2025 Essay Competition

The call for the 2025 Essay Competition

For its third year, the annual Essay Competition Young Voices in the Chemical Sciences for Sustainability was about:

From waste to wealth: how chemical sciences can sustainably transform waste into valuable products.

The competition was open to entrants under 35 years on 31 March 2025. The 2025 competition attracted a record number of over 180 entries from around the world. The essays were assessed by a global team of volunteer evaluators recruited by IOCD, who selected 43 essays as Finalists based on their relevance and quality. From within this group, essays that were very highly rated were chosen as Regional Winners, with regions being defined according to the World Bank's 2024 geographic classification.

The essays from Finalists covered a very wide range of topics related to minimising and valorising waste from many different sources. There was attention to reducing waste production and optimising recycling through application of a range of techniques and tools, as well as highlighting waste conversion to particular types of high-value products or feedstocks. Many of the essays drew attention both to the need for more research and to the importance of engagement with policy-makers, industrialists and other sectors of society to ensure that better technologies are developed and widely adopted. The results of the competition are presented below.

IOCD is extremely grateful to the Royal Society of Chemistry for its financial support, which helps to cover the costs of operating the competition during its first five years, and for its participation in the competition process and publication of the Regional Winner essays. We are also highly indebted to the dozens of volunteer evaluators from around the world who agreed to assist us in reviewing the entries and selecting the Finalists and Winners. Most of all, we are grateful to the young people from across the continents who made the effort to write fascinating essays and to submit them for our scrutiny.

IOCD will continue to operate this annual Essay Competition, Young Voices in the Chemical Sciences for Sustainability, offering each year a new topic on which young people can express their perspectives. Members of the chemistry community of all ages are invited to join us —whether as entrants, evaluators or promoters of the competition. Further information can be found on IOCD’s website or by writing to essay@iocd.org.

Regional Winners of the 2025 IOCD Essay Competition

The Regional Winners of the 2025 IOCD Essay Competition, Young Voices in the Chemical Sciences for Sustainability (with links to the published essays at RSC Sustainability) were:

East Asia & Pacific: Yick Eu Chew
The new gold rush: unlocking potential of waste through chemical science, society and policy (available here)
Europe & Central Asia: Frederica Butler
From rags to riches: the role of the chemical sciences in transforming waste into valuable products (available here)
Latin America & Caribbean: João Vitor Paulin
Waste alchemy in the age of industry 5.0: rethinking sustainable electronics (available here)
Middle East & North Africa: Ahmad Ghanayem
To scale or not to scale? Re-engineering biorefining for a more sustainable and circular future (available here)
North America: Alexandra Barth
Shining light on waste: photochemical strategies to reduce and transform plastic pollution (available here)
South Asia: Emal Mathew
Reimagining plastic waste: sustainable depolymerization using mechanochemistry as a gateway to high-value applications (available here)
Sub-Saharan Africa: Emmanuel Oke
From waste to wealth: advancing e-waste transformation through chemical science (available here)

Each regional Winner received a cash prize of US$ 500 and a Winner’s Certificate.

In an Editorial in the same issue of RSC Sustainability, IOCD’s Competition Organisers present an overview of the results and the topics covered by these Regional Winners:

S.A. Matlin, F. Rosei, P. Lambin and Lei Jin. Sustainably transforming waste into valuable products with the chemical sciences. RSC Sustainability 2025, 3 (available here).

Other Finalists of the 2025 Essay Competition

Other finalists:

Kenedy Agustin: Not all waste is wasted: how chemical sciences transform waste into wealth
Musbahu A. Ahmad: Philosopher’s stone: from biomass waste to functional carbon nanodots
Anna Anandita: Quantum chemistry in waste-to-wealth technologies
Jeovan A. Araujo: From mixed waste to high-value bioproducts: chemical advancements for a circular bio-economy for plastic
Marc Arnau: Chemical sciences: the bone bio-waste philosopher’s stone for achieving circular economy
Daniel M. Baier: The best waste is no waste: mechanochemistry for the sustainable transformation of waste into valuable products
Rohit Bansal: The tale of CO₂: source, impact, and solution
Ankita Boruah: Reimagining waste as an opportunity: how chemical sciences are powering the future using nuclear byproducts
Marina T. Candela De Aroca: Alchemy or chemistry? Turning waste into valuable resources for humanity through scientific innovation
Giorgio Capaldi: Chemistry for circular economy: "reaction parameters" to transform waste into opportunity
Yongjun Cho: A dual waste valorization approach to effective mitigation of plastic pollution
Joy S. Dotse: Waste is just a resource in the wrong place: the chemical sciences approach to transforming waste into valuable products
Yuangeng Guo: Sustainable and environmental-friendly strategies for dry battery recycling and utilization in the chemical industry
Rebekah L. Hald: Chemical sciences: changing how plastics are recycled – a review of current research and innovation
Rachel A. Hand: Sustainable production & consumption: the future of polymers & plastics in society
Olivia Hanlon: Waste not want not – how chemical sciences can transform lignin waste into high valued products
Janna Jeschke: Wonderland reimagined – how functional upcycling unlocks the door to value-added materials
Niel Lautenschlager: Biochar production: transforming biomass waste into sustainable wealth for advancing UN Sustainable Development Goals
Xiaotu Ma: Chemical science approach to sustainable energy solutions: recycling emerging waste from renewable energy and energy storage
Mysha Maliha: Sustainable collagen-based packaging material from leather waste: green chemistry solution towards the development of zero waste disposal system
Edgar Martín-Hernández: Ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of phosphorus: the need for fostering environmental and socioeconomic sustainability in the transformation of waste streams into resource streams
Kutemwa Masafwa: Transforming carbon dioxide from waste into an economic asset for a sustainable future
Alem A. Meresa: Chemical sciences as key enablers in unlocking the potential of e-waste for sustainable and eco-friendly future
Sandra Mota: Valorizing agro-industrial waste: by-products as a sustainable source of bioactive compounds and biomaterials
Melis Pekgoz: Fuelling the future: turning plastic trash into treasure
Swayam Prakash: Transforming waste into advanced materials: a sustainable chemical science approach
Liju Raju: Catalyst immobilization on biopolymers – nature’s best support
Helena Rapp Wright: Water resource recovery: a sustainable approach for recovering nutrients, metals, clean water and energy from wastewater
Manoj Ravi: A systems approach to how chemical sciences can transform waste to valuable products
Zoé O.G. Schyns: From waste to resource: one person’s trash is another person’s treasure
Muhammad A. Shafarifky: Advancement in catalysis for transformation of waste-to-value
Prithvendra Singh: Reclaiming landfill waste: chemical pathways for sustainable valorization of waste rubber and waste plastics
Charvi Singhvi: A quantum stride in chemical science to simultaneously address plastic pollution and carbon neutrality for environmental sustainability
Willemijn S. Van Der Winden: How legislative norms in decarbonization strategies shape the transition to sustainable aviation fuel – a comparative analysis of the United Kingdom and European Union
Noor Vets: Cow’s manure reinvented: how chemical processes cause waste products and how to prevent this
Jessica R. Westlake: More fungi, less plastic: how mushrooms could be part of the solution to plastic pollution