LocationsBy Elmerei Cuevas, Riz Angeline Mapa, Van Mclean Robles, Earl Paulo Diaz, Moeko Saito-Jensen
From Ideas to Implementation: Bringing Circular Innovations to Philippine Cities
July 15, 2026
The 10 selected innovators of the 2025 Circular Solutions Innovation Challenge during the awarding on 3 June 2026.
Innovation is essential to making circular economy work at the local level. Cities face different waste, livelihood, tourism, sanitation, and resource challenges, and they need practical solutions that can be tested, adapted, and scaled in real settings.
Through Specific Objective 2: Green Local Government Units (LGUs) of the European Union-Philippines Green Economy Partnership, led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, co-led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and UNDP, cities are translating their circular economy goals into portfolios of action.
With the support of the European Union, through its Global Gateway investment strategy, the Partnership works with local governments, communities, and solution providers to test and scale approaches that respond to local waste, livelihood, tourism, sanitation, and resource challenges.
Innovation is a key driver in helping cities move from circular economy planning to action. In the first 10 partner cities and municipalities, these solutions serve as catalysts for testing new models, strengthening local systems, and showing how circular economy can respond to real community needs.
The initiatives supported by the 2025 Circular Solutions Innovation Challenge show how enterprises, social innovators, and local governments can turn local challenges into opportunities for cleaner communities, green jobs, and more resilient local systems. Below are the 10 innovators currently implementing projects across the first batch of cities and municipalities.
Baguio City- Green Haven OPC / Tingi Station
Through Reuse Haven for All (re_haven), Green Haven OPC is building a community-based reuse and refill ecosystem, providing households access to affordable everyday essentials in reusable containers; engagingbarangay hubs and sari-sari stores to act as refill points, engaging youth advocates, and training waste workers in collection, distribution, and container management.
This refill system has forged barangay partnerships, and is rolling out behavior-change campaigns, conducting refill product samplings, and has successfully opened a distribution hub at the Baguio City Hall Cooperative Store.
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/tingistation
Caloocan City- Revolve Eco.Logical
Inspired by the plastic waste he saw during his Mt. Everest expeditions, Regie Pablo, one of the few Filipinos to reach the summit, founded Revolve Eco.Logical to transform discarded PET bottles into recycled PET (rPET) textile products.
The enterprise is purchasing PET bottles from communities and waste workers at premium prices, supporting livelihood opportunities for women and other vulnerable groups, and producing uniforms and other textile products like hijabs. They envision scaling this textile technology and continue to work with the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Textile Research Institute.
Learn more: www.revolve.com.ph
Davao City- Waste4Good Tech / GreenVisions PH
Waste4Good is an agri-tech social enterprise that transforms biodegradable waste into biofertilizer and sustainable animal feed using Black Soldier Fly (BSF) technology and other circular farming solutions.
Through its Farm4Bayanihan Hubs, it equips women, youth, and urban farmers with sustainable farming skills while creating livelihoods from waste. It has already established 11 hubs across eight barangays, processingaround 1,500 kilograms of biodegradable waste each month.
Learn more: https://www.greenvisionsph.com/
Municipality of Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte- Integrated Learning Area For Junior Agripreneur (ILAJA Inc)
ILAJA’s Innovating Local Food and Coconut Systems for Green Tourism project addresses organic waste while strengthening local food systems. Through the iTABU Hub, the organization connects farmers, buyers, logisticsproviders, and tourism establishments to build a more resilient and circular local food economy.
ILAJA is working with 181 farmers and engaging local food businesses to pilot the direct marketing and delivery of locally produced goods to buyers, with plans to expand farmer participation, increase market linkages and deliveries, and explore eco-friendly post-harvest packaging solutions.
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/ilajamabuhay
Iloilo City- Rezbin Waste Technology
Rezbin’s project, Closing the Loop: Inclusive and Tech-Enabled Plastic Collection for Sustainable Recycling, uses QR-enabled smart bins and an app-based rewards system to encourage proper segregation and recycling.
Users scan, photograph, and dispose of recyclables through the platform, while AI-assisted verification improves transparency and reduces contamination. Rezbin’s technology has produced 200 smart bins, activated at least six collection sites, partnered with local collectors, and continues to hold community engagement activities.
Learn more: www.rezbin.ph
Island Garden City of Samal – Ecoloo AB
ECOLOO is a Swedish environmental technology company that provides waterless sanitation solutions that convert human waste into reusable resources while conserving water globally.
Currently, Ecoloo has installed eight waterless toilet units in the Island Garden City of Samal and trained local operators in maintenance and sustainable sanitation management. The project aims to position Samal as a model for circular sanitation systems that can be replicated in island, coastal, and remote communities nationwide.
Learn more: https://ecoloogroup.com/
Ormoc City- Klimatech Innovative Solutions Inc
Klimatech PH is innovating its Versatile Off-grid Recyclable Turbine for Energy Exchange (VORTEX) to address the interconnected challenges of waste management and disaster resilience.
Designed to generate renewable energy using turbine components made from high-value recyclable plastics, VORTEX offers a compact, durable, and modular solution for public spaces and vulnerable communities. The company is establishing its first manufacturing facility in the Visayas – and its first outside Metro Manila – in Ormoc City , creating green jobs while strengthening local resilience.
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/KlimatechVortex
Pasig City- Riverrecyle Philippines Inc
RiverRecycle, a Finland-founded organization, works to capture and recycle low-value plastics through a cluster Material Recovery Facility (MRF) model centered on the Pasig Innovation for Circular Economy (ICE) Hub.
The project engages homeowners' associations, women's groups, and informal waste workers while generating revenue through collected recyclable materials, recycled plastic boards, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) credits. Through their project, collection networks have become operational, with recycled plastic boards being deployed in barangay public spaces.
Learn more: https://www.riverrecycle.com/
Puerto Princesa City- IOL Inc
Zircuvia supports Puerto Princesa City’s circular tourism efforts by enhancing the efficiency and traceability of environmental fee collection: a key function for a tourism-centered city managing both visitor activity and environmental protection priorities.
The platform provides digital payment and tracking for environmental fees, promotes green businesses through an online directory, and offers mapping, events, and key information for the LGU. Designed for scalability, the platform shows how data-informed tourism can be adapted by other tourism-focused LGUs seeking practical tools for sustainability.
Learn more: https://www.iol.ph/
Quezon City- Dana Asia Ltd
Since 2011, Dana Asia has worked across the Asia-Pacific region to advance inclusive and sustainable development through community-driven initiatives that reduce poverty, strengthen livelihoods, and promote environmental sustainability.
In Quezon City, Dana Asia’s Building Bridges to a Circular Economy project strengthens the city’s refill ecosystem through the establishment of an Eco-Depot. The intervention establishes a a centralized distribution hub, ensuring product consistency and supply stability for participating refill stations in selected pilot barangays. The initiative supports entrepreneurs and communities in transitioning to low-waste business models by expanding refill and reuse systems that prevent plastic waste at source.
Learn more: https://danaasia.org/
Now Open: 2026 Circular Solutions Innovation Challenge for the next 10 cities
These 10 innovators are now working alongside partner LGUs to refine and scale their solutions in real-world settings. As implementation progresses, the lessons from these interventions will help shape how circular economy solutions can be adopted by more communities across the country.
Building on this momentum, the EU–PH Green Economy Partnership is now looking for the next cohort of innovators to bring practical circular economy solutions to 10 additional partner LGUs.
Innovators, enterprises, start-ups, cooperatives, MSMEs, academic institutions, and solution providers from anywhere in the world are invited to apply for support to bring scalable circular economy solutions to Bacoor, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato City, Ilagan, Isabela, Koronadal, Maasin, San Carlos, San Jose del Monte, and Sorsogon.
Apply until 7 August 2026 for up to US$ 40,000 in funding and implementation support for projects that deliver measurable environmental impact, create green jobs, and strengthen local economies.
For more information, visit: https://bit.ly/2026InnovationChallenge
Interested applicants may also join the Innovation Challenge information sessions on 24 July 2026: https://bit.ly/2026CSInfoSessionInnovChallenge
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