
Meet Byewaste: “Recycling is broken, it needs to be recycled”
11 July 2022
Meet Byewaste: “Recycling is broken, it needs to be recycled”
Byewaste, one of the participants in this year’s ImpactCity accelerator program, is a startup that is fighting waste since 2020. It helps its users to donate or recycle their unwanted items for free. All they have to do is schedule a pick-up time and Byewaste takes care of everything else. We checked in with founder Tommaso Troiani to hear his news.
“I started Byewaste because I couldn’t believe how hard it was to safeguard the material value of used objects,” says Tommaso, “Byewaste has now turned into a reality in Capelle aan den IJssel where we first launched our service. It has become a success quickly. We have collected over 30 tons of items from people’s houses in just six months. There’s obviously a big demand for an easy-does-it pick-up service of used items that would have gone to waste.”
“We want to make sustainability and recycling as easy as possible, so everyone can start doing it,” he adds, “today, sustainability is often still a luxury. We want to break the cycle by making it available to all, so we can start saving tons of items from landfill and incineration by expanding life span through repair and refurbishment and increasing reuse and recycling. Byewaste is lowering the threshold for everyone to take the first step. We will be expanding to the city of Rotterdam this year and are very much looking forward to increasing our impact.”
“We’re very motivated to do something innovative in the old-fashioned industry of recycling. Recycling is broken, it needs to be recycled,” he says, “also, we are very young, we are able to see the world with fresh eyes, we’re able to believe in a world where waste is not a problem.”


Accelerating growth
Byewaste was one of ten participants selected from 260 applicants in this year’s ImpactCity accelerator program. By way of an intensive three-month trajectory, the program supports impact startups and helps accelerate their growth. “The ImpactCity accelerator program was great. We attended workshops and met with investors. Being part of the program helped us to ultimately close an investment deal with DOEN Foundation that will allow us to further improve and expand our services to more cities in the Netherlands,” Tommaso says.
What’s more, partnering with DOEN has proven to be somewhat of a quality mark for Byewaste. “In order to be selected to be part of DOEN’s portfolio and network, we went through six months of investigation and due diligence. As a result, companies that are endorsed by DOEN are considered to be working on solid initiatives. Once DOEN is invested, it means it’s something good that has a real impact. It has turned out to work in our favor as a sort of quality stamp,” says Tommaso.
Partnership instead of competition
Bringing a truly circular economy to life is all about partnership, which requires a veritable paradigm shift away from competition-based business-as-usual. Tommaso says, “We are increasingly becoming aware of all the companies around us that are starting similar initiatives that aim to really do something sustainable with waste items. We are amazed by the amount of initiatives that are happening in this regard. And there’s a ton of them that make sense for us to team up with to increase our scope and impact.”
“I believe that, in order to be really sustainable, to really create a circular economy, it’s going to be more about partnership than competition,” he emphasizes, “we don’t want to do the job that somebody else is already doing really well. Instead, we want to be a facilitator of this ecosystem by making the right matches so we can all excel together. Being in the Netherlands, in an ecosystem like ImpactCity, definitely makes all the difference. Because The Hague is like a magnet, drawing in meaningful impact innovations. We’re looking forward to being a part of it and we will have a The Hague presence soon.”
“The Hague is like a magnet, drawing in meaningful impact innovations”

Tommaso Troiani together with the other participants of the ImpactCity Accelerator