ScrapBees – Reshaping the value chain for raw materials

ScrapBees are the experts in metal scrap recycling and have developed a service that is unique. A mobile scrap yard on four wheels.

How does the team from Neuss want to make the metal industry more sustainable with innovative recycling concepts? What opportunities does that entail? What pushes them forward? Keep reading!

• Company name: ScrapBees
• Company Industry: Recycling / Circular Economy / GreenTech
• Founded in: 2020
• Located in: Neuss, Germany
• Team members: 33
• Website: https://schrottbienen.de

„Society needs to rethink recycling. We took a first step by founding ScrapBees.” – Florian Kriependorf, Founder

Welcome to the BRYCK Startup Sprint, ScrapBees! Could you tell us who you are and what you want to stand for?

We are a fast-growing team of recycling enthusiasts who believe that industrialized nations are sitting on an undiscovered treasure: especially tier-1 cities host millions of micro-mines of secondary raw materials that just need to be opened and serviced properly. 

ScrapBees is connecting these untapped urban mines with metal producers. We are obsessed with reshaping the value chain for raw materials - by tech-driven, on-demand pick-up simply and conveniently.

What are the current obstacles the steel industry has to face? And how will you ensure that it can overcome them?

Metal producers and larger raw material traders have difficulties finding scrap of reliable and pure quality for reuse. Furthermore, they need to know the source of the materials to display their Scope 3 Emission (emissions resulting from supplier activities).

ScrapBees is curing both pains by their strictly customer-centered way of covering the first mile of metal scrap recycling, connecting the untapped urban mines with scrap consumers by a swarm of BeeVans. Instead of mixing metal scrap in containers, we collect and sort metals at the source and are therefore able to maximize the selling price & save resources. We document all steps digitally to increase transparency in a traditionally opaque market.

Who benefits from your Scrap Disposal Service?

Our planet: If we (meaning our generation and not ScrapBees) are able to reuse our resources better many landscapes around the globe, where primary resources are about to be exploited, could be left untouched.

But, of course, on a slightly smaller scale, private individuals or businesses that have smaller volumes of decentralized scrap (like installation companies) benefit from our easy-to-book and reliable on-demand pickup service. As said before, steel producers also benefit from this, as we can provide them with precise proof of the quality and origin of the resources.

In what respect are you sustainable in your use of steel resources?

There are no real convenient and transparent recycling solutions for smaller amounts of metal scrap. Thus, a lot of valuable materials are destroyed by simply putting them into a mixed recycling container or residual waste. Our declared mission is to transform society by making these untapped secondary raw materials accessible and creating more and more urban (micro) mines.

Why do you of all people want to transform the industry in this way? What is your personal "why" behind ScrapBees?

All three founders worked in management positions at large corporations before. We left the corporate world to start something new with a great, hand-selected team and a vision in mind that changes the way we all think about waste and see it as raw material instead – making more people happy urban miners. Society needs to rethink recycling. We took the first step by founding ScrapBees.

For which challenges are you looking for support right now?

We had a great kick-off session here at BRYCK and identified 3 challenges. Without telling too much there is one challenge on the sales side (as always in a startup phase), one more technology-related (we are trying to digitalize a branch where pen & paper is more common than Excel), and one related to (green) steel producers.

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