Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2020 - 21

Q&A
logram of material produced by
a producer, we create one kilogram on our system. One token
on our blockchain represents
this kilogram and to this we
can also attach information as
to why this is sustainable - information provided by auditors,
certificates and other proof
points. So for every physical
kilogram, there is a digital kilogram on the blockchain.
And, like in the case of bitcoins, this one kilo digital token
cannot be altered when given
to the customer.
This means that scarcity, that
ownership has been created of
that digital material. Now, if you
trust that Covestro has done a
good job and that the auditors
have done a good job, you don't
have to trust the thousands of
other suppliers - because they
cannot lie.
Every supplier after Covestro
would need to show they have
access to these tokens. This is
how blockchain can help prove
the sustainability of the supply
chain. We are not making it sustainable: we are making it very
easy to communicate about
sustainability. And very, very
hard to lie about sustainability.
What makes your approach
different from the rest?
The thing that makes us unique
is that we have a very open approach in which privacy is preserved. We have opted for an
open system: all the information is on a publicly accessible
blockchain.
There are examples of closed
blockchains in the industry,
which can only be accessed by
certain companies. However,
there is still some sort of central
governance in those systems.
The issue with choosing an
open system is privacy. If everything is open, how do you
deal with the fact that everyone
can see all the information in
it? This can be extremely concerning if all the transactions of
a company are visible. For this
reason, others have opted for
a private system. Instead of a
closed system, we have added
a technology on top that allows
us to keep the information on
the blockchain private, even
though it is on a public system.
It took very complicated mathematics (known as zero knowl-

edge proofs), but at the end
of the day it allows us to show
statements on a public blockchain without showing the data
behind these - the best of both
worlds.
Why make it so difficult?
A private, closed blockchain
cannot become a standard.
A private blockchain is still in
the hands of the companies
that created it. And for our
purpose, with the thousands
of suppliers all over the world
- this needs to become an industry standard for it to work.
That's why an open public system is so important.
Is your technology patented?
It is patented, and we are
working on establishing a
foundation that will make the
standard, and ultimately we
will donate a large part of the
patents to this foundation.
What about partners, how
does that work? Covestro recently mentioned they were
working with you during their
webinar on Sustainability a
few weeks ago. Are they a
partner?
Yes, you could consider them
as such, and Domo. They are
the pioneers of the technology. They've been the first to
use it and kickstarted it in the
plastics industry.
We also worked with BASF
and Stanley Black&Decker in
the States: last year, BASF did
a project with Greentown labs,
an accelerator programme in
Boston, where they selected
five start-ups out of 100 applications, of which we were one.
They already did a pilot this
year, which was with Stanley
Black&Decker, the power tool
company. We are still talking
with BASF about them becoming an official partner. We have
also partnered with Plug and
Play Tech Center and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, in an
accelerator programme. Plus
we are a member of the Ellen
MacArthur foundation.

have a fully circular economy
without doing some kind of
tracing of products. It's a very
important core element.
Where will Circularise be - or
do you hope it will be - in five
years?
So, in the far future, we plan to
be - at least for the plastics industry - the industry standard
through our protocol. Hence
for the foreseeable future, we
will be focusing on creating this
protocol and pushing it as a
standard for the industry. It will
take a few years, but in 5 years'
time, I do see Circularise being
THE protocol used by at least all
European parties and parties in
the States as the standard protocol for transparency.
We've also understood that
we have to look beyond just
plastics: the brands using these
plastics never only use plastics.
They always also use metals
and textiles and different materials. So another part of the plan
is to grow into different industries; or at least collaborate with
different solutions with different
industries. So it's more of a holistic approach - not different
systems for different materials,
but one system encompassing
all. But this is a long-term goal.

With blockchain
technology, no
central authority
is needed

Does the technology fit within
the circular economy ambitions of the EU?
Yes, obviously. It's basically the
whole reason we started! This
is a very important part of the
circular economy- we cannot
May/June 2020

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Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2020
