Innovation

Digital technologies fostering transformation to a circular economy are at the core of Cyrkl’s business. With this approach, Cyrkl has created two innovative solutions that complement each other - a digital marketplace for waste and waste scans.

The marketplace works like a dating app for waste. One company produces some industrial waste, whereas another company can reuse or recycle this waste and it is a match! For example, one company has offered 91 tons of EPS polystyrene on Cyrkl’s marketplace. They were connected with a company that could recycle the polystyrene into a new packaging or granulate used in the construction industry. To improve the efficiency of the matching process, Cyrkl uses machine learning.

The waste scans are Cyrkl’s consulting services. Roman (Country Manager & Expansion Manager of Cyrkl) emphasized that they are “trying to find innovative, digital ways to use more technology in consulting so that it is not just manual work”. Therefore, they have created an automated solution using artificial intelligence; businesses can submit their waste documentation and a unique algorithm generates a report with suggestions for circular waste management. Nevertheless, the human aspect is still very important in Cyrkl’s consulting. They have teams of waste management experts helping companies to find solutions in line with local legislation (which is often complex and continuously developing) or more personalized solutions specific to the given company’s waste. For instance, a furniture company landfilled 100 tons of waste every year in form of a mixture of small wooden and plastic pieces. Cyrkl has found a recycler who had the technology to separate those small pieces, and separately recycle the wood and the plastic.

Inspiration

“One person's trash is another one's treasure” - The founder of Cyrkl, Cyril Klepek, seems to have internalized this saying and is now revolutionizing the waste management market.

Cyrkl’s journey began just four years ago when Cyril (now the CEO of the company) started the first steps toward creating a platform for waste trading. Cyrkl was officially established as a start-up in 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic. Cyril Klepek, the founder, has a background in a circular economy, waste management, and the innovations behind it. He wanted to start a business in this field and his main motivation, as explained in the interview with Roman, was that “the waste management market had and still has a lot of problems with transparency and inefficiency in both financial and environmental terms”. Many companies are simply lacking the knowledge of how valuable their waste can be to others and how much of a positive environmental and financial benefit circular waste management can have. It is simply a win-win-win situation: profitable waste management for sellers, cheaper resources for buyers and CO2 savings for the planet.

From the business perspective, the start-up was inspired by the success of platform business models, and therefore, “betted on making a successful platform-based business model in the area of waste management” said Roman. Moreover, the political and socio-economic trends have been a big motivator. Different initiatives on both international and national levels as well as public interest in the circular economy have been growing, thus, confirming the relevancy of Cyrkl’s innovation.

Overall impact

By turning waste into a resource, Cyrkl saves CO2 emissions while creating financial gains for their customers. As Roman explained during the interview, to attract companies, it is inevitable to “connect the environmental part with the economic part”. This strategy seems to be working well for Cyrkl. Until now, more than 16,000 companies registered on the platform, and in the last 12 months, more than 200 000 tons of CO2 emissions were saved.

In this way, Cyrkl directly contributes to three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The main SDG affected is SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production. More specifically, Cyrkls actions correspond to Target 12.5 regarding prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse of waste, also Target 12.4 concerning environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life, and Target 12.2 about sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources.

Furthermore, SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, concretely Target 9.4 which focuses on increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and processes in the industry is also supported by Cyrkl’s operations.

Lastly, Cyrkl helps to reach global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation which is Target 8.4 of SDG 8 - Economic growth.

Business benefit

Cyrkl’s innovations, the digital marketplace for waste and the waste scans, created the core of their business. Therefore, the first business benefit of Cyrkl’s innovations is the existence of the company itself. Currently, the majority of Cyrkl’s revenue comes from the waste scans in the form of payment for the consulting services. The rest comes from subscriptions to the premium version of the marketplace. In the long run, Cyrkl would like to make the marketplace their main revenue stream by taking a commission from all the trades and auctions done through the platform. Another reason for the bigger focus on the marketplace is its scalability potential. Right now, Cyrkl is the biggest digital marketplace for waste in Europe. In just 3 years, they have expanded to 11 countries and counting and aims to become the global leader in the industry.

Furthermore, the expansion means that more people become part of the Cyrkl team or as Roman describes it "part of the mission". At the same time, different nations and characters meet to share knowledge and educate themselves together. The corporate culture, which is characterized by a startup mentality and young, intrinsically motivated talents, has also been positively influenced by the company's growth.

Lastly, Cyrkl also creates business benefits for its users and clients. When offering waste through the marketplace, users can profit from rather than pay for waste management. Similarly, consulting clients can save between 15% and 45% of annual waste costs by optimizing their waste while the buyers of the waste get cheaper resources.

Social and environmental benefit

The environmental benefit of Cyrkl’s innovations lies in preventing waste pollution and CO2 emissions. Cyrkl strives to turn away from landfill all the waste that they can. They climb the ladder of the waste hierarchy and try to either find a new purpose for this waste in recycling and reusing or reduce the waste generation.

In the last 12 months, more than 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions were saved by trading waste through Cyrkl’s marketplace. The calculation is based on the data from the waste materials traded through the marketplace, statistical data on the generation and treatment of waste in the European Union and data on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions specific to each waste material including the way in which these materials are managed (i.e. recycling, incineration, landfilling). Additionally, companies using the consulting services can save between 200 and 700 tons of CO2 per year.

The social benefit of Cyrkl’s innovations is rather indirect. They try to spread awareness about the circular economy amongst businesses and shift the mindset of companies to adopt the circular approach. Plus, by waste prevention, they contribute to a better living environment for the society.

Interview

Roman Gdovjak, Country Manager & Expansion Manager