Edinburgh-based tech start-up creates trading platform for food waste

A trading platform for everything from food waste to agricultural residues has been created by an Edinburgh based tech company. 

The platform, created by Vaste in collaboration with computing science experts from Edinburgh College, aims to support a range of businesses with their net zero and sustainability goals. 

It works by moving potential organic waste from one business into a useful fuel source for another. This approach is expected to be utilised by buyers who could use these materials as alternatives to petrochemical-derived fuels for energy generation, the production of biofuels, chemical manufacturing, and pharmaceutical production. 

“Many of the UK’s bio-based industries are reliant on imports of feedstocks, which need not be the case,” said Evans Chelal, the founder and chief executive of Vaste. 

“The demand for the kinds of organic waste materials we are looking at exists locally, but the supply chains are either nascent or completely undeveloped. Industrial buyers don’t necessarily have the transparent connections or effective tools to access these materials.” 

The platform is designed as a Bloomberg style trading terminal, giving buyers the ability to bid on resources that could be used in their own businesses. It will also provide users with real-time market insights on the performance and price of waste, with data available on environmental performance, carbon footprint tracking, and sustainability reporting. 

The project was supported by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) and is due to launch later this year. 

The project builds on previous work carried out by the IBioIC, Scottish Enterprise, and Zero Waste Scotland to map out the availability of this kind of waste using the Scottish Bioresource Mapping Tool. 

“Vaste’s platform has the potential to become a core element of how the bioeconomy in Scotland, and the rest of the UK, develops in the years to come,” said Kim Cameron, the senior business engagement manager at IBioIC. 

“Access to market insights and the ability to reliably procure feedstocks will provide companies with an additional level of confidence to invest in bio-based products and processes, as well as reassurance that the supply chain exists to support their business model.” 

In 2019, 8.1 per cent of Scotland’s renewable electricity was produced by bioenergy and energy from waste. This makes up just three per cent of Scotland’s renewable energy target of net zero emissions by 2050. 

Despite this, domestic resources for bioenergy have the potential to double by 2030, according to a Scottish Government paper published in 2021.