Circular Digital Platform for Recycled Plastics GA

June 20, 2022

Circular.co launched its full-service digital platform that introduces a new way to buy and sell sustainable commodities at scale, starting with a focus on recycled plastics. The platform helps essential industries evolve to a more sustainable future by offering efficient online trading, accessible data and transparent economics. Circular's digital infrastructure tools simplify supply chain logistics by doing all the sourcing, vetting, matching, contracting, shipping and billing for its customers. Buyers and sellers can trade with confidence backed by a full guarantee, and a dedicated concierge to facilitate the entire process.

"Circular selected recycled plastics to start because of the scale of opportunity and challenge this industry faces," said Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner, Eclipse Ventures and Board Member of Circular. Over 380 million tons of virgin plastic are produced each year and global recycling rates remain under 9%, dropping to under 5% recently in the US. This results in oceans of waste, microplastics in our bloodstream, and roughly 2 gigatons per year of CO2 pumped into our atmosphere."

"The plastics industry is essential to the global economy and clearly needs to evolve sustainably as fast as possible," said Madigan-Curtis. "The digital tools required to help this sustainable evolution already exist in other industries; it's inevitable they will apply to the plastic industry; our aim is to expedite the process," she added.

As a leading early adopter of sustainable packaging, Method and Ripple Foods founder, Adam Lowry, is no stranger to the challenges companies face sourcing quality recycled material. "We applaud major brands and manufacturers setting sustainability goals to reduce their dependence on virgin plastic. Now is the time to take real action on those pledges," Lowry said. "With positive economics, recyclers are investing in more capacity, and Circular's digital platform gives buyers and sellers more options, making trading easier. For the first time in over a decade, I feel confident we've got the right ingredients for real change," he said.

"By delivering a transparent digital trading experience, brands and manufacturers can now confidently buy sustainable materials at scale," said Arthurs. "This creates a clear economic opportunity which in turn stimulates innovation to create more supply, more liquidity, and ultimately greater circularity, less waste and less CO2. Marrying the best of technology with the reality of how plastic is bought, creates a real win-win, which is ultimately Circular's goal," he added.

Circular's leadership team is uniquely positioned to deliver on their objectives, bringing decades of technology platform experience from the likes of Google, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, Bloomberg, Snap and Medium. Complementing that, Arthurs added a deep bench of senior industry advisors, including Lowry and executives in the recycling and manufacturing spaces. Rounding out the team, Circular secured Eclipse Ventures, a top venture capital firm helping entrepreneurs build exceptional companies that make physical industries more efficient, resilient, and profitable, as their lead investor. The combination brings unparalleled depth of expertise in digitizing physical industries, including manufacturing, supply chain and logistics.

For the past year, Circular and Eclipse have been conducting research and development, and testing the digital platform among buyers and sellers. Circular.co is now prepared to launch and offer real scale for global buyers and sellers.