Recyda Co-Founder Vivian Loftin

What is Recyda? https://www.recyda.com/

How can this software help you be more sustainable? 
Is that material recyclable? 
Are you ready for the European regulations? 

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Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:31

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Vivian Loftin. She is the co founder of ReCyda. How are you, Vivian?

vivian loftin: 0:40

I'm very good. Thank you

Cory Connors: 0:42

very much. Joining us all the way from, Europe. where are you today?

vivian loftin: 0:47

I'm based in Germany, south of Germany. actually in the city with, the most days of sun of Germany. So I really love it here. I would like to thank everyone who has not been to Freiburg. yeah, that's where I am.

Cory Connors: 1:02

Well, that's wonderful. I'll have to add that to my list of must visits in Europe. My wife and I plan to travel quite a bit. So, let's talk a little bit about your background before we get into your company. Can you tell us how you got into recycling? Of course,

vivian loftin: 1:18

and I think it's quite an unusual story because actually what I studied back at university was international cultural and business studies and also, so business, but always paired with this aspect of intercultural exchange, international teams, etc. And this, to be honest, has always been one of my passions, people, culture. And this is also why. I traveled a lot. I worked abroad and I got in touch with, a lot of, well, missing sustainability and like Mexico. And I think this is why, I developed a need to create some impact somehow. And then by accident, I joined an innovation project where I met amazing people, my co founders and also great companies who basically introduced us to, a challenge they had. And this is how we got to the idea of Recyler. And this is why I jumped into Coal Waters and, founded this company with my team. And, yeah, this is how I got into recycling and packaging.

Cory Connors: 2:18

Right. I enjoy hearing stories like that, where the impetus of a company is positive and your intentions are good and you're wanting to help. Let's all save the planet here and, make a good positive impact. Can you tell us about ReCIDA and what you do? Definitely. And

vivian loftin: 2:39

I think, and the interesting thing is that we try to, have an impact, in for a real problem and quite tangible problem with software and data. So basically reside as a software company and we develop, basically a sustainability management platform where companies like brand owners, but also retail and packaging producers can basically assess and manage their packaging against various, sustainability aspects. Also what today, for example, with eu legislation for EPR, you can see, okay, is my, packaging recyclable in a certain country? What kind of legislation do I have to follow and am I compliant? What about the infrastructure? And, I am mentioning a lot of aspects. Yeah. And that's exactly the challenge that we are, addressing by centralizing all of this in one software and making it. Easy, accessible to companies to manage their packaging.

Cory Connors: 3:38

You're right. This is a big challenge. It is a big task for, people, especially in Europe. the laws are changing so quickly. People are having a challenge keeping up. let's talk about, maybe it's a couple of specific examples of how your software would help a company in Germany or across the world. Yeah,

vivian loftin: 3:57

of course. So, maybe mentioning one, packaging example that actually, was changed because of the use of recida, from one of our customers. it's basically, just an example. It can be any packaging, but a shampoo bottle, which had pump head. And, because of all the material composition was not. Recyclable according to various guidelines, according to basically what you've been sorting because there was metal in the pump, meaning that, well, it was basically for all

Cory Connors: 4:29

time material,

vivian loftin: 4:30

right? Yeah, this was detected and then basically iterated um, to see, okay, what packaging variation would be the optimal one to place on the markets that we have. So that it follows basically the guidelines and that we can ensure there's an infrastructure available. And, they not only changed the closure, but they actually changed also, basically the body in terms of, how they have, the label, the, label coverage as well. also basically, what they had in terms of labels, Et cetera, et cetera. So it was not only one change, but actually various aspects that really influenced recyclability and with. The software that could basically experiment and, compare various, solutions against each other to choose the ideal one. And this is one example that you can do for individual packaging solutions, but you can do this also at scale. Because as you might imagine, many brands have not only five packages to look at, but tens of thousands. This is where we can help identify weak coins and basically see, okay, those are the ones that you need to start working on to basically follow what is demanded of you in the future.

Cory Connors: 5:45

Right. I absolutely agree with you. We need to celebrate. Those small wins and stop being overwhelmed with, if you have tens of thousands of packaging, skews or items, need to tackle them one at a time and say, okay, how can we, and look at the whole picture of what can be done to improve sustainability and recyclability. that's incredible. That recited can help with that. you'll be attending Packaging Europe as a speaker, I believe. Is that correct? Yes, exactly. Tell us about your speech or your panel that you'll be on there. Yeah,

vivian loftin: 6:24

basically I'll introduce, what we're working on. And, we're quite honored because we're also one of the finalists, in the driving the circular economy category amongst other amazing innovations. so it's an honor to be one of the finalists. Congratulations. Thank you. And, I'm, to be honest, I love being on stage, but I also love just listening to other panels and then entering into discussion in the coffee break, because I feel like this is where people really. I'm super honest and also critical and raise very important points. And I think this is the part I'm most looking forward to

Cory Connors: 7:04

agree 100%. We need to be there together to figure out how can we work together? How can we solve these problems together? Maybe recite, can, solve a problem that, you know. Different brands have that haven't heard of it, and so you'll be able to present it there to them in person, and then I'm sure they'll pull you aside and say, hey, how can we sign up? And, I've seen so many conversations that these events turn into major changes and positive, effects for companies, sustainability, the green bottom line, if you will, I think that's very important to the future of sustainable packaging. Thank you Absolutely. I'd love to know a little bit more about what Europe is doing, with their sustainability laws in particular, Germany, that maybe other company, other countries should follow. Yeah. I think

vivian loftin: 7:57

a lot is happening at the moment. And, also with the packaging, packaging waste regulation, drafted was just recently voted on. I think, some major aspects. That I see that Europe is doing quite well is EPR in general and basically what they are developing at the moment also in terms of eco modulation of EPR is what has been introduced already in a couple of countries and it's really, because we also have this implemented, we see what big of an impact it can actually have and how it can actually serve to really be a driver to switch a To different materials to basically, help companies make a decision to go with the most sustainable packaging, even though it's maybe more expensive in purchasing, meaning that this is one of the aspects that I find very interesting. That's coming up in Europe at the moment. However, Germany is the worst example, because we have a competitive system and it's, different. however, there's also a lot changing and, what we in Germany have, is, That we actually have something, from legal sides. That's it's basically helping, PROs, but also companies to see what is the minimum that I need to ensure in my design for recycling. and what can we basically. I do, and this standard is basically developing every year. There's a new version and it's getting stricter and stricter, to be honest, but more reflective of the reality and also it's showing companies what kind of data they actually need to know about their packaging to make such an assessment and to understand if is their packaging recyclable or not.

Cory Connors: 9:49

Exactly. what do we, where do we need to start? How do we need, what's step one in this process? And I think you're, you just answered it. what are we using today? what are our components that, that are recyclable? What are our components, compostable? are we in spec now or are we in trouble? And, I think a lot of companies that were maybe standing on the sidelines waiting to see what happened are now saying, you. Oh, boy, we better get moving on this and reach out to companies like yours and take advantage of this time to take action. Are you seeing that? Are people flocking to you and to companies like yours?

vivian loftin: 10:31

To be honest, I still see a lot of insecurity also with PPWR because, so much is unclear also in terms of what is going to be the assessment for recyclability and, can I place my packaging onto the market in 2030 or not? And, as you just mentioned it, there's a lot of waiting still. And I think that's one of the issues that I see because. You can have an impact already now, and you can prepare for the future just by understanding your status quo and by understanding your packaging portfolio a lot better, because I think many do not actually have enough data to really. Grasp that yet, meaning that now could be the time or should be the time to work on these data topics as well to really understand your packaging to work with your suppliers to basically get that in place, understand where you are and as soon as something. tangible or something that you can work with is published. You can actually apply it to your portfolio right away and not start then, because then the timeline is very ambitious. we see there are companies who are super engaged and who are really behind working on this and, Super creative also, we've, we started building APIs this is something really amazing. however, I feel like, there are also some companies are still waiting and I think they need to take action already. Like they need to start now.

Cory Connors: 12:01

Exactly. Yeah. What, what is an API? Just to educate the audience. Yeah.

vivian loftin: 12:07

I'm not the tech founder, fortunately, but it's basically meaning that we can, communicate with existing systems, where basically, you don't need to use, our software manually, but we can import or even direct integrations. So that's. Oh,

Cory Connors: 12:25

I see.

vivian loftin: 12:27

it's very

Cory Connors: 12:28

efficient. That's great. So your company, if let's say, somebody's a CEO and they say, well, we don't want to invest in, having to dump all of our data into this software, your company would be able to interact with their current system, to advise them, what you're trying to accomplish.

vivian loftin: 12:46

Exactly. And, that's super important because also we cannot, ask people to give us the packaging data in a certain format because every company has basically a different, standard, meaning that we can be agnostic to that we can work with any data and we Build mappings and we have very smart software guys who we taught a lot about packaging science and

Cory Connors: 13:10

They work with different brains, right? Yeah. Yeah

vivian loftin: 13:13

super interesting combination to have packaging science combined with software and It's amazing to see what you can actually do with it

Cory Connors: 13:20

and to have the systems be able to talk to each other that's really incredible so, Yeah, this is, this is very exciting. Anything else you wanted to tell people about before we finish up here?

vivian loftin: 13:33

No, I think, I'm just always happy if people, talk to each other about this topic. I think you cannot talk enough. And, this is why I'm looking forward to the event so much. And this is why I always love connecting and just having exchange. I think the most important thing in all of this is. being honest and also what you mentioned before being proud of small changes as

Cory Connors: 13:55

well. Well, congratulations on being nominated, for an award. That's very exciting. getting to speak is very exciting too. Congratulations. How long has your company been around? Three and a half years. Oh, wow. Made a lot of progress quickly. Good for you. How do people get in touch with you if they'd like to connect? Well, they

vivian loftin: 14:19

can either, meet me at the coffee station because I'm sure I will be there, or they can get in touch via LinkedIn or via my email address. just reach out. I'm always happy to,

Cory Connors: 14:31

exchange. Great. Thank you, Vivian. This has been awesome and I really appreciate your wisdom and your time. Thank you. Thank

vivian loftin: 14:39

you.