WaVa: the Anibis of industrial secondary raw materials

Industries produce a lot of waste, sometimes ten times as much as they produce end products. The company WaVa (for Waste Valorisation) has set up a solution to give a second life to these industrial by-products an open marketplace that puts the circular economy into practice.

WaVa is a digital platform that enables manufacturers, whether in the pharmaceutical, chemical or watchmaking sectors for example, to sell secondary raw materials and give new life to waste that may still be useful. Firstly, this solution enables raw materials to be reused or recycled, avoiding the need to incinerate or bury them, and secondly, provides economic benefits for companies. The benefits are twofold: sellers are rewarded for products they were planning to throw away, and buyers gain access to raw materials that are cheaper than those available on the market. As Henri Klunge, co-founder of the platform, explains, "WaVa's mission is to find synergies to reduce the ecological impact of the chemical industry". Based in Monthey, this Valais-based company promotes the circular economy and industrial ecology.

After several years in industry, Henri Klunge, Laurent Collet and Yannick Gendre - the three founders of WaVa - realized that certain products were not being reused, even though they could benefit from a second life. In addition, the health crisis and the war in Ukraine have made raw materials rarer and more expensive. With these challenges in mind, they created the WaVa circular and transparent platform to reuse what can be recycled. Each member of the team plays an important role, whether in IT and contracts, finding new customers or controlling products and licenses.

Everyone wins with WaVa

The specifications and purity of products sold and searched for on WaVa are known and visible to other platform users. It is also possible to send samples for laboratory analysis before finalizing the transaction.

After registering free of charge on the website, the buyer has access to all available products. Once they have found the product they need, they are put in contact with the seller via the platform. WaVa also offers partnerships for transport, logistics and documentation.

A pioneering project in Switzerland

This digital sales platform is the only one of its kind in Switzerland, and one of only a handful of companies worldwide to offer this service. A year after its launch, the site has more and more subscribers, and more and more products are being upgraded. WaVa aims to expand into German-speaking Switzerland and beyond. With a view to improving the ecological footprint of its industries, WaVa only includes local companies on its website, enabling them to find local synergies. The site has established itself as a key platform for the circular economy in Switzerland.

WaVa, a platform between an ad site and a dating site

A circular platform - enabling industries to find local synergies to reduce their carbon footprint by giving a second life to their manufacturing by-products - and transparent - as the characteristics of secondary raw materials are visible to all WaVa users.

Giving a second life to chemical waste from local industries - WaVa in 3 figures :

• 2021: the year WaVa was created
• 10 products are searched on the site and 6 products are waiting for their buyer
• 3 people: that's the size of the WaVa team

Digital nuggets in French-speaking Switzerland

WaVa is the Nugget of the Month for June 2022, selected by the Alp ICT, BioAlps, CleantechAlps and Micronarc platforms, which each year, thanks to their fieldwork, discover remarkable innovation projects that are not yet widely publicized. Most of the time, these are projects within companies that use digital technologies to meet their internal needs or to develop their business.

The term "nugget" was chosen in reference to the gold nuggets that form in geothermal springs, through cracks in hard rock, and therefore in hard-to-reach places. A nugget is not necessarily known; it has value, but it can remain hidden if no one is looking for it.

That's why the platforms have decided to reveal these hidden nuggets, starting in 2022, through a series of monthly portraits. It's a great way to showcase the dynamism of our regional companies, inspire the ecosystem to innovate, and make technologies more accessible. Each month, we share the portrait of a new nugget: how did the project come about? by what means? what were the challenges? what are the returns on investment?