MAD STARS Highlight: Bangladesh’s POP5 wins SDG Grand Prix with TileChalk for DBL Ceramics

MAD STARS Highlight: Bangladesh-based full-service creative agency POP5 has scored a major international creative win for the country, taking the Grand Prix in the SDGs category at MAD STARS 2026 for its TileChalk project created for DBL Ceramics.

TileChalk tackles an overlooked consequence of ceramic manufacturing focusing on the sludge generated during the tile production process. Rather than treating the material simply as waste, POP5 and DBL Ceramics developed a process that transforms ceramic sludge into classroom chalk, turning an industrial by-product into a useful resource for education.

The project demonstrates how creativity can move beyond communication to create a practical intervention, connecting circularity, waste reduction, education and social impact to a real manufacturing challenge.

The MAD STARS Grand Prix adds to TileChalk’s growing international awards record, with the work previously recognised at ADFEST, The One Show, AdForum PHNX Awards, Spikes Asia and The ANDYs. At The One Show 2026, it received Merit Awards in both the Green Pencil and Sustainable Development Goals Pencil categories.

Importantly, the TileChalk process has been made open source, allowing other manufacturers to explore similar approaches to ceramic waste and giving a solution developed around a local Bangladeshi industrial challenge the potential for wider application.

For POP5, the MAD STARS Grand Prix is another significant step in bringing creative work originating in Bangladesh to the international stage. It also demonstrates how ideas grounded in local realities can tackle universal challenges, and how creativity can help make sustainable change possible, rather than simply communicate it.

The win is a significant result for Bangladesh’s advertising and creative industry, with POP5 demonstrating that globally competitive ideas can emerge from local insights and manufacturing realities.