AgroCycle Marketplace

The agri-food industry is facing a major global challenge to address its sustainability, environmental impact and the utilization of waste streams. Regulatory constraints are demanding that a ‘circular economy’ approach be adopted, with all waste considered as a resource of significant value to the economy, known as Industrial Symbiosis - where one sector's residues can be used by another industry. There is no national, international or global mechanism to enable the smooth transfer of such waste streams, (defined as “residues” or “side-streams”), to enable their utilization in an appropriate manner. AgroCycle is a world-first, offering a global platform to facilitate the matching of supply and demand in this “side-stream” market. Products are categorised as Agri-Food Wastes, Co- and By-Products (AWCBs) which include on-farm wastes and waste streams from the broader agri-food industry, including those arising from food processing, retail and consumption. 

Regulations are impacting the agri-food sector very significantly, forcing reconsideration of operational efficiency (i.e. how to reduce waste in the first instance); and developing utilization pathways for any side-streams emerging (i.e. valorization pathways). They include measures to promote Industrial Symbiosis and measures to promote the prevention and reduction of food waste. Reporting of the efficiencies of these measures will be required, hence a traceability system is essential whereby the movement of side-streams through the marketplace is monitored, a feature offered by AgroCycle.  In effect, AgroCycle addresses both the regulatory and commercial requirements offering the agri-food industry the commercial opportunity to add value to its side-streams; while also providing a steady stream of raw material for a bio-economy that utilizes agri-food residues as its input feedstock.

 Key problems-  

1. Sending waste to landfill will no longer be an option for most waste streams.
2. Businesses will be obliged to ensure that waste streams are valorized.
3. Increased costs associated with waste management.
4. Producer responsibility schemes will result in fines for producers who do not adapt.

The Circular Economy represents an opportunity for companies to enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility and brand provenance.

The technology was developed to facilitate the exchange of information among producers, managers and other stakeholders of agricultural wastes, co-products and by-products (AWCB) across Europe. The aim was to optimize valorization routes for a successful and responsible treatment of these materials. Further to the above, a two-sided marketplace platform was created to allow producers and potential buyers to trade AWCB.

This trading platform incorporated basic standard features to allow sellers to post a description of their waste and potential buyers to contact them. Buyers and Sellers could be filtered according to:

1. Category of waste
2. Address/Location

• The project will provide an international mechanism to enable the smooth transfer of side-streams to enable their utilization in an appropriate manner, offering a global platform to facilitate the matching of supply and demand in the residue market.
• It will provide an obvious solution for the “disposal” of waste, at a fraction of the cost.
• ISO quality approved standards, in conjunction with the legislation, will be established which will allow the agri-food industry to send their side-streams upstream, safe in the knowledge that there will be no negative implications.

Direct comments from the AgroCycle Marketplace feasibility study give a good synoptic overview of the domain:

The AgroCycle marketplace has told us that “Sustainability is key to all our futures”; that there are “Numerous examples of food waste being dumped”; “the PR opportunity for engaging in the circular economy hasn’t been exploited”; “Volume is the issue – so much generated it’s difficult to find homes for it all”; and that there is an “ambition to be ‘greener’ but struggling to allocate resources to finding homes for waste”. It was also identified that the platform needs to be user-friendly in APP format. However, obstacles to the development of the Circular Economy include: “Paperwork”; “Certification”; “regulatory know how”; “Traceability”; “Storage” (refrigeration), “Transport” and “Processing Costs”. Currently, if a potential buyer wants to buy waste they have to deal with all the above, and perhaps travel to inspect the waste before purchasing. In the ultimate version of AgroCycle, we propose removing all those problems, taking care of inspection, certification, logistics, paperwork, customs and secure payment.

Existing MarketPlace technology exists, however, to our knowledge, it has not been used to support the movement of goods within the circular economy. Our solution is innovative as it allows not only payment transactions to take place, it also allows users to engage in private conversations whereby they can discuss specifications, delivery options etc...with potential suppliers/purchasers.

Our solution takes existing MarketPlace technology and adapts it to provide an enabler within the circular economy. AgroCycle Platform is an integrated software platform that serves as an open forum for the exchange of knowledge, resources and news between the relevant actors in the AWCB value chain.  It is the result of the efforts to gather farmers, food processors, retailers, policy makers, waste managers, agricultural associations, technology providers, and all the relevant actors for knowledge and assets exchange. The platform will work as a Decision Support System (DSS) and will facilitate the exchange of information and waste among producers, managers and legislators of AWCB therefore optimizing valorization routes for the successful and responsible treatment of materials.

The value of the food wasted annually on a global basis is USD1 trillion (at retail prices), plus an additional USD700bn due to excessive greenhouse gas emissions. The water consumed in producing this food is sufficient to supply every household in the world for a year. Social losses such as impact of pesticides on human health and loss of livelihood due to scarcity of natural resources are estimated to be an additional USD1 trillion. This problem affects everyone and the focus should be on reduction. However, there will always be some waste and our platform enables producers of waste to engage with a community who may be able to use it such as charities, bio-energy generators and animal feed producers.

Our platform is at the prototype stage and we have not yet launched it commercially. However, 90 individuals have joined via our web page and have expressed an interest in signing up.

Our main goal is to enable organizations and companies who generate side streams as part of their processes to seek out and engage with potential users of their side-streams. Initially we plan to market the product in mainland Europe as we believe the circular economy is better established in this region, however, the platform will have the ability to enable a circular exchange on a global business - it would be our ambition to do this over a 5 year period. This will have global impact as new businesses establish themselves through seizing opportunities to valorize waste.

Our main challenge is securing funding to develop software that will enable the business to scale. Linked to this is the requirement to write a technical brief for platform development.

We are considering the possibility of bringing on board a technical co-founder with experience in managing tech teams. We are also looking to regional and national funding agencies such as Enterprise Ireland to assist with financing feasibility studies and prototype development.

 The ‘AgroCycle Marketplace’ software platform was originally developed as part of the H2020 project, a partnership comprised of pan-European and Chinese delegates led by Professor Shane Ward at University College Dublin. Our team are endeavoring to commercialize the project as a spin-out company from UCD.

Our team is comprised of Professor Shane Ward, Dr. Tom Curran, Dr Anna Lesniak, Mr Ronan O' Mhaoinigh and Ms Deirdre Blake. We all work on AgroCycle on a part-time basis. In addition to our core team, we also engage with software developers to develop the trading platform and add features as deemed necessary.

Shane Ward, Professor of Biosystems Engineering at UCD. Having published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, he has led national and international projects, including ‘SafeMBM’ (safe disposal and utilisation of meat and bone meal); EC FP4 ‘ECOWOOD’ (eco-efficient wood harvesting); EC FP6 ‘SigmaChain’ (food chain traceability); and the H2020 AgroCycle project. He is currently ‘Scientific Director’ of CONSUS, the flagship ‘digital agriculture’ project. Having extensive international networks, he is currently ‘coordinating chair’ of the EIP-Agri Focus Group 31.

Dr. Curran, Director of the MSc Environmental Technology degree programme at UCD. Interests include waste management and air quality. A Fulbright Scholar (TechImpact Award 2017-18) at North Carolina State University on an advanced warning system for sewer network blockages, Dr Curran has also served as the Chairman of the Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland (2014-16).

Dr Anna Lesniak has an MSc in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in NanoChemistry. She has worked on European Commission funded projects (NeuroNano FP7, NanoInteract FP6) and nationally funded projects. Dr Lesniak was Project Manager on the EU H2020 AgroCycle project.

Mr Ronan O’Mhaoinigh has experience in Business Development, Project Management and Finance with proven leadership and strategic skills in managing sales, promotions sponsorships and marketing strategies.

Ms Deirdre Blake is experienced in technical, operations and procurement within the food industry specializing in strategy and organizational development. Deirdre brings international experience to AgroCycle having worked with the multinational, Kerry Group.

Currently we have no formal partnerships in place although we are seeking to partner with a software developer as a matter of priority.

Our business model creates value by facilitating exchanges between two or more independent people or groups of people. It is our aim to create a large, scalable network of demand and resource users from which the network effects will create communities who will interact and transact via a secure site. Digital technology infrastructure will be used to support scale participation and collaboration. In addition to being an aggregation platform that is short-term transaction focused, AgroCycle will also be a mobilization platform which will foster long-term relationships that will endeavour to make a meaningful, innovative contribution to the global circular economy in the longer term.

Initially, we are looking to national enterprise agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency to fund the software development and initial marketing effort. When AgroCycle is fully commercialized, it will operate as a market linkage model. We plan to charge users of side streams a monthly subscription. Generators of side-streams will be offered the service free of charge to encourage a high participation level, thereby making the platform more attractive to users creating stronger network effects in the long term. Advertising will also be a source of revenue for AgroCycle as the number of users increases.

We believe that we are developing a solution that will be an enabler for the development of the circular economy. Using technology, generators of side streams will be able to connect with potential users of same on a secure platform where payment facilities will be incorporated. Our offering addresses a problem that is global in nature i.e. a communication tool that brings the stakeholders of the circular economy together. The technological bases of our solution means that it is easily scaled, therefore having the potential for significant environmental impact. The attributes described above are prerequisites for successful Solve applications.

If our application were to be successful, the Solve network is attractive for us as it would allow us to accelerate our work through media exposure, platforms for speaking about our product and international introductions. We would also benefit hugely from a mentoring program as we are early stage entrepreneurs. The needs assessment would also help us to validate assumptions within our business plan.

The opportunity for international introductions would be extremely beneficial for our global expansion target.

Ideally we would like to partner with large, independent agri-food businesses including food processors that have access to an established network of farmers, suppliers and end users of farm and food processing outputs. We would also be interested in engaging with regulatory authorities with a view to initiating a referral process - we would aspire to being the recommended platform for waste management options.

We do not meet the eligibility requirements for this prize.

If we were to win one of two prizes of up to $50,000, we would use the funds to invest in our direct sales strategy. The prize money would pay basic salary for a sales executive to work 'on the ground' in the US market. Not only would this facilitate networking in a new market for us, we would also expect to be able to advance potential partnership development which is strategically important to our global expansion plans.

We do not meet the eligibility requirements for this prize.

We do not meet the eligibility requirements for this prize.