In today's episode we discuss, a Brazilian organization by the name of Rede Asta which is an online platform that support a network of artisans, to recover materials from corporate and urban waste. The artisans transform this material into elegant gift products that are then sold back to corporates and other customers. Rede Asta’s platform helps to increase income but also to improve connectivity and resource sharing within the artisan network.

It essentially plays a broker type role, matching demand from corporates with supply from economically disadvantaged collectives. However I think they are much more than brokers in that they must speak the language of corporates and work with them in a multidisciplinary way.

For example, the budget may come from the Marketing department while the business waste comes from Operations, all coordinated by the Sustainability Officer. They also need to professionalise the collectives supporting on design, quality assurance, on-time delivery and cost management. So it is not as easy as it sounds!

Rede Asta’s business model operates at three levels - partnership building, connecting and skill sharing.

Rede Asta establishes partnerships with hundreds of companies throughout Brazil to collect their waste materials or unused equipment. The company then offers them bespoke designs using these discarded materials to suit specific marketing purposes, such as the promotion of a current internal initiative. This scalable approach is made possible through a nationwide network of artisans, with Rede Asta acting a matchmaker to facilitate new sales opportunities.

Rede Asta has realised that while these contracts are satisfying to deliver, the ability to scale their impact is limited. Thus it has developed an online platform to connect collectives directly with corporates looking for their business waste to be repurposed.

This needs a level of internal professionalism and quality assurance from the suppliers which means Rede Asta still has a role in ensuring that they receive proper on-going training. The platform however decouples it from the production process itself and thus allows it to scale the impact of providing meaningful work to women living in poverty while diverting waste to landfill or incineration.

Rede Asta addresses two important issues. Firstly, the enormous amount of material value lost in landfills. Every day in Brazil, about 175,000  tons of solid waste is collected and only an estimated 2.7% of this is recycled.

Rede Asta creates impact through a collaborative working space, owned by the community workers and especially Women who could be powerful drivers of inclusive economic growth, and has decided to invest in female entrepreneurship by training groups of female artisans to recover various discarded materials and transform them into valuable corporate gift collections.

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Keywords : What is a circular economy? ; Circular Economy Podcast ; Circular Business Models ; Circular Design