Priorities

Recycling, Reuse and Returnability:
- Light-weight, low-carbon, high-recycled content reusable beverage packaging.
- Non-plastic alternatives for flexible packaging (e.g., bags, sachets) using home compostable materials with barrier properties. Solutions need a high moisture barrier.
- Recycle sortation tech for small packaging items, such as HDPE toothbrushes, PP closures and sachets.
- Label recycling and replacement solutions for paper/plastic materials.
- Segregated collection systems for disposable cups, small format items, and mono-material bags and pouches, especially those that include incentivization/reward.
- Eco-friendly ink innovations that maintain high line speeds.
Packaging Material Alternatives & Innovations:
- Fiber:
  - Dry molded fiber bottle coatings that maintain shelf life [high moisture barrier, grease resistance] and recyclability.
  - Barrier-forming fiber structures with moisture and oxygen resistance, compatible with fiber recycling.
  - Fiber primary packaging (bottles, pouches, pods, trays) that are recyclable or repulpable at scale with lower CO₂ footprint compared to existing options.
  - Fiber-based multipacks and multi-cycle reusable carton packaging.
- Plastic:
  - Food-grade recycled plastics (rPP, rPE) and food contact plastics with >10% recycled content. Require a high moisture barrier.
  - Sachet film technology for improved recyclability, biodegradability, compostability, as well as safe leakage to nature.
  - Replacements for non-recyclable components, including:
    - Nylon barriers in PET bottles and Bag-in-box bags.
    - Plastic blister packaging.
- Metal (Aluminum/Steel):
  - Returnable and refillable aluminum containers.
  - “Can of the future” — lid and body from the same alloy for seamless recycling and higher recycled content.
  - Aluminum purification technologies to improve recyclability and quality.
- Glass:
  - Anti-scuff coatings for returnable bottles to extend bottle life.
  - Glass strengthening technologies that enable super lightweighting.
- Other:
  - Palletization improvements, including stretch film alternatives while maintaining load stability.
  - eCommerce-ready packaging that reduces overpacking and uses high recycled content [protective packaging that prevent melting/keeps product cool].
  - Label-free visual branding technologies, such as multi-color, high-contrast direct digital printing and laser marking.
  - Use of novel materials and technologies (aluminum, steel, glass, paper, polymer, glue) to enable lightweighting and material reduction.
New Forms of Packaging:
- Refillable packaging for concentrated or dilutable products (e.g., bottles) designed for reuse, with solutions to ensure hygiene and ease of use.
- Permanent or durable containers for replacement products, with innovative approaches to address refill hygiene and cleanliness.
Upcycling:
- Palm oil, tallow, and vegetable oil substitutes from upcycled waste (e.g., spent grain, food waste) for use in surfactants and food applications. Looking for price parity with existing solutions.
- Natural, sustainable preservatives for personal and oral care products and food.
- Marketplaces and affordable processing technologies to upcycle CPG co-product streams (e.g., spent coffee/tea leaves, seeds, peels, pulp, wet/dry yeast).

Areas of Interest

Recycling, Reuse and Returnability:
- Sorting, recycling, and reuse schemes in distribution centers and wholesalers.
- Reintroduction of returnable/reusable packaging into developed markets, with traceability and trip/rotation tracking.
- Innovative recyclable PET and HDPE caps and plastic-free or recyclable label solutions (including PET).
- Solutions for amber PET recycling and PET label carrier (with silicon) recycling.
- Serialized Deposit Return Systems (Digital DRS) and collection tech, including body and end separation for cans.
- New washer/rinser solutions to extend bottle lifecycle.
- PET recycling and reuse with food-grade and barrier properties (focus on China & South Korea).
- Washing solutions to increase cullet recyclability.
- Dry washing of PCR production residues (without water use).
- Eco-friendly anti-slip hot melt as a sustainable alternative to can packing film.
- Carton recycling solutions (e.g., folding cartons, corrugated) and high-solidity recycled paper for cluster packs.
- Water-efficient and energy-efficient washing technologies to remove residues/contaminants in flexible packaging (recycling).
- Solutions for reverse logistics, such as mapping and maximizing the use of empty trucks/containers to support collection for recycling systems, sanitation systems for transporting waste or preventing leakage/contamination, mobile conversion of collected goods into raw materials.
- Recycling, treatment, or reuse of used heavy-duty truck power batteries.
- Collection programs that focus on collective action (at least four brands + retail partner) in the Global South.
- End market development alternatives for flexible packaging and other difficult to recycle items beyond hyper-local and limited solutions e.g. benches, decking, fence posts.
- HDPE rigids recycling with food-grade properties (focus on Global South).
- Circular design solutions for offline events, including but not limited to promoting sustainability through creative formats, eco-friendly materials, and material recycling.
- Smart management solution for visualizing chemical consumption.
- Organization and solution for recycling value chain (waste pickers) to build recyclable waste circularity to their own productive loop.
- Enable better sorting for new recycling streams like PET tray to tray.
- ReFill solutions in store, stations, in house, on the go focussed on homecare and personal care.
- ReUse solutions in house, store, on-the-go focussed on homecare and personal care.
- Dissolution recycling for higher quality PCR, removal of odor, color, contaminates.
- Adopting a circular approach for additional polymers: This involves incorporating more polymers like HDPE and PP into the recycling process.
- Expanding closed-loop recycling to other polymers: This includes developing food contact recycling, which requires new defined sorted streams and emphasizes the importance of the sorting step to purify streams for safe food contact recycling.
- Pouches: Monolayer film for water (PET) & dairy products recyclability
- PET bottles > 2L : Focusing on optimization to minimize material usage by technology / process to embrace optimize packaging
- Straw: Alternative to plastic & paper
- Anti-Scuff, Self healing, self sterilized coating for returnable plastic packaging (Enhancing the durability of returnable bottles)
- Smart coating for a better product consummation such as easy glide , shelf-life protection.
- Smart packaging barrier: Prevent off-notes, aroma protection, contaminant.
- Aluminum Containers coating: Design a safe, neutral coating for natural water. Prioritize traceability, hygiene, and eco-friendly materials to enhance quality and sustainability. BPA-Free coating
- Coating for Fiber based packaging: Creating forms that provide either moisture – oxygen – gas – water barriers without impact on recyclability, minimizing no-paper fraction (ideally plastic free) meeting quality standards for shelf life. Can be applied by conventional coating technology or printing or spraying technology.
- Traceability for reuse packaging: best fitting technologies without hindering recyclability (ie chemical marking, physical marking, reactive master batch, codes, washing resistance…)
Packaging Material Alternatives & Innovations:
- Fiber:
  - Carton coatings to extend shelf life without disrupting recycling streams.
  - Secondary & tertiary packaging : Developing stretch paper fiber as alternative to plastic for grouping solutions
- Plastic:
  - Alternatives to disposable plastic cups and multilayer pouches to ensure recyclability.
  - PET bottle ultra-lightweighting, focused on optimization beyond simple gram reduction. Beyond simple weight reduction, focusing on optimization to minimize material usage by technology / process & material properties.
  - Shrink-wrap alternatives.
  - Replacements for non-recyclable components, including Plastic blister packaging.
  - High PCR ring carriers or sustainable ring carrier material replacement.
  - Stretch film from recycled plastic (used for transport of pallets with finished SKUs).
  - Reusable packaging for SKU transportation: an alternative for stretch film or hoods that they can reuse when they transport their finished good SKUs to the customers.
  - Food-grade recycled plastics (rPP, rPE) and food contact plastics with >10% recycled content. If it is focused on the liner of the crown corks, otherwise they do not have plastics that are in direct contact with food.
  - Shrink alternatives: alternatives that are not made from plastic.
  - HDPE Bottle Ultra-Light Weighting: Beyond simple weight reduction, focusing on optimization to minimize material usage by technology / process & material properties.
- Metal (Aluminum/Steel):
  - Decarbonated aluminum material: Beyond simple weight reduction, focusing on optimization to minimize material usage by technology / process & material properties.
  - Can format container: Alternative to aluminum considering the design for recycling (>70%) fit for aqua-drink and natural & mineral water.
- Glass:
  - Decarbonated glass material: Glass containers (water & dairy) will have a positive impact on CO2 footprint by using new technology / process & material properties.
- Other:
  - Recycled/recyclable secondary and tertiary packaging materials.
  - Aluminium Foil Replacement Materials that maintain high moisture barrier and dead-fold properties. [Must be designed for recycling]
  - Systems – sorting, collection and recycling systems.
  - Pouches: Monolayer film for water (PET) & dairy products advancing recyclability and biodegradability/compostability.
  - AI for recycling (sorting, control, characterization, valorization potential)
  - Dissolution recycling technology.
  - Alternatives for plastic for flexible packaging like sachets and pouches (including ink.
  - Food contact barrier, fiber, ink, adhesives, sealants and outside barrier.
  - Label Alternatives & Multi-Colors/High Contrast Solutions: Exploring label-free packaging options. Beyond traditional labeling, using technologies like direct digital printing and laser marking.
  - Alternatives to dairy pots: Technology allows low plastic & low carbon solution as an alternative to dairy classic pots.
  - Simulation and analysis of packaging material performance and transportation conditions.
New Forms of Packaging:
- Novel functional barriers (low moisture vapor and oxygen transmission rates) with good sealability and acceptable end of life (recyclability, compostability).
Upcycling:
- Renewable or recycled carbon-based ingredients (non-fossil derived), including CO₂ for carbonation and surfactants for cleaning products.
- Low-cost, sulfate-free and natural surfactant technologies.
- Biological or chemical processes to extract high-value compounds for skincare, pharmaceuticals, and wellness products.
- New formulations for sports nutrition, hydration sticks, endurance gels, and dairy alternatives with higher plant protein content.
- Solutions for recycling aerobic sludge.
- Biobased cleaning and disinfection products suitable for beer production.
- Innovative soil-free filtration technology as an alternative to diatomaceous earth.
- Precision fermentation – cocoa, tropical fats and protein alternatives. (process to drive efficiency, yield, outcome).
- Low cost, sustainable Plant-Based Protein (with sensory neutrality: color, texture, aroma, taste /Lipids; alternatives for Dairy Footprint Reduction [currently mostly used from dairy, some grains].
- Upcycled Functional Ingredients from Agricultural Waste Valorization for enhanced nutrition (these could be fiber, antioxidants, prebiotics, proteins, essential fatty acids) or product performance (natural preservatives, stabilizers, emulsifiers, etc) [clean label].
- Identify and control when key metabolites are formed/cells are ready for harvest [Plant tissue culture / Microbial fermentation]
- Advanced sensor and controls for bioreactors (in line).
- Low cost, sustainable, abundant sources of/technologies that can liberate simple sugars as fermentation feedstock.
- (Clean label) Antibiotics, antimycotics etc. That can be used in food grade plant tissue culture. Aid the reduction/simplification of sterility requirements and associated CAPEX
- New technology for accelerating solid-liquid separation of waste yeast using enzymes.
- Processing technologies that turn their co-products into (new) ingredients for various food applications (focus on dairy by-streams such as acid whey, ultrafiltration permeate (UF), lactose streams).
- Technologies for efficient (lower energy consumption) to dry sludge.
- Opportunity to valorize manufacturing effluent sludge with dairy residues
- Liquid alkali recovery innovation
Sourcing Traceability and Reporting:
- Digital technologies or services that enable traceability of materials collected for recycling, whether from household, landfill or other.
- Solutions for delivering responsibly sourced recycled content including increased pricing transparency, monitoring of collection sites and audit capabilities.

Benefits

The 100+ Accelerator will provide support, guidance and access to potential funding through:
- Pilot customer opportunities with the six corporate partners:
  - AB InBev, The Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mondelez International, and Unilever (including the potential to scale company-wide)
- Active mentorship, training, and programming in product development, go-to-market, operations, sales, and more
- Top mentor network of scientists, academics, domain experts, venture capitalists, corporate sustainability leaders, etc.
- Potential funding from Partner Companies and their networks

Eligibility Criteria

Open to all. Challenges were developed with input from subject matter experts from their partner companies around the world to make sure they are focused on local issues that need to be addressed. They are seeking startups from around the world to answer the challenges and are eager to identify technologies and best practices that can be shared across their businesses and beyond.

For more information, visit Anheuser-Busch InBev.