Scrapo is an online marketplace that facilitates trade of recyclable plastics to ensure that their remaining value is recovered rather than wasted.

Scrapo is an online marketplace and app designed specifically for trading recycled and recyclable plastic materials. Sellers place their plastic on the platform, and buyers can get in contact with sellers using a secure messaging feature built into the app. Scrapo’s role as the intermediary is to ensure trust amongst trading parties. They aid in verifying quality and logistics for buyers, and facilitate timely payment for sellers. Their ‘Fulfilled By Scrapo’ service can assist sellers with onboarding, sales, and logistics, encouraging firms with surplus materials to sell them rather than dispose of them. Within the US and purchases from US buyers, they offer an additional function called ‘ScrapoSure’, whereby the company verifies the seller, inspects the material, assists with shipping and facilitates secure payments.

Since the establishment of the platform in November 2017, over 10,000 participants have exchanged more than one billion tonnes of plastic, between 140 countries worldwide.

In January 2018, China banned imports of recyclable waste from other countries. In 2016, China had imported two-thirds of global plastic waste, meaning their exit from the market has left large quantities of recyclables – as much as 111 million tonnes by 2030 – to a world without sufficient facilities to process them. However, with technological improvements in sorting, processing, and manufacturing, connecting buyers and sellers of plastic can help to bridge the gap.