“We are a dating website for materials, where we act as matchmakers aiming at eliminating the word waste from the dictionary.” This is how Dutch Maayke Aimee Damen and Christian van Maaren define Excess Materials Exchange, a platform facilitating the exchange of materials between productive sectors.

Founded in Amsterdam in 2017, the company aims to become a reliable source of secondary raw materials, putting them to better use compared to landfilling and incineration. Exchanged materials are cross-sectorial, ranging from steel plates to textile fibres, from organic and mineral elements obtained when filtering water to post-blooming tulips transformed by other companies into paint pigments. Thanks to AI and blockchain exchanges, materials are matched to be used, even in different sectors from those where they come from.

At the core of the platform is a material passport helping classify materials, components and data in a structured manner, giving them an identity. Using a traceability system with bar and QR codes and chips, each material, accompanied by a “passport”, is traced though its life cycle. Financial value, as well as environmental and social impact, are then calculated leading to a match where materials are reused at their highest possible value.

To make material exchange as suitable and advantageous as possible, sister company Stibbe helps companies overcome legal barriers pertaining to reuse and transfer of ownership of materials. To expand the reuse of materials, the start-up is carrying out an inventory which will be followed by a report detailing the most common legal barriers.

https://excessmaterialsexchange.com