UTRECHT, Netherlands—Enrico Koggel spent most of 2022 motorbiking through South America and came back with an idea.
After a full year of motoring through rural Argentina and other remote locations across the continent, Koggel found that there was an inefficiency in rubber waste programs around the world.
"I quit my job at the time and just started traveling. I took a year off on a motorbike in South America, which was amazing by the way," he said. "Those countries have very different waste systems and waste management if they are in very rural areas. I remember some vivid moments where I was driving off into the desert, just outside of certain villages they just have piles of waste."
Koggel's experience in South America stuck in his mind, and because of that, he kept noticing the ongoing rubber waste problems throughout the world. With eight years as a rubber product engineer at Sondel Engineering under his belt, Koggel got to work solving that inefficiency.
"I came in touch with (the idea of) a circular economy and it made me realize that the rubber products I design are basically very small, but they are produced in the millions," Koggel said. "I realized that most ingredients from a rubber compound are oil-based.
"It made me realize, hey, what is my responsibility in the products I develop? Can I rethink the products so that they have less impact?"
Just six months later, Circular Rubber Platform was born. The brainchild of Koggel and fellow co-founder Jan Boomsma, the platform works with companies around the world to reduce rubber waste and find new recyclable products.