The student team from Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, India, won the Enactus Race to Rethink Plastic Impact Competition held during the 2022 Enactus World Cup last week with its project Amanat. The project is a closed circular model of economic and environmental sustainability that uses recycled plastic as currency. The Race to Rethink Plastic recognizes and mobilizes Enactus students whose projects demonstrate measurable progress toward the global plastic waste crisis. The winning team will receive $15,000 in scaling funding for Amanat from Race to Rethink Plastic sponsor, The Coca-Cola Company. The second-place team will receive $10,000 from The Coca-Cola Company.

For the students who worked on Amanat, the real reward is social impact. Student team member Sharan Aggrawal says, “It is relieving [good] to know that there are people my age striving to change the world for better,” adding, “It will be up to us millennials to transform our world for future generations.”

Amanat is a barter system through which people exchange plastic waste for goods and services. For example, domestic helpers can receive monetary incentives and food rations, and ragpickers meals and protective equipment to help them safely conduct their jobs. Low-income city dwellers can access assistance with structure maintenance fees and recycled furniture.

The exchange happens at brick-and-mortar recycling banks and is facilitated through an online app, which tracks donations using a point system. In places where plastic is bartered for meals, “garbage cafés” take the place of recycling banks. To complete the circular model, collected plastic waste is converted into new reusable products, generating money for those who run the recycling banks and garbage cafés. To date, Amanat has recycled 286 kilograms of plastic, reduced 239 tons of greenhouse emissions, and generated nearly $50,000 for twelve entrepreneurs.

The Race to Rethink Plastic is a year-long program in which Enactus student teams advance the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (or Global Goals), with impact on plastic waste reduction being a primary thrust. Enactus offered three other Races during the 2021-2022 year: the Race for Climate Action, the Race to Feed the Planet, and 1 Race 4 Oceans.  During the year, the Race to Rethink Plastic projects advanced to a top-twelve field which was further winnowed to a top-four group. These finalists participated in a juried competition at the Enactus World Cup.

At the Enactus World Cup, students compete, collaborate, make intercultural connections, and are inspired to further develop skills that foster social entrepreneurship. The Enactus World Cup and the Impact Races Competitions are the culmination of a year or more of innovation by students launching social enterprises as part of Enactus. The 2022 Enactus World Cup, which took place in Puerto Rico from 30 October – 2 November, was attended by over 3,000 people, supported by over thirty local and global businesses, and is estimated to have generated over $4 million for the Puerto Rican economy, according to Rody Rivera Rojas, Enactus Puerto Rico Country Leader.