Disposable packaging and inefficient waste management are two of the problems that have also become more important as a result of online retail. Two start-ups currently participating in the Circular Valley initiative's funding programme in the extended Rhine-Ruhr region are showing how to recycle waste correctly and make parcels reusable.
Online retailers turned over more than 90 billion euros in Germany in 2022; during the pandemic, the total was even close to 100 billion euros. A lot of transport journeys and packaging are required to bring all the associated goods to customers. Accordingly high are the CO2-emissions from the vehicles and the quantities of waste are correspondingly large, that are subsequently incurred. Massively reducing these values is one of the goals of the international start-ups participating in the current round of the Initiative Circular Valley in the extended Rhine-Ruhr region.
For the Circular Economy Accelerator-programme were 14 start-ups from all over the world selected from more than 500 applications. They deal with different topics (water treatment, platforms for industrial waste, renewable energies, green building and transport), but have one thing in common: their ideas have a „giga-impact“, i.e. they have a positive impact on the environment, they can avoid emissions in the order of billions of tonnes. In Circular Valley, the young companies develop their business models with high-calibre coaches and partners from established industry.
This also applies to the two start-ups in the funding programme, which Sustainability solutions for packaging and waste management have developed.
The start-up Lixo from France uses artificial intelligence to enable a genuine circular economy. The technology analyses waste in real time as it passes along the conveyor belt, providing a precise overview of the recyclable materials it contains. This makes waste management more transparent, efficient and traceable. Lixo's solution is therefore of interest to many players along the recycling chain, such as waste disposal companies, sorters and recyclers. The young company has already achieved great Partners such as Suez and Veolia acquired and would now like to grow internationally in the next step.
For the founders of Rhinopaq from Essen, a bitter number and the image of shipping containers formed the beginning of their idea. The bitter number: Every fourth tree is felled for packaging. This wouldn't have to be the case if parcels in online retail were like containers, meaning they could be used again and again. And this is exactly what the Boxes and envelopes made from recycled polypropylene, that Rhinopaq has developed. They replace disposable packaging when shipping tools, care products, cleaning products, coffee, toys and pet food, for example.
Circular Valley has supported more than 60 start-ups since its launch in summer 2021. The topics of transport and packaging have always been a focal point. Alumni of the initiatives therefore include Yo-Waste from Uganda and Transfairbag from Darmstadt.
Waste management is difficult in Uganda because, among other things, there are no proper addresses in many places and companies do not know where to collect the waste. The Ugandan start-up Yo-Waste has developed an app that solves this problem and has thus achieved great progress for environmental protection.
Transfairbag has made cushioning film in envelopes superfluous. The plastic is replaced by a paper solution so that the envelopes can be recycled without having to separate materials.
Source: Circular Valley
