The LunaRecycle Challenge is a $3 million, two track, two-phase competition focused on the design and development of recycling solutions that can reduce solid waste and improve the sustainability of longer-term lunar missions.
 
NASA is committed to sustainable space exploration. As we prepare for future human space missions, there will be a need to consider how various waste streams, including solid waste, can be minimized—as well as how waste can be stored, processed, and recycled in a space environment so that little or no waste will need to be returned to Earth.
 
The challenge also can influence and inspire better approaches and outcomes for terrestrial recycling—through entirely novel approaches, through processes that improve efficiency and reduce toxic outputs, and through smaller-scale technologies that could be deployed in communities around the globe.