Submitted
Circular Economy

Circularise: prove your sustainability practices

Team Leader
Igor Konstantinov
Solution overview
Our Solution
Circularise: prove your sustainability practices
Tagline
Accelerating the shift towards a circular economy, by providing value chains with a secure data exchange tool.
Pitch us on your solution

Our economy is 'linear' meaning that raw materials are used to make a product, and after its use any waste is thrown away. If we keep living this way, future generations will live in a world defined by natural disasters, famine, and poverty. We at Circularise believe that by moving towards the circular economy these outcomes can be prevented. However, in order for that to happen we need cooperation between manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, recyclers and other parties involved. That's the reason why we are developing a blockchain‑based communication protocol to promote value chain transparency without public disclosure of datasets or supply chain partners (first in textile & plastics, later in electronics). This system will allow these parties to increase trust in each other, increase transparency and allow them to communicate data that wasn't accessible before, leading to an uptake of recycling, reusing and repurposing practices on a massive scale.

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What is the problem you are solving?

The textile industry is one of the most pollutants releasing industries of the world. Surveys show that nearly 5% of all landfill space is consumed by textile waste. United Nations Climate Change News states that the fashion industry contributes 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of global waste water due to its long supply chains and energy intensive production. While, up to 95% of the textiles that are land filled each year could be recycled, the textile industry is still defined by slow transition to the circular economy practices. In particular, manufacturers are reluctant to produce and use more secondary (recycled) materials due to the higher costs associated with auditing and certifications. These certificates provide auditable proof of origin and/or production and working conditions, however they are extremely costly or sometimes even impossible to obtain due to intransparent supply chains and the necessity to audit all actors. In turn, high prices of certified recycled materials leave manufacturers with significantly lower number of orders from textile retailers, hindering the shift towards a Circular Economy.

Who are you serving?

The customer of this system is a wholesale, business-to-business (B2B), recycled fabric (later on also plastic) supplier for end-users, retailers and wholesalers. This project opens the currently very small market of intermediary stakeholders in sustainable textiles to new companies, as it removes the necessity of a centralized and selective certification. This leads to the opportunity to sell products with recycled materials at a market price equal (or at least competitive) to virgin material products and thereby allows mass production of recycled materials and the development of a new standard to use recycled content not only in niche products but in the general collections of all major brands. In turn, this provides access to clothing made from recycled materials to the general public.

What is your solution?

Circularise is providing an innovative, fast and cheap technology, which allows to prove the origin of the recycled material without the necessity to certify every stakeholder along the supply chain.

Our solution implements existing certificates that are widely accepted in the industry (GRS), a chemical tracer (developed by our partner) than can be checked at any point in the supply chain, and a blockchain technology serving as a backbone of this system. The inviolability of blockchain gives the traceability chain a very convincing value, but in combination, the technologies stated above provide OEMs with an absolute proof of the origin of the material.This is unique as there are no technical solutions besides Circularise which allow tracking material with interruptions in the supply chain, while auditing and certifying two instead of 5-10 parties. This avoids the 15% additional costs for certification and makes sustainable material available for mass production. The solution tackles plastic-based and cotton-based materials alike and covers more than 95% material types. With our technology, retailers can decrease the environmental impact of their products while receiving auditable proof of the recycled content. As a result, producers of recycled material are able to sell more of their material to suppliers of said big retailers.

Select only the most relevant.
  • Increase production of renewable and recyclable raw materials for products and packaging
  • Design and produce mass-market clothing and apparel through circular processes
Where is your solution team headquartered?
Den Haag, Netherlands
Our solution's stage of development:
  • Prototype
More about your solution
About your team
Your business model & funding
Partnership potential
Solution Team:
Igor Konstantinov
Igor Konstantinov
Growth Manager
Teresa Oberhauser
Teresa Oberhauser
Mesbah Sabur
Mesbah Sabur
Founder