Collection
Getting materials out of homes, markets, and waterways.
Focus — Natural Resources & Regenerative Systems — Circular resources
CIRCULAR RESOURCES
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve how materials are recovered and reused for the waste workers, households, and small enterprises handling the material.
Why this area
CIRCULAR RESOURCES
IN CONTEXT.
Waste is a materials problem with a logistics answer. Ideas qualify when the stream, the buyer, and the economics are named — not only the intention to recycle.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Recovery & reuse
Turning a discarded stream into something with a buyer.
Waste workers
Income, safety, and standing for the people already doing this work.
Design for reuse
Products and packaging that can come back.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A CIRCULAR RESOURCES
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where how materials are recovered and reused fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — tonnes diverted, price received per tonne, or worker income.
- Explains what the waste workers, households, and small enterprises handling the material do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of how materials are recovered and reused in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier recycling and waste-collection schemes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the waste workers, households, and small enterprises handling the material, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — tonnes recovered, households served, or workers involved.
- A stated measure of success — tonnes diverted, price received per tonne, or worker income.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves income, cleanliness, and material kept in use for the waste workers, households, and small enterprises handling the material.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named recycler, cooperative, or municipal service able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of how materials are recovered and reused in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the waste workers, households, and small enterprises handling the material or the recycler, cooperative, or municipal service.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about circular resources with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
CIRCULAR RESOURCES IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about how materials are recovered and reused that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.