No Waste Challenge

The No Waste Challenge presented by What Design Can Do and the IKEA Foundation is now open for submissions! You can submit your work until April 20th, 2021. 

This January, WDCD an international organization that uses the power of design and creativity to transform society, launched the No Waste Challenge. This new global design competition is tackling the massive problem of waste and consumerism—asking creatives to come up with bold solutions. Creatives from around the world are invited to submit design-driven solutions to reduce waste and rethink the way we buy, sell, and use resources on the planet.

With landfills growing by some 2 billion tonnes of garbage every year, the No Waste Challenge seeks “exciting, feasible, and potentially scalable solutions” that attack the problem from many angles. The competition brief details how all kinds of waste are now threatening our ecosystems: plastic waste, textile waste, food waste, and electronic waste, just to name a few. Research shows that the issue is systemic, and has a disastrous impact on all other social and environmental problems. From deepening inequalities to accelerating global warming, our wasteful economies are driving us towards a climate crisis. The No Waste Challenge asks: How can design help us envision new ways forward?

The overall goal of the competition is to deliver creative contributions that “accelerate the transition to a fair and circular economy.” But the challenge is also meant to spark an honest dialog about the relationship between design and waste. By making things desirable one day, and disposable the next, the creative industries have become a huge part of the problem. In a bold new video campaign launched this week, WDCD recruits seven renowned design thinkers—Alice Rawsthorn, Bruce Mau, Fernando Laposse, Fred Gelli, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Selly Raby Kane, and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto—to weigh in on where design went wrong and what we can do to fix it. 

You can read more about the open call (until April 20th) and media campaign at their platform page. More than 200 entries are already in, and are available to view in the project gallery. 

Submit your proposals by April 20th, 2021, and join WDCD in accelerating the transition towards a just and circular society. To get started, learn more about the scope of the challenge, or check out the three design briefs available to participants: TAKE LESS, MAKE BETTER, and HANDLE SMARTER.

In May, a jury of leading experts in design and sustainability will review the entries and select a minimum of ten winners.

No Waste Challenge

Deadline: April 20th, 2021 
Categories: TAKE LESS, MAKE BETTER, and HANDLE SMARTER
Price: ten times € 10,000 in funding, a development program co-created with impact hub, publicity via all WDCD platforms and partners
Participate