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With the idea of creating a community circularity closet that would improve school and neighbourhood life and promote well-considered use and re-use of resources through shared activities, the team of Limbaži Secondary School wins the Young Climathon hackathon. The jury also highly appreciates the solutions of the Riga Technical University Engineering Secondary School (RTU IZV) and Špoģi Secondary School students.

Pointing out that many people are still not engaged in the tare deposit system, RTU IZV recommends to motivate them by developing an app that would provide various information related to the system, such as a tare card, and additional functionality, such as a loyalty programme, digitised receipts, etc. Whereas, winners of the 3rd prize, students from Špoģi Secondary School, point to another problem in small towns and villages, namely, the hand-over of second-hand clothes. They propose creation of containers for the collection of both good and damaged clothes, and the reuse of the material, for example, in toys. They also recommend involving local seniors in the production of new products.

I learnt a lot about the circular economy, strengthened my skills to not give up, to develop an idea in detail and create a prototype, learned to think outside the box and found out about various problems in rural areas - this is how the students evaluate the hackathon.

A total of 14 student teams from Riga, Priekuļi, Cēsis, Ilūkste, Babīte, Limbaži, Valmiera, Rēzekne, Špoģi, Ogre and Tukums participated in the two-day hackathon, seeking solutions to the challenges of "Milzu!", the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (MEPRD) and the Riga Energy Agency (REA) to educate society on the circular economy and help reduce food waste, as well as encourage the introduction of circular economy principles in the everyday life of people living in urban areas. The teams' solutions ranged from ideas on smart fridges with artificial intelligence and sensors that alert you to the expiry date of the products inside, community gardens with composting facilities, a multi-purpose point with a item exchange cabinet, compost box and pet faeces collection boxes to foldable take-away cups. In the students' opinion, there is a shortage of awareness campaigns to reduce food waste, which is why the students of Riga Secondary School No. 96 received the audience favourite award for their idea to create videos and go out to educate their peers.

Webinars were organised before the hackathon to raise awareness of the circular economy. During the hackathon, participants also took part in workshops, improving their problem research, prototyping and presentation skills, met with experts and mentors from the RTU, University of Latvia, association “Zero Waste Latvia”, “Zaļā brīvība”, “Reach for Change”, Youth International Programme Agency, “NOMAD architects”, Cēsis local government, Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility, “CSR Latvia”, “Viskaļi, Free Riga”, “Dzīvnieku brīvības”, etc. "Young Climathon 2023" was organised by the RTU Science and Innovation Centre and foundation "Vides izglītības fonds” (Environmental Education Foundation) in cooperation with "Milzu!", MEPRD, REA, European Commission Representation in Latvia in the project "Young Inventors for Sustainable Development". The project is supported by the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund.

Ideas of the hackathon winners will be implemented with the support of the project "Waste to Resources Latvia - Boosting Regional Sustainability and Circularity by Introducing the Waste to Resources Concept" (LIFE Waste To Resources IP, LIFE20 IPE/LV/000014), funded by the EU Life Programme and the State Regional Development Agency.