Topolytics, a specialist in waste data analytics has been recognised by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as a global innovator in the field of the circular economy.
The Edinburgh-based company has been invited to join the Circular Economy 100 (CE100), an innovation programme established by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to enable organisations to develop new opportunities and realise their circular economy ambitions faster. It brings together corporates, governments, cities, academic institutions, emerging innovators and affiliates in a unique multi-stakeholder platform.
Dr Michael Groves, Topolytics CEO, said: “CE100 validates our leading position in the growing £1.5bn ‘smart waste’ sector. We are turning waste into a high value resource by mapping the generation and movement of the world’s commercial and industrial waste. Seeing where waste is and where it goes, is the first step to making better decisions about how it is managed and reduced. Take the decision by China to ban the import of low grade plastics and paper, for example. What now happens to this waste and where should it be processed?”
Edinburgh-based Topolytics’ award-winning technology platform maps and tracks industrial and commercial waste flows from source to processing. Topolytics’ can handle and analyse inputs from spreadsheets and sensors, offering valuable insights that allow waste managers in industry to make better cost, environmental and investment decisions. Currently the data on such industrial and commercial waste is poor – Topolytics is changing this through its ‘meta-map’. The ultimate aim is to drive waste out of the industrial system and enable a circular economy.
Groves added: “While cleantech investments have traditionally targeted energy infrastructure, there is a rapidly expanding focus on data, analytics and Internet of Things. Topolytics has been pioneering such a ‘cleantech 2.0’ approach through projects with sensors in Grangemouth and China and has focussed on waste because it has significant value as a secondary raw material and its movements are complex. The World Bank estimates that there will be 2bn tonnes of urban waste generated globally in a few years and most of this will be landfilled. It’s a big chunky problem that is not going to go away anytime soon.”
The company’s flagship product – WasteMap – is a dynamic digital map showing where waste is generated and where it is sent for disposal, recycling and reprocessing. WasteTrack enables customers to use this technology to assure themselves that their waste streams are being handled the way they should be – particularly critical with hazardous and high-value wastes.
Having spent two years market testing through proof of concept projects, Topolytics is commercialising through a steadily growing number of commercial customers for its data insights and analysis.
For further information about Topolytics see www.topolytics.com
