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A Scalable System to Track Electronic Waste

63 Submissions
$10,000 USD
Challenge closed

Challenge overview

How can waste from electronics (e-waste) be tracked most efficiently from collection to final destination?  Describe a scalable process or distributed device that would allow producers to follow the flow of e-waste from a customer site through the waste stream to final disposal. 

This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.

EMC is tackling the problem of electronic waste, in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund and InnoCentive, and with the support of Popular Science.  E-waste has been identified as one of the major roadblocks to a more sustainable electronics industry.  Using current processes and technologies, it is simply too difficult to measure the true destination of e-waste as it passes through the hands of downstream contractors who handle disposal and recycling.  This Challenge seeks ideas for a scalable system (may include processes, devices, etc.) that will allow EMC to follow e-waste to final destination.  EMC’s systems are large and complicated pieces of equipment made of sub-systems; this Challenge seeks a way to track individual parts and subsystems, not the full system itself and not discrete products (like a laptop).  Technical guidelines are available in the full description. 

This is an Ideation Challenge, which has the following unique features:

  • There is a guaranteed award.  The awards will be paid to the best submission(s) as solely determined by the Seeker. The total payout will be $10,000 with at least one award being no smaller than $5,000 and no award being smaller than $1,000. 
  • The Solvers are not required to transfer exclusive intellectual property rights to the Seeker.  Rather, by submitting a proposal, the Solvers grants to the Seeker a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use any information included in this proposal.

After the Challenge deadline, the Seeker will complete the review process and make a decision with regards to the Winning Solution(s).All Solvers that submitted a proposal will be notified on the status of their submissions; however, no detailed evaluation of individual submissions will be provided.

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