Achieving sustainability goals with the blockchain technology

Based in the Netherlands, Circularise start-up entered a new market and launched Circularise PLASTICS with Domo Chemicals and Covestro, two major and globally operating plastics companies, for circularity in the plastics industry through the use of blockchain technology.

The Circularise PLASTICS project is at a stage when other parties can join it for the ideation and testing. The objective is to create a strong consortium of companies to set an industry standard for transparency in recycled content and other sustainable practices. New members will become sustainable innovators in the plastics industry, having access to the latest information and resources, and getting an opportunity to co-create an industry-wide communication standard for the circular economy.

Transparency and traceability for the circular economy

In recent years sustainability and transparency have been a hot topic in the plastics industry. The newly formed Circularise PLASTICS project group targets both of these topics by setting up an open standard for sustainability and transparency within this field.

As partners, EIT RawMaterials has supported Circularise both financially and with its expertise in the industry, and Circularise, in turn, has been sharing its knowledge on technology and innovation in the circular economy. Communication and knowledge-sharing are key to the mission of EIT RawMaterials.

It is important for all stakeholders in the value chain to communicate with each other and exchange relevant information. This is why Circularise is so interesting for us.

Beant Dijkstra, Business Development Manager at EIT RawMaterials

Furthermore, Circularise was nominated for the EIT Venture Award 2018, which recognises successful start-ups and scale-ups supported by the EIT’s Innovation Communities through dedicated business creation and acceleration programmes, as well as selected for pitching during the Raw Materials Summit & Venture Forum 2019 as one of the most promising EU start-up companies in front of a large audience of investors and potential industrial partners. Thanks to the EIT RawMaterials support, Circularise’s team had the opportunity to develop their product further.

Disrupting long-held linear systems

The start-up met Covestro at CES 2019, one of the largest and most influential technology events on the planet. Circularise’s participation was supported by EIT RawMaterials and this cooperation has led to the start-up’s team landing a large scale pilot and entering the plastics industry. As a result, Circularise successfully developed an MVP and is about to demonstrate the system on the market in a commercial environment. The start-up has already followed up on this success by presenting their solution to BASF in the context of their Circularity Challenge. Circularise ended up being the only software company out of nearly 100 competitors to become a finalist in the challenge. At the moment Circularise is working with these parties on the development of the standard.