Announcement: Shortlisted for 2026 Earthshot Prize Zero Waste

Enviu is proud to share that our work in Indonesia in partnership with the PISCES Relay initiative, through Circular Banyuwangi, has been shortlisted for the 2026 Earthshot Prize.  

The PISCES Relay Initiative is a collaborative reuse and plastic-pollution intervention programme coming out of the Plastics in Societies Partnership (PISCES). This global research-to-action consortium brings together academics, policymakers, civil society, businesses, and local communities to tackle plastic pollution through systems-based solutions. 

Reimagining plastics at a regency scale 

Circular Banyuwangi is a first-of-its-kind effort to build a regency-wide circular plastics economy. Instead of managing plastic waste after the fact, the initiative tackles the problem at its source rethinking how everyday products are packaged, used, reused, and recovered.  

Under the PISCES Relay initiative, the project brings together scientific research, local government leadership, businesses, communities and waste-recovery actors to move away from single-use plastics and toward reuse, refill and locally anchored circular systems. This approach recognizes that plastic pollution is a system failure across the entire value chain; from production and retail to consumption, collection and recovery. Circular Banyuwangi works across all these layers, laying the foundation for long-term, scalable change. 

Enviu’s role in enabling circular business models

As a key partner in the consortium, Enviu contributes to its expertise in building and scaling circular business models, particularly in reuse and refill systems. In Banyuwangi, this means supporting ventures that replace disposable packaging with practical, affordable reusable alternatives, helping businesses and communities cut waste at the source rather than downstream. By combining entrepreneurship with systems thinking, Enviu helps translate circular ambition into solutions that work in real markets and real communities. The collaboration between PISCES researchers, Enviu, local authorities, communities and waste-recovery stakeholders reflect exactly the kind of multi-stakeholder; system-level approach the Earthshot Prize was created to champion. 

What this shortlisting means

For us, this shortlisting strengthens our commitment to: Expanding reuse, refill and waste-recovery systems across households, retailers and communities Deepening collaboration between academia, government, industry and civil society Elevating the livelihoods and voices of informal waste workers, while promoting sustainable consumption Demonstrating a replicable model that other regions in Indonesia and beyond can adapt and scale. 

Special thanks

To be shortlisted for the Earthshot Prize is an encouraging reminder that our work is contributing to and inspiring a broader movement for environmental progress. 

We are deeply grateful to the community members, partners, researchers, local authorities, funders, and supporters who believed in this vision from the start. We’re excited to see how the journey unfolds and to keep sharing our work and impact along the way. 

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