Circular Material Marketplaces with Christian van Maaren
Episode 018: Podcast Show Notes
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.
Podcast Highlights and Circular Material Takeaways
- 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
Learn More About Circular Economy and Topics in this Episode
About the Show
Getting In the Loop is a weekly podcast dedicated to exploring how to transform to a more circular society. Join host Katie Whalen as she examines the challenges facing our current resource use and discovers alternatives to the ‘take, make, dispose’ way of doing things. Each week she interviews circular economy experts about what they’re doing and learning. Together we'll uncover what circular economy means in practice and find out what's being done to keep our resources in a loop rather than sent to waste.
About Today's Guest
Christian van Maaren
Christian van Maaren is co-founder of the 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.