Circular Material Marketplaces with Christian van Maaren | Getting in the Loop Podcast

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.

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

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

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.

Circular Material Marketplaces with Christian van Maaren | Getting in the Loop Podcast

GETTING IN THE LOOP PODCAST