From the idea to a (sustainable) company: Circular Valley promotes start-ups

Mentoring in areas such as marketing and sales, direct contact with large companies, and support from industry experts – this is what every start-up dreams of. In the Circular Valley in Wuppertal, Germany, this is reality. Entrepreneurs from a wide variety of fields who want to contribute to the Circular Economy with their work are supported here.

In an interview with K-MAG, Dr. Carsten Gerhardt talks about start-ups in the field of plastics as well as what they can learn in the Circular Valley and why he believes it is so important for young companies to address the topic of the circular economy.

Dr. Gerhardt, what is the Circular Valley?

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Circular Valley is the global hotspot for the Circular Economy – much like Silicon Valley is the hotspot for the digital economy. Localized in the greater Rhine-Ruhr region, it's the place to go if you want to get involved in circular closure or emissions reduction, or already had a good idea; or even if you'd like to turn an invention into a company.

Who is the offer aimed at? Which start-ups from the plastics sector are or have been involved so far?

Gerhardt: At the moment, the offer is still aimed relatively broadly at all start-ups that deal with the topics of the EU Green Deal in the broader sense. If a start-up can make a substantial contribution to reducing environmental inputs in various areas – be it plastics, textiles, glass, electronics or construction waste – then it is welcome to join us.

In the area of plastics, we have start-ups that are essentially focused on secondary recycling of plastic waste. One of them is the start-up Ecoplastile from Uganda, which makes roof tiles from plastic waste, and the other is Plastogaz, which deals with chemical recycling.

What can the start-ups in Circular Valley learn? What expertise do they benefit from with you?

Gerhardt: The start-ups are taught the basics of what they need to get from an idea to a company. We start with questions of patent protection and move on to topics such as communication, marketing and sales. We offer some of these topics in-house. But the essential skill and ability of an accelerator is not to be the master of all classes or all content, but to make the appropriate connections. This networking with the respective experts in research and practice is the main value of every Accelerator – and so is ours.

For example, our Chief Scientist, Prof. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, is a former head of research at Henkel and has 30 years of research experience in industry himself. But even as a former Henkel research manager, it is of course impossible for him to cover all the important disciplines.

There are many topics in the area of the Circular Economy, so it's more a matter of skillfully connecting with the respective people with the relevant know-how. That's exactly what we also offer the start-ups here. We establish the connection to the large companies and scientific partners of Circular Valley. In addition to industry giants such as Bayer and Evonik, these are also smaller medium-sized companies. Wherever there is a connection in terms of content, we are happy to establish contact.

Why do you think it is so important for young companies to address the topic of the Circular Economy?

Gerhardt: It's important because it's the biggest future challenge we have as humanity. Everyone is talking about one dimension of Circular Economy at the moment, namely greenhouse gases. The open carbon cycle releases about 35 billion tons of CO2 per year. But beyond that, there are a whole host of similarly problematic fields, such as plastic and its single-use application: nearly 150 million tons of plastic end up in incineration or landfill after a single use. With our environmental inputs, we are placing an excessive burden on the biosphere and thus endangering our livelihood. For this reason, not only the European Union, but also the USA and China have put this topic at the top of their agendas with their respective regulations. The European Green Deal is essentially about circularity: How do we manage to reduce environmental inputs?

What kind of response do you get from the start-ups?

Gerhardt: The start-ups are extremely enthusiastic. On the one hand, because despite Covid-19 this year, we have also succeeded in setting up an on-site program. On the other hand, three points in particular excite them: First, that they get in touch with companies from a wide variety of industries and with scientific institutions of a wide variety of orientations. Second, that they have the opportunity to exchange ideas with each other, because they benefit massively from being able to exchange ideas with each other – regardless of the topic they are working on and regardless of the country in which they are doing so. And thirdly, that there is this program where they are given very specific information on topics that are important but that they have not been aware of so far – from patent law to marketing.

Do you have any other offerings planned in this direction in the future?

Gerhardt: In addition to dealing with start-ups, we also want to focus more and more on how to bring companies from the region, from different industries or even from different stages of the value chain more closely together. Plastics recycling, for example, is already addressed quite reasonably in many areas, but in the area of flexible packaging solutions or films, we have far fewer good mechanical, let alone chemical, recycling solutions. We can only achieve this, he says, if everyone along the value chain actually moves closer together. Here in the Rhine-Ruhr region, we see a particularly good opportunity for this, because we already have the most diverse players from all stages of the value chain on site.