SABIC Launches CIRCUL-A-THON Challenge Awarding Designs for Circularity in Partnership with Plug and Play

Plug and Play has partnered with SABIC, a global leader in the chemicals industry, to launch the CIRCUL-A-THON challenge to engage with creative and visionary designers in the quest to find solutions facing the future of circularity. The challenge will focus on industrial designs for real-life products having ease of reuse and recyclability of plastics throughout their life cycles.

“Our circular economy journey at SABIC is demonstrated through the TRUCIRCLETM portfolio and services with Design for Circularity being a pillar. By launching CIRCUL-A-THON, we invite innovators in the industrial design space to an exciting platform in order to contribute their ideas which can bolster the sustainability vision endeavors,” commented Dr. Waleed Al-Shalfan, Vice President of Polymers Technology and Innovation at SABIC.

A SABIC initiative that started in 2001 continues today with SABIC’s CIRCUL-A-THON to address the future of circularity in plastics for various industries. The challenge will reward the winning designers of both student and professional level. The designs will mainly focus on four industry themes in packaging, transportation, healthcare, and electronics that are facing the demanding challenges on sustainable development.

This partnership is in alignment with Plug and Play’s broader sustainability initiative. Plug and Play Sustainability brings together game-changing ideas from different industries and countries on one platform to solve some of the greatest environmental challenges our society faces today.

“We’re really excited to kick off the CIRCUL-A-THON challenge with an industry leader like SABIC. At Plug and Play, we believe that when we bring together the ideas of students and professionals from different backgrounds to solve the challenges of circularity, we will find the necessary solutions to effect a change,” said Plug and Play Corporate Partnerships Manager Omer Alparslan.

SABIC has committed to accelerate the circular economy with its advantage and know-how in the plastic industry. The CIRCUL-A-THON challenge is in alignment with SABIC’s priorities to engage with the whole value chain to take the challenges of creating reusable and recyclable products in the key focused industries segments. By awarding the inspiring and creative ideas from the designers, SABIC is able to further value the opportunities and explore future application and solutions that may push the circular economy of the whole plastic industry.

The CIRCUL-A-THON submission portal will be open until April 1, 2023. Designers, students, professionals, and startups who are interested in submitting a design to this challenge can apply here: https://circulathon-by-sabic.pnptc.com/

About SABIC

SABIC is a global diversified chemicals company headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It manufactures globally in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, making distinctly different kinds of products such as chemicals, commodity and high-performance plastics, agri-nutrients, and metals.

SABIC supports its customers by identifying and developing opportunities in key end-use applications such as construction, medical devices, packaging, agri-nutrients, electrical and electronics, transportation, and clean energy. SABIC recorded a net profit of SR 23bn ($6.15bn) in 2021. Sales revenues for 2021 totaled SR 174 bn ($46.6 bn). Total assets stood at SR 318bn ($84.9bn) at the end of 2021. Production in 2021 alone stood at 58 mm metric tons.

The company has 31,000+ employees worldwide and operates in 50 countries. Fostering innovation and a spirit of ingenuity, SABIC has 10,090 patents and pending applications and has significant research resources with innovation hubs in five key geographies – the US, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and North Asia.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we’re present in 50+ locations across five continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we’ve invested in hundreds of successful companies, including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/