“Design for Circularity” Art & Design Competition

Dow, LOVERE, an internet environmental tech company, YCJ, a non-profit art organisation, and Procter & Gamble (P&G) are jointly organising the first "Design for Circularity” Art & Design Competition in China. This competition seeks to call for creative ideas to accelerate the development of a circular economy for plastics in the country.

The competition is open to university students and professionals in the field of design. With expertise from the organizers and value-chain partners, this initiative aims to share the knowledge on recycled plastics with young designers to encourage them to creatively utilize recycled plastics as raw materials for various applications.

Partners in this initiative will also commit to commercializing outstanding works from the competition – transforming them from drawings and concepts into actual products for consumers’ use, illustrating the importance and real-life application of using recycled plastics.

"From recyclable packaging to giving post-consumer plastics waste a second life, Dow has always been committed to using our capabilities in materials science to enable better, more sustainable packaging for the industry. We are delighted to see increasing interests from designers, brand owners, and consumers in adopting recycled plastics in recent years, " said Kodak Xiao, Group Marketing Director for Packaging, Asia Pacific, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “Through this initiative, we aim to raise awareness on recycling plastics – in particular, flexible plastic packaging, where the recycling rate is low. We also hope to find more high-value applications for recycled packaging and encourage our partners to work with us to advance a circular economy for plastic waste.”

"LOVERE is committed to establishing an ecosystem of plastic waste recycling and sorting through technological innovation," said Jingye Chen, Chief Operating Officer of LOVERE. "We hope that through this competition, consumers will learn that plastic waste is actually a misplaced resource and through recycling, we can turn plastic waste into useful products with shelf appeal. LOVERE aspires to use our proprietary technology in recycling to encourage consumers to tap on plastic waste as an integral resource for their packaging demands.”

Yuan Jing, Founder and President of YCJ Art Creation Club, and Director of You Art Museum, said, "As an international ecological art organization, YCJ pursues the concept of creating a better life with art. We bring together internationally renowned artists and designers to explore the relationship between contemporary art and nature to establish art practices that protects our environment. We believe that with the support from the plastics and packaging industries, this competition and related art activities will encourage young designers to pay attention to the issues of recycling and work towards solving such global environmental problems. I am optimistic about the power of youths and I look forward to seeing them shine in this competition."

With the increasing focus on sustainability, growing consumer preference for environmentally-friendly products, and consumers’ willingness to alter their consumption habits to align with their beliefs, the participation of P&G will help bridge industry players to these consumers.

“At P&G, sustainability is embedded in how we do business. From product development, packaging design, to our daily operations, we deliver environmentally-better concepts through our products to consumers," Packaging Sustainability R&D director, of P&G Greater China said, "By collaborating with our partners and working with youths, we believe this competition will allow us to create inspiring, sustainable products – helping us combat some of the most challenging and complex issues that we face today.”

The submission for this design competition is open from 20 May to 15 July 2022. All submitted projects will be evaluated by a professional judge panel. For more detail information, please visit: www.design4circularity.com.