The competition brings value-chain partners together to explore innovative applications of recycled plastics

SHANGHAI, May 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dow (NYSE: DOW), LOVERE, an internet environmental tech company, YCJ, a non-profit art organization, and Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the world's leading consumer goods companies, announced today that they will jointly organize the first "Design for Circularity" Art & Design Competition in China. This competition seeks to call for creative ideas to accelerate the development of a circular economy for plastics in the country.

The competition is open to university students and professionals in the field of design. With expertise from the organizers and value-chain partners, this initiative aims to share the knowledge on recycled plastics with young designers to encourage them to creatively utilize recycled plastics as raw materials for various applications.

Partners in this initiative will also commit to commercializing outstanding works from the competition – transforming them from drawings and concepts into actual products for consumers' use, illustrating the importance and real-life application of using recycled plastics.

"From recyclable packaging to giving post-consumer plastics waste a second life, Dow has always been committed to using our capabilities in materials science to enable better, more sustainable packaging for the industry. We are delighted to see increasing interests from designers, brand owners, and consumers in adopting recycled plastics in recent years, " said Kodak Xiao, Group Marketing Director for Packaging, Asia Pacific, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. "Through this initiative, we aim to raise awareness on recycling plastics – in particular, flexible plastic packaging, where the recycling rate is low. We also hope to find more high-value applications for recycled packaging and encourage our partners to work with us to advance a circular economy for plastic waste."

"LOVERE is committed to establishing an ecosystem of plastic waste recycling and sorting through technological innovation," said Jingye Chen, Chief Operating Officer of LOVERE. "We hope that through this competition, consumers will learn that plastic waste is actually a misplaced resource and through recycling, we can turn plastic waste into useful products with shelf appeal. LOVERE aspires to use our proprietary technology in recycling to encourage consumers to tap on plastic waste as an integral resource for their packaging demands."

Yuan Jing, Founder and President of YCJ Art Creation Club, and Director of You Art Museum, said, "As an international ecological art organization, YCJ pursues the concept of creating a better life with art. We bring together internationally renowned artists and designers to explore the relationship between contemporary art and nature to establish art practices that protects our environment. We believe that with the support from the plastics and packaging industries, this competition and related art activities will encourage young designers to pay attention to the issues of recycling and work towards solving such global environmental problems. I am optimistic about the power of youths and I look forward to seeing them shine in this competition."

With the increasing focus on sustainability, growing consumer preference for environmentally-friendly products, and consumers' willingness to alter their consumption habits to align with their beliefs, the participation of P&G will help bridge industry players to these consumers.

"At P&G, sustainability is embedded in how we do business. From product development, packaging design, to our daily operations, we deliver environmentally-better concepts through our products to consumers," Joanna Zhou, Packaging Sustainability R&D director, of P&G Greater China said, "By collaborating with our partners and working with youths, we believe this competition will allow us to create inspiring, sustainable products – helping us combat some of the most challenging and complex issues that we face today."

The submission for this design competition is open from 20 May to 15 July 2022. All submitted projects will be evaluated by a professional judge panel. For more detail information, please visit: www.design4circularity.com.

About Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics

Packaging and Specialty Plastics (P&SP), a business unit of Dow (NYSE: DOW), combines core strengths of R&D, worldwide reach, broad product lines and industry expertise to deliver high performing technologies for end use markets in food packaging, personal hygiene, infrastructure, consumer goods and transportation. P&SP is one of the world's largest producers of polyethylene resins, functional polymers, and adhesives, and enabled by Pack Studios, is a leading innovator and collaborator across the value chain on sustainable application development and circular economy life-cycle design for plastics. www.dowpackaging.com

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines global breadth; asset integration and scale; focused innovation and materials science expertise; leading business positions; and environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership to achieve profitable growth and deliver a sustainable future. The Company's ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company in the world. Dow's portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated, science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer applications. Dow operates 104 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people. Dow delivered sales of approximately $55 billion in 2021. References to Dow or the Company mean Dow Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.dow.com or follow @DowNewsroom on Twitter.

About LOVERE

LOVERE, through its independently-developed and Internet-connected Smart Sorting/Recycling Machine (SSRMs) aim to build a full chain from sorting to treatment to recycling – utilizing technologies like mobile internet, cloud computing, big data, internet of things as well as face recognition. Its SSRMs are able to sort eight categories of recyclables (paper, metal, textiles, cardboard, glass, plastics, beverage package as well as electronics), into more than 40 categories of waste, and subsequently send them to recycling companies. LOVERE will continue to promote the idea of 'recycling is the new fashion' and explore new possibilities of high-value use of recycled products and create more brands of recycled products – to build a recycling economy for the sustainable development of our planet.

About YCJ Art Creation Club

YCJ is an international ecological art organization that promotes art exchanges between China and foreign countries. It was established in 2015 by Jing Yuan, director of the You Art Museum. It is composed of artists and creators from various countries and is a bridge and link in the international art world. Focusing on the international development of contemporary art and culture, it aims to build a free platform based on the dissemination of public art to show the artist's true feelings about the ecological environment, take everything as the scale, stimulate the artist's creative enthusiasm, and use rich artistic forms to convey the appreciation of artists from all over the world.

YCJ established a non-profit organization "YCJ Art Creation Club" in 2018. Its headquarters is located in Beijing, China. In 2020, it set up branches in New York, Denmark and Japan. The club now brings together 830 international art creators from Chinese and foreign art, culture, film and television, design, dance, drama, education and other fields, forming a diverse international art bond. Club members create 1000+ art works every year. Since its establishment, the YCJ Art Creation Club has made significant contributions to international art exchanges and formed an important international influence.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head® & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. For other P&G news, visit us at https://www.pg.com/news.