Circular Philadelphia was incredibly proud to see member organizations Glitter and Baleena make Technical.ly Philly’s RealLIST Startups of 2024 as well as Circa Systems receiving an honorable mention. The Technical.ly Philly staff votes on each nominee and explain that their criteria for selected startups are that they have, “impressive products, goals, founders or funders and have been founded no earlier than three years ago.”
But along with the excitement of seeing our members recognized, it’s also incredibly reaffirming to see that the circular economy is being recognized as just as important a sector as fintech and biotech. Circular Philadelphia was founded on the belief that Philadelphia has the right mix of innovative entrepreneurs, conscious consumers and persistent challenges that make it the right place to test bold new business models.
So whether it’s Glitter finding a crowdsourced solution to keeping neighborhoods clean while employing local residents, Baleena developing a easily applied technology to our washing machines to prevent microplastics from escaping into our oceans, or Circa Systems revolutionizing how we do retail for a circular economy future, all of these startups are taking full advantage of this Philly mix to make impact.
The take, make and trash model that defined 20th century industrialization and admittedly provided leaps in quality of life from climate controlled homes to modern medicine have also come with grave consequences, such as climate change and resource depletion. And when it comes to Philly, it’s also led to high amounts of waste, pollution and litter that threaten our quality of life.
So it’s even more meaningful to see that a city like Philly with all of these issues is also defining itself as a hub for the circular economy. As we always say, members drive our organization, and Circular Philadelphia is proud to be the center of gravity in convening entrepreneurial circular economy leaders to collaborate and to make space for circular innovation to blossom. It’s our membership’s ingenuity that gets to the very essence of the critical question of the circular economy – how do we maintain a high quality of life for the most people without destroying the planet?
These three companies along with all of our member organizations are answering this question every day. Once again, we want to congratulate Baleena, Glitter and Circa Systems for this recognition and thank the staff at Technical.ly Philly for acknowledging the impact that these businesses are having on our environment and our economy.
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