Wonki Collective: giving businesses the power to turn waste into resource

We're on a mission to better use the world's resources by creating a circular and resilient food system. More than 1.6 billion tons of food are wasted every year, 40% of which occurs at the beginning of the value chain. This causes economic losses of $660 billion in the food industry. In the UK alone this is associated with more than 25 million tonnes of GHG emissions.

We simply don't believe this has to be the only way. We partner with UK food manufacturers and apply our intelligent machine learning technology to allow them to better understand the environmental and economic value of their by-product 'waste'. Our material matchmaking technology then effortlessly enables them to move away from a linear supply chain, towards a circular economy turning food 'waste' into a resource. For each by-product ingredient, our new intelligent machine learning technology identifies:

- the highest value reuse options across multiple industries, considering both financial returns and keeping the highest nutritious value,

- Potential buyers/takers, with a view at limiting transport to the minimum, and

- Convenient logistic support, to make it time and cost effective for businesses to sell/give/reuse this waste.

This way, businesses can become more circular while continuing to focus on their main business.

Food by-products can contain high amounts of nutritious value, from fats to proteins. However no one is analysing the use across multiple sectors with the view on (1) creating circularity, (2) reducing the use of virgin materials where possible, (3) creating a more resilient food system. That's where we come in.

We're starting off focusing on 3 key by-products: starch, brewers spent grain and fruit pulp. We've identified these by-products as having potential to be upcycled into valuable ingredients without over intensive energy usage to process them but with multiple potential uses across the food industry as ingredients. If you're a food manufacturer in this area please do feel free to reach out to us to understand more about how we can support you to building a more circular food system.