DeepSummary
In this episode, Katie Welland interviews Christian von Maren, the co-founder of the Excess Materials Exchange, a company that helps connect stakeholders to find new uses for materials that were once considered waste. Christian explains how his company acts as a 'dating site' for secondary materials, actively matching supply and demand, and pairing materials with technologies that can ensure high-value next destinations.
Christian shares insights into the economic and environmental benefits of their work, revealing that they have helped reuse over 70,000 tons of materials, equivalent to the carbon emissions of 850,000 car rides from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. He discusses the challenges they face, such as ensuring a consistent supply of quality materials, creating a sense of urgency among companies, and overcoming a lack of transparency in the market.
Christian highlights the need for scaling circular economy solutions and creating a massive exchange of secondary materials. He emphasizes the importance of redefining what is considered waste and treating certain material flows as products rather than waste, which could propel the transition towards a circular economy.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Excess Materials Exchange actively matches companies with excess materials to find new uses for them, acting as a 'dating site' for secondary materials.
- The company has helped reuse over 70,000 tons of materials, leading to significant environmental benefits, such as reducing carbon emissions equivalent to 850,000 car rides from Amsterdam to Copenhagen.
- Challenges in scaling circular economy solutions include ensuring a consistent supply of quality materials, creating a sense of urgency among companies, and overcoming a lack of transparency in the market.
- Redefining what is considered waste and treating certain material flows as products rather than waste could propel the transition towards a circular economy.
- The Excess Materials Exchange provides a holistic approach, including tools for material passports, tracking and tracing, valuation, and matchmaking, as well as support for organizational change and legal/financial frameworks.
- Scaling circular economy solutions and creating a massive exchange of secondary materials is crucial to achieving substantial environmental impact and addressing resource scarcity.
- Regulatory challenges, such as harmonizing waste definitions across borders, need to be addressed to facilitate the cross-border movement of materials.
- Developing advanced machine learning tools and improving user experience can help streamline the matchmaking process and enable the Excess Materials Exchange to achieve greater scale.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We are a dating site for secondary materials where we actively match supply and demand, and we match materials with technologies that can ensure high value next destinations or next uses for these materials.“ by Christian
- “We have often been compared to the tinder for materials, although I think at the same time tinder is still quite passive. Like, we are really like a dating site in that sense, that we really are actively looking for ideal matches.“ by Christian
- “If you look at the carbon emissions that we can avoid by these matches, it is about equal to the CO2 emissions associated with 850,000 thousand car rides from Amsterdam to Copenhagen.“ by Christian
- “We see that the impact that we can have by high value matching, by finding high value next destinations for materials, the impact that we can have, especially on CO2 emissions, is quite significant.“ by Christian
- “What if we look at a certain waste stream and if it does not pose any risk to humans or the environment and it fits certain product specifications, then also it just should be considered a product or a material flow and not a waste at all.“ by Christian
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Episode Information
Getting In the Loop: Circular Economy | Sustainability | Closing the Loop
Katherine Whalen
7/8/19