Circular Material Marketplaces with Christian van Maaren

In this episode, Christian van Maaren tells us about the economic and environmental benefits of reusing waste materials and how his company Excess Materials Exchange has helped to reuse over 70,000 tonnes of materials. You will learn about how to create value from and find new uses for materials once thought of as waste and hear about Christian’s mission to redefine waste. Resources and links discussed in this episode can be found at gettinginthelooppodcast.com .

Update: Since recording the podcast, Excess Materials Exchange has finished conducting the pilot study discussed in the podcast. In terms of the potential impact of the pilot, here are the final findings:

·     Identified financial value equivalent to €64 million

·     Energy savings equivalent to the energy consumption of the city lights in Paris for five years

·     Water savings equivalent to 860 Olympic-size swimming pools

·     CO2 savings equivalent to almost 870,000 car rides from Amsterdam to Milan

ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST
Christian van Maaren is co-founder of Excess Materials Exchange. The company aims to find new uses for waste materials by connecting stakeholders and has created value for unused materials in various industries and sectors including plastics, textiles, and construction.

HIGHLIGHTS
3:00 Meet the ‘Tinder’ of the circular economy that matches secondary material supply with demand
5:30 Quantifying the resources saved by reusing materials
8:00 Plastics, textiles, organic waste, and other materials that can be reused
10:30 How technology enables track and trace of resources flows
16:00 Going beyond a platform to match supply and demand of secondary materials
17:15 How excess materials are driving the transition to a circular economy
20:30 Eight challenges to implementing material reuse platforms
26:00 Legislative barriers to reuse of materials
32:00 Rethinking our views of waste to enable a more circular economy