Circular collaboration between companies is what really moves materials.

In fact, there is a pattern that repeats itself in many businesses: GRG containers stacked in a corner, equipment that works but no longer fits into the operation, materials that are not waste but also have no internal outlet. The result is a growing inventory of underutilised resources, reduced space, and someone ends up paying to have it taken away.

But the problem is not a lack of circular solutions. The problem is that many companies still think of circularity as something that can be solved internally.

And no, it doesn't work that way.

Why circularity doesn't work on its own

Reusing, remanufacturing, recovering… all this sounds good in a sustainability report. But putting it into practice requires something that many corporate strategies ignore: an interested company on the other side.

Circular models that really work (industrial symbiosis, reverse logistics, component reuse, etc.) depend on someone needing what someone else discards. And that fit rarely occurs within the same organisation. That is why collaboration between companies is not an add-on, but the basic mechanism for the circular economy to move from theory to real exchange.

As the UN Global Compact points out, companies that want to move towards circularity need to ‘collaborate with stakeholders throughout the value chain,’ because the circular model encompasses all stages of a product's life cycle.

In other words: if you don't collaborate, you don't circulate.

What is already working in Europe

One of the most frequently cited examples is Kalundborg, Denmark. There, a network of companies in the eco-industrial park has been exchanging waste and by-products for decades. Each company's output is another company's input.

Similarly, an article in Harvard Business Review describes how a clothing company, focused on supplier certifications, discovered that its biggest problem was in its own warehouse: surplus garments and fabrics destined for landfill. By auditing and finding buyers for these surpluses (a local retailer, a textile company that did not meet minimum order requirements), they generated more than $45,000 in revenue. And in the process, they sublet the freed-up space.

But you don't have to go to foreign countries.

In Manresa, an ecosystem of 27 companies with 8 synergies has achieved measurable results:

  • 11,000 tonnes of waste that have improved their management;
  • 256 tonnes less sent to landfill;
  • 11 tonnes of raw materials saved;
  • 12 GWh of heat recovered and 7 GWh of electricity generated.

This is not theory. These are figures from real operations.

Success stories in Spain through our platform

At recircular, we also facilitate transactions that demonstrate how circular collaboration between companies works in practice.

These are not pilot schemes or laboratory projects. They are commercial transactions between real businesses or entities.

Some of the operations carried out on our platform over the last few years have resulted in:

  • a medium-sized company in the metal sector that had accumulated GRG containers and was paying for their removal now sells them through the platform for between €10 and €20 per unit to a manager who cleans them and puts them back on the market;
  • Comercial Tudanca, in Burgos, had eleven lockers in good condition that it no longer used. It sold them to the Lesmes Foundation, a social entity in the same city. This foundation has also sold GRG drums to local companies for construction and other uses.
  • The dismantling of the Narcea thermal power plant led to an Ingersoll Rand compressor being purchased by the manufacturer itself, which returned it to the market after servicing and repair.
  • The company Sacos Maestro receives big bags containing food ingredients and resells them for use in agriculture and construction. Five hundred bags that would have ended up as waste now have a second function.
  • Our platform also served as a bridge for the sale of 320 graphite blocks from an aluminium factory that closed in Spain. This high-value material was sold to companies in Brazil, Turkey and other countries.
  • ReutilizaK, an organisation that trains young people at risk of exclusion in computer repair, has sold eleven refurbished laptops to freelancers throughout Spain. Part of the stock is returned to vulnerable groups at lower prices. This social organisation and others have received donations of computer equipment and furniture through our platform.
  • The company Icommers sells through our platform as an additional channel to its usual sales methods. It has sold all kinds of used boxes to companies using the platform, reducing the purchase cost and giving them the value they deserve. In addition, we also collaborated with Icommers in donating equipment to Paiporta after the passage of Storm Dana in October 2024.

What these cases have in common

None of these exchanges would have happened without a meeting point.

Without a platform where supply and demand intersect, these materials would continue to take up space, generate costs or end up in landfill.

Circular collaboration between companies is not a statement of intent. It is logistics, traceability and trust. And it requires tools to make it possible.

What you can do now

If you have waste, materials, equipment or surplus that has been sitting around for months (or years), it's probably not because it's worthless. It's because you haven't found someone who needs it.

At recircular, we help you solve this problem by connecting what one company has too much of with what another company needs.

No unnecessary intermediaries, no complicated processes, just a simple solution with the necessary traceability.

Because in the circular economy, the only real waste is a misplaced resource.