Xworks tech, a young UK-based start-up, is a data integrations platform for the waste and recycling industry, including plastics, which was founded in 2020 by two experienced waste consultants and recycling commodities traders, Electra Coutsoftides and Alex Hall, and data scientist Adrian Coutsofides.
The company builds software that enables the global trade of waste and recovery materials, goods and services in a transparent and traceable manner.
According to Electra Coutsoftides, the platform is waste agnostic. “However, our focus during the next 24-36 months is in the plastics industry,” she explained.
Its founders are seeking to put the years of experience gained in the waste management industry to use to address the issues they have seen at firsthand that affect the industry.
“The mismanagement of waste is a massive threat to our planet and daily lives,” said Electra Coutsoftides.
“Today still only 13.5% of the world's waste is being recycled while the rest is being sent to landfill and or being mismanaged which attracts fraud and waste crimes. The negative effects of landfills impact soil, human health, and global warming.”
Meanwhile, at the regulatory level, attitudes towards waste and waste management are also shifting rapidly. Today, waste has become a sustainable resource - and it is one that is held to pose an enormous opportunity. Sending this resource - made up of polymers, nutrients, metals and more - to landfill means it is lost to the economy. Capturing the value from waste can improve resource productivity.
Waste trading, however, must also comply with the regulations and legislation that are in place. Currently, waste trading misses transparency and cannot ensure end-to-end compliance in line with regulations., said Electra. “We are moving into a world of mandatory reporting, where regulators are forcing all businesses to be transparent and compliant.
UK is making mandatory the digital tracking of all waste by 2024 and this is followed by the EU Green requiring all products to have a digital passport to include end of life by 2025. Xworks will play a pivotal role in this,” she emphasised.
Xworks offers end-to-end compliance using blockchain-powered tracking that digitises waste streams, and make them available to buyers, sellers and auditors using smart matching and tracking.
“We validate, certify and drive compliance for the full value chain of the bulk movement of waste and scrap materials. The core concept of Xworks is to ‘credentialise’ waste disposal given that we track the source and ‘recyclability’ of the waste, offering circular procurement. Thus, Xworks is going to help contain costs, recycle more, and give transparency around the metrics that are coming out of businesses,” said Coutsoftides.
The compliance platform is designed to be able to authenticate every leg of the movement of the plastic waste. This will include checks against the Basel convention to ensure the plastics can be moved to its delivery location, and checks to ensure that the logistics providers are licensed. The commodities will be run against the European waste codes database. Ultimately, an Annex VII to the Commission Regulation on shipments of waste on green listed plastics is planned that will protect the buyer and seller and local environments from illegal and fraudulent practices.