Awards
The Electronic Circular Innovation Award honors individuals and organizations across the electronics value chain who are actively enabling reuse, repair, refurbishment and recycling of electronics.
This award is intentionally broad and inclusive, welcoming nominees from any part of the electronics ecosystem — including manufacturers, brands, recyclers, refurbishers, designers, service providers, technology companies, logistics providers and program or policy leaders.
Voting for our finalists is now open. Watch the nominee interviews below, then help us select our finalists. We'll narrow the list to three finalists to be voted on at E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference, and the winners will be announced at our closing awards breakfast on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
You must be registered for E-Scrap to vote. Not registered yet? Register here.
Electronic Circular Innovation Award
Presented by E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference
Meet the Nominees
Adam Shine
President, Sunnking Sustainable Solutions
Adam Shine leads applied research partnerships that advance electronics reuse, recycling and circular system design. A three-year collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory and E Cyclers of Idaho, funded by the DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office, replicates Sunnking's proven New York collection-event model to raise battery-device recycling awareness and expand residential recycling access in less-regulated states. He has also positioned Sunnking as an active partner in multiple REMADE Institute projects spanning solvent-based plastics recycling, low-cost metal recovery, automated battery-device disassembly and design-for-recycling of solar components, aligning advanced research with practical, real-world recycling operations.
Alexander Olesen
CEO, Buckstop
Alexander Olesen is transforming electronic end-of-life challenges into scalable, high-value circular ecosystems. Under his leadership, Buckstop pioneered a first-of-its-kind "algorithmic assay" underpinning an automated recovery platform that measures residual value across electronic waste, appraising more than $1 billion in energy assets and identifying more than $23 million in recoverable value. His work centers on material value retention, keeping components at their highest utility for as long as possible and building partnerships that connect e-waste processors with certified refurbishment streams. Rather than simply solving for waste, he is redesigning the electronics lifecycle to be inherently restorative.
Alexander Olesen
CEO, Buckstop
Alexander Olesen is transforming electronic end-of-life challenges into scalable, high-value circular ecosystems. Under his leadership, Buckstop pioneered a first-of-its-kind "algorithmic assay" underpinning an automated recovery platform that measures residual value across electronic waste, appraising more than $1 billion in energy assets and identifying more than $23 million in recoverable value. His work centers on material value retention, keeping components at their highest utility for as long as possible and building partnerships that connect e-waste processors with certified refurbishment streams. Rather than simply solving for waste, he is redesigning the electronics lifecycle to be inherently restorative.
Jeff Gloyd
Founder, Gloyd Recycling Solutions
Few issues are more pressing than battery fires and the safe management of products with embedded batteries. Jeff Gloyd and his company developed the BIDS (Battery In Device Shredding) system to address exactly that. The technology safely and at scale liberates electronic device components — including black mass derived from batteries — mitigating potential thermal events while bringing value to an otherwise difficult and dangerous waste stream. His work turns one of the industry's toughest safety challenges into a recoverable resource, advancing both worker safety and material circularity across the electronics recycling sector.
Kyle Wiens
Co-Founder & CEO, iFixit
For nearly two decades, Kyle Wiens has championed the idea that people should be able to understand, maintain and repair the products they own. Under his leadership, iFixit built the world's most comprehensive open library of repair guides and manuals. Most recently, Kyle and his team developed Fixbot, an AI-powered platform that makes troubleshooting easier than ever — providing hands-free, real-time, step-by-step guidance, using visual analysis to assess components and identify problems and connecting users to decades of documented repair expertise. His work embodies innovation, environmental responsibility and empowerment through knowledge.
Dan Wang
Toyoshima USA
Dan Wang invented a small, low-cost production line for rare earth metal manufacturing in the U.S. — moving from AI-robot hard-drive disassembly, to magnet powder, to finished neodymium metal. Three advantages set it apart: it's decentralized, so disassembly units install directly at any data center or recycler and drives never leave before destruction; it's energy-efficient, at under $15 per kg of neodymium; and it's compact and low-cost, with a refinery footprint of roughly six sedans. Scaled across hundreds of sites, he projects the model could meet a meaningful share of U.S. demand — addressing a national rare earth crisis.
VIDEO
COMING
SOON
Chris York
VP of Business Development, Mint Innovation
For nearly two decades, Chris York has been a dedicated leader in electronics recycling and the circular economy, with operational roots at Sims Recycling Solutions and strategic roles at Redwood Materials. As VP of Business Development at Mint Innovation, he has been central to accelerating adoption of Mint's world-first PCB processing technology across the U.S. and Australia for domestic recovery of critical and precious metals. Most notably, he led Mint's landmark partnership with HP — securing feedstock supply and building the frameworks to produce industry-first closed-loop recycled copper used in two of HP's leading 2026 PC products.
VIDEO
COMING
SOON
Linda Li
Chief Strategy Officer, Re-Teck / Li Tong Group
Linda Li has played a pivotal role in advancing scalable, global solutions for responsible electronics lifecycle management. As Chief Strategy Officer of Re-Teck and the Li Tong Group, she strengthened the organization's reverse supply chain approach — prioritizing repair, refurbishment, reuse, remarketing and responsible recycling. Through partnerships with global OEMs, she pioneered closed-loop programs recovering critical metals and rare earths, collaborated with SABIC on engineering-plastics recycling that lifted recycling rates above 98% and worked with battery scientists to reclaim "black mass," including cobalt. She has also redesigned OEM service agreements to encourage component reuse and redeployment.
Panasonic
Andrea Murphy represents Panasonic, nominated for the Electronic Circular Innovation Award on behalf of the company's MULTISHAPE personal care system and its Take Back for Tomorrow program. The MULTISHAPE has a circular design with reduced material resources utilized. The consumer takeback initiative partners with ERI, Redwood Materials and MRM Recycling to keep electronics out of the waste stream and return valuable materials to use — recycling more than 600 lbs. of product materials since its 2023 launch. Her nomination recognizes Panasonic's work to build recovery and reuse directly into its product lifecycle for a circular supply chain.
Ken Thomas
Universal Recycling Technologies (URT)
The NEXLOOP Polymer Alliance, created by URT, advances circularity for plastics recovered from end-of-life electronics — one of the most complex, underutilized streams in the value chain. While metals recovery is well optimized, e-plastics remain difficult due to contamination, material diversity and weak end markets. NEXLOOP builds a coordinated ecosystem of recyclers, processors and end-market partners to transform recovered polymers into high-quality reusable inputs, anchored by URT's award-winning sink-float separation technology. By aligning material specifications and strengthening demand, it reduces fragmentation and creates scalable infrastructure that shifts e-plastics from low-value byproduct to strategic material stream.
RePolyTex LLC
Megan Tabb represents RePolyTex, developer of the only known manufacturing process capable of using the full spectrum of mixed electronics plastics (every polymer type plus thermosets) without separation and without generating polymer waste. Where blended plastic streams are typically downcycled, incinerated or landfilled, RePolyTex transforms them into durable composite building materials. Its Mamba Board line includes flagship Mamba Light and Mamba DBS, made from 100% mixed electronics plastics, plus Mamba Suede and Mamba Standard at 84% recycled content. Developed through extensive R&D and industry feedback, the boards are used across industrial construction, specialty vehicle, cabinetry, signage and marine applications.
