An Edinburgh tech startup has created a ‘Bloomberg-style’ trading platform for organic waste, promising to turn one industry’s refuse into another’s gold.
Developed by Vaste in collaboration with computing experts from Edinburgh College, the platform will support Scottish businesses in meeting net zero and sustainability targets, boosting the country’s circular bioeconomy when it launches to commercial buyers later this year.
Businesses will be able to bid on bio-based feedstocks, like food waste, oils, agri-residues, and whisky by-products, along with forestry by-products and brewery waste, with target buyers using these as green alternatives to petrochemicals for energy, biofuels, chemicals, and pharma.
There have already been signs of interest, with Vaste in talks with industrial buyers who intend to use the tool to procure several thousand tonnes of cooking oils and waste potatoes for biofuel plants.
According to the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), which provided funding for the project, there is currently no other system that can connect businesses producing these residues with buyers who can turn those materials into high-value, sustainable products.
The platform will also offer real-time market insights, data analytics, and automated compliance tools, helping buyers and sellers digitise key data, from carbon footprint tracking to sustainability reporting.
“Vaste’s platform has the potential to become a core element of how the bioeconomy in Scotland, and the rest of the UK, develops in the years to come,” said Kim Cameron, senior business engagement manager at IBioIC.
“Access to market insights and the ability to reliably procure feedstocks will provide companies with an additional level of confidence to invest in bio-based products and processes, as well as reassurance that the supply chain exists to support their business model.”
Bioenergy and energy from waste accounted for 8.1% of all renewable electricity generated in Scotland in 2019, amounting to 2,472 GWh, with the Scottish Government predicting that the use of domestic resources for bioenergy has the potential to more than double from 6.7 TWh per year to 14 TWh per year by 2030.
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Reaching those targets will mean scaling up the availability of feedstocks, though currently the UK is overly dependent on imports, which make up as much as 30% of the supply for bio-based industries.
“Many of the UK’s bio-based industries are reliant on imports of feedstocks, which need not be the case,” said Evans Chelal, founder and chief executive of Vaste.
“The demand for the kinds of organic waste materials we are looking at exists locally, but the supply chains are either nascent or completely undeveloped.
“Industrial buyers don’t necessarily have the transparent connections or effective tools to access these materials. This is where our platform comes in – bridging the gap between supply and demand.”
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