Revamping Plastic Recycling Industry with an Unparalleled Innovation
Growing plastic usage and wastage has led to a major concern for many societies across the world. The dumping zones are already overflowing with wastage while recycling plastic industry is struggling with the benchmark. Overloaded and overworked, the industry needed a breakthrough to curb the wastage and improve the quality of recycled plastic. BessTrade set an example in the niche with its innovative approach towards recycling.
BessTrade is a worldwide trading company in the total range of polymers founded in 1975 by Mr. Ivo Besselsen and was later joined by Huib Van Gulik – CEO of BessTrade. Over 45 years, the company has stood the test of time and has emerged as a global leader in PVC recycling. BessTrade is a company with a healthy ambition to grow out to one of the leading companies in its business area and to bring a strong contribution to the environment for the coming generations. The only waste is wasted is its slogan along with a strong belief, for every waste is a solution and can contribute to our environment.
Shaping the Journey
BessTrade was incorporated in the year 1975 in Nunspeet. It was formerly known as Besiplast, and the company was the biggest recycler of PVC in Europe around that time. Mr. Besselsen embarked on his entrepreneurial journey in the recycling business after he traveled to Asia to find the best companies to recycle European PVC waste. As the business expanded its footprint, BessTrade saw the light of the day in 2003. Initially, the warehouse was in Belgium close to the harbors of Rotterdam and Antwerp and for many years it worked well but the organization grew tremendously, and hence, the warehouse along with everything was moved to Lelystad in 2019.
Mr. Gulik and Mr. Besselsen took the opportunity of this shifting and developed the warehouse and sales office next to each other in an area of more than 7000 sq. mtr. The duo always maintained the idea that everything is possible and to always say yes to opportunities. “If someone offers an interesting product, but it is new or seems difficult to recycle, at BessTrade, we always do our best to make it work. It may take a little bit longer, but then we know if and how it is possible. The motto is ‘Challenge us with your PVC scrap’,” assures Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik as they had begun with a vision that nothing is waste and there is always an opportunity. They believe that everything can be reused or recycled, the only catch is who is the customer.
Most of the waste comes from European sources, however, at first Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik found it difficult to convince companies that their waste was still recyclable. Nevertheless, they pushed on and with enough patience and a can-do attitude, almost everyone is now convinced because BessTrade had kept growing with personnel, contacts, and machines to ensure that all PVC will be recycled since its inception.
Stellar Entrepreneurs
Mr. Gulik and Mr. Besselsen are dynamic entrepreneurs who do not rely on technology to get things done. If there is an interesting offer from any part of the world, Mr. Besselsen is already on his way to the client. ‘Talk & Travel’ is the company’s motto and they live by his motto every time someone gives them an opportunity. “There’s nitpicking about unnecessary details or miscommunications that can arise. By simply going to the person and discussing everything in person, it often shows that a deal can easily be made. It inspires trust and faith and these are key-values we want our customers to know about,” they assert. Filled with positive energy and ever-enthusiastic, Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik leads with an example as this unique approach helps with being a CEO where their employees know that they can take up with an issue with them by directly walking and talking upfront with them.
To keep an edge over their competitors, Mr. Gulik and Mr. Besselsen have differentiated their company by focusing only on PVC recycling because they believe that doing everything at the same time would only lead to being good at nothing. Hence, they exclusively focus on the trade of PVC and can assure the clients that they know their business inside out because they have mastered the art of PVC trading over the course of 45 years.
“BessTrade focuses on all aspects of PVC recycling. We pick up any PVC scrap from the source and ensure it winds up fully recycled. This means the initial transport, to processing and of course the trade of PVC as well. The initial focus was on the trade of PVC waste, but over the years we have picked up more and more steps in the chain. We trade in almost every country in the world and have developed a vast network of producers of PVC and end-users to recycle all materials,” states the dynamic duo.
