Start-up and college to launch industrial waste-to-feedstock trading platform
24 Oct 2025
A collaboration between a business startup and a college, aided by a biotech support organisation, has created a platform for companies to trade organic waste.
Startup Vaste worked with computer scientists from Edinburgh College to design the software to enabled sectors to buy and sell bio-based feedstocks derived from a variety of waste and industry by-products.
Examples include food processing side streams, waste oils and fats, agricultural residues, forestry by-products and co-products from the whisky distilling and brewing.
The project is being funded by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), also based in the Scottish capital, to enable the commercial launch of the software.
Vaste has additionally been funded from the Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund and included on the Sustainable Ventures’ Powering the Future accelerator programme for SMEs in climate tech.
The aim is to encourage firms to support net zero and sustainability goals and derive a financial gain or saving, by opting for alternatives to traditional petrochemical-derived feedstocks for energy generation, biofuels, chemical manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
Vaste said its project will develop on previous work by IBioIC, Scottish Enterprise and Zero Waste Scotland to map out the availability of bio-based feedstocks with the aid of the Scottish Bioresource Mapping Tool.
Evans Chelal, founder and chief executive of Vaste, said: “Many of the UK’s bio-based industries are reliant on imports of feedstocks, which need not be the case.
“Industrial buyers don’t necessarily have the transparent connections or effective tools to access these materials. This is where our platform comes in – bridging the gap between supply and demand.”
The creators say the platform can also provide real-time market insights, data analytics, and automated compliance features to digitise key information about traded materials.
This will include data on environmental performance, carbon footprint tracking, as well as sustainability reporting.
IBioIC senior business engagement manager Kim Cameron said this would provide additional confidence to invest and evidence of a supply chain support the business model.
NEWS: The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) have published a new report highlighting the workforce requirements for a successful circular economy.
Currently, say the organisations, the UK consumes 15.3 tonnes of materials per person each year – roughly double what is considered sustainable – with more than 90% of those materials lost to the economy at the end-of-life.
“We are facing a serious skills gap when it comes to the circular economy. Industry is seeing deep challenges in sourcing these skills from local, UK-wide, and international markets,” said Duncan Lugton, head of policy and impact at IChemE.
To read the Jobs and skills for a circular economy: a cross-sector perspective from the chemical and materials science and engineering communities report, click here.
