Waste Management Inc. (WMI), Houston, has awarded its annual Think Green prize in the Rice University Business Plan Competition to Mimas, an Illinois-based start-up that develops advanced nanomaterials from plastic scrap.
WMI’s Think Green $100,000 investment prize is designed to encourage the development of innovative technologies in the cleantech area, including recycling and renewable energy sectors.
Mimas manufactures low-cost, high performance particles and carbon nanotubes using post-consumer plastic as feedstock. According to WM, Mimas’ manufacturing process produces significant environmental benefit by consuming post-consumer plastic. The end-products can be deployed in a number of industrial applications including to facilitate the production of next-generation electric vehicles and durable energy storage devices to aid grid integration of wind and solar power.
“As part of our ongoing investments in cleantech companies, we designed the Think Green award to help them scale their ideas and apply their technologies in the real world,” says Carl Rush, senior vice president, Organic Growth Group for Waste Management. “We’re thrilled to award this year’s prize to Mimas, which is developing technologies that have the potential to solve pressing issues in energy and the environment.”
WM is the sponsor of the Think Green Award at the Rice University Business Plan Competition, which is the world’s largest graduate-level business plan competition. Organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the competition provides funding and guidance for young entrepreneurs working to commercialize promising technologies. The Rice Alliance has helped launch more than 250 startups, which have collectively raised more than $500 million in early-stage capital.