The Ohio Materials Marketplace, powered by Rheaply’s Resource Exchange platform, aims to create a closed-loop, collaborative network of businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs where one organization’s hard-to-recycle wastes and by-products becomes another organization’s raw material. In addition to diverting waste from landfills, these recovery activities will generate significant cost savings, energy savings, and create new jobs and business opportunities.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) manages the Ohio Materials Marketplace with support from Rheaply, Inc, a B2B reuse technology for scaling the circular economy.

Circular Economy System Diagram from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Circular Economy System Diagram from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

In a circular economy, all products and by-products recirculate back productively into the economy. One critical component of a circular economy is business-to- business materials reuse; matching wastes and under- valued resources across industries to find viable reuse options that retain and add value to materials above and beyond traditional waste disposal and recycling solutions. The result? A continuously evolving redesign of systems to establish higher value circular flows of materials.

Over the past 20 years, the Materials Marketplace process has broken down barriers to cross-industry collaboration and helped companies identify opportunities to minimize waste and create efficiencies.

Benefit from significant economic savings by sourcing cheaper feedstocks from industrial by-products and recycled materials,  as well as reduce landfill disposal fees.

Material production and use comprises 42 percent of system-wide GHG emissions in the U.S. Materials reuse is a proven strategy to reduce your company's carbon footprint.

 

In addition to GHG reductions, the Materials Marketplace can create additional positive environmental impacts through better and more efficient use of materials.

Globally, the circular economy is a trillion dollar opportunity, with the potential to create 100,000 new jobs by 2019. The marketplace can help stimulate this job growth in Ohio.

The Ohio Materials Marketplace is hosted on an award-winning software platform which enables participating companies and project staff to easily post available or wanted materials, identify reuse opportunities, and exchange underutilized materials. Hundreds of large and small companies, academic institutions, non-profits and entrepreneurs are using the Materials Marketplace around the world. 

step 1

step 1.png

Post Available or Wanted Materials 

 

To foster strong communication and efficient implementation of material reuse opportunities, participants use an online database to post and trade materials. This space provides neutral ground to stimulate creation of innovative reuse solutions.

step 2

We Help Sort Through the Data and Identify Resource Matches

Core to the program is a facilitated process that allows companies to understand each other’s material flows and stimulates collaborative, innovative and business-friendly solutions. What starts as an effort to address your company’s materials challenges quickly becomes a collaboration of companies and entrepreneurs working on ‘our’ by-product issues.

step 3

After a Quick Check of the Feasibility, You Make The Exchange

The project team supports exchanges by leveraging best practices from our extensive case study library, international network of material reuse projects, technical partners and engineering expertise from partner companies. Upon completion of the transaction, the project team will do an analysis on the exchange and report back on the environmental and economic impact.