Smart Plastic Technologies, which makes additives to bio-assimilate plastic and reduce waste, was named the Trellis Climate Tech Startup of 2026 during a pitch competition at Trellis Impact 26 in San Francisco yesterday.
“Plastic was not designed with its end in mind – we changed that,” said Smart Plastic’s chief sustainability officer Sumathi Pakki, in her winning 2.5-minute remarks.
Smart Plastic, which is based in Wheeling, Illinois, got the most votes from an audience of six dozen people, for its additive technology that is meant to address the 91% of plastic that never gets recycled.
The additive time activates microorganisms to consume the plastic it is applied to, leaving behind only carbon dioxide and water biomass, Pakki said, and requires no new equipment – just a drop.
Nare Janvelyan, a climate tech investor at Voyager, based in San Francisco, said Smart Plastic stood out because “the plastic problem is something everyone’s feeling” and the technology doesn’t “require any change in human behavior – that lands really well.”
Two other start-ups competed: Airloom Energy, which deploys modular wind energy systems for data centers, utilities and defense; and Helix Earth, which removes humidity for air conditioners to cut energy use and improve air quality.
What’s hot in climate tech
The three startups represent three exciting categories in climate tech: material innovations, data center solutions and climate adaptation technologies.
A remote audience had voted to select each one during a series of three virtual pitch competitions (one for each category) in May and June. Five different startups faced off at each.
All 15 of the competing companies appeared in April on our 15 Climate Tech Startups to Watch 2026 list of firms with seed or Series A funding and customers already signed up.
The featured categories are where Trellis sees the most customer demand, funding and urgency, as climate tech entrepreneurs build for scale on tighter capital than their predecessors.
Material Innovations
Geopolitical tension is reshaping supply chains. Critical minerals, the building blocks of batteries, turbines, and the grid, have become leverage points in trade wars.
The startups in this category are developing next-generation materials and systems, including: battery materials, industrial waste-to-chemicals, high-performance biodegradable plastics, critical minerals recovery and “smart” thermal coatings.
See smart Plastic Technologies best four other material innovation startups in the semi-finals.
Data Center Solutions
The explosive growth of AI infrastructure is reshaping energy demand at a pace the grid wasn’t built for. According to multiple research firms, this year Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Oracle will spend more than $600 billion on AI infrastructure — roughly equivalent to what the entire global oil and gas industry spends annually to find, produce and deliver.
These startups are building the technologies that keep that infrastructure running across clean energy generation, predictive monitoring, AI optimization, offshore infrastructure and atmospheric water generation.
Watch Airloom Energy advance to the finals ahead of four other data center solutions.
Climate Adaptation
Extreme weather isn’t a future risk, it’s a present operational reality for companies across every sector.
The startups in this category are building technologies that help organizations understand their exposure, protect their assets and stay resilient as conditions grow more volatile, with solutions across: extreme heat HVAC, cell-cultured cacao, biosurveillance of aquatic ecosystems, AI-powered climate risk and soil intelligence for agricultural resilience.
See Helix Earth win earlier versus four climate adaptation technologies.
