Circular logistics: how Big Sack connects distributors, carriers and recyclers to recover your waste
Big Sack launches its Partners page: distributors, carriers, recycling centres and businesses can discover how the network works, what it offers each of them, and how to join.
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Big Sack unveils its partner network
Behind every bag collected, there is much more than a truck. There is a shop that sells the bag, a customer who fills it, a carrier who picks it up, a centre that sorts and a recycler that transforms the material. Until now, this network worked behind the scenes. With the new Partners page, Big Sack puts it in the spotlight and opens it to new players.
The message fits in one sentence: connecting individuals, professionals, distributors and carriers to simplify waste management across Switzerland.
A network that has already proven itself
Before talking about partnerships, the figures show the scale of what already exists:
- 3,050+ customers supported
- 9,380 bags collected
- 13,128+ tonnes collected
- 81% recycling rate
Why collection is the decisive link in the circular economy
To recycle a material, you first need to be able to recover it where it is. Yet waste is produced in very different places: construction sites, renovations, gardens and homes, each with its own constraints for access, storage and transport.
This is what Big Sack sets out to solve. Thanks to its flexibility, the bag brings back into the loop volumes that other collection solutions fail to capture, for example when there is no room for a skip or when access is difficult.
The Big Sack loop in five steps
- Purchase: in store or by parcel, delivered flat
- Filling: at the customer’s site, at their own pace
- Collection: a partner’s crane truck picks up the bag
- Sorting: waste is directed to the right recovery stream
- Recovery: materials become recycled materials
Big Sack coordinates the entire loop, from purchase to final treatment.
Four families of players behind every collection
Distribution channels. DIY and building materials stores, online sales: the bag is available where projects are prepared. It is currently sold at Gétaz-Miauton, Jumbo, Baubedarf and Bauhaus.
Waste producers. Individuals and professionals fill the bag at their own pace and order the pickup online.
Logistics partners. Carriers collect the bags with a crane truck, even where access is difficult.
Recycling centres and recovery streams. Materials are sent to the facilities suited to their nature: sorting, recycling or appropriate disposal.
Logistics designed to avoid unnecessary kilometres
The model relies on a simple principle: use journeys that already exist. Bags are collected during rounds already planned by partner crane trucks, typically on the way back to the depot after another job. No empty runs, fuller rounds and emissions kept as low as possible.
Another difference from a skip: the truck only comes once, compared with twice for a skip (drop off, then pick up).
A concrete example: turning inert construction waste into recycled aggregates
The best example of what the network makes possible is the project supported by Viva Vaud, the canton of Vaud programme that helps companies move towards greater sustainability. In this project, Big Sack collects inert waste (concrete, bricks, tiles, rubble) from construction sites in French speaking Switzerland and sends it to an appropriate recovery stream, where it is turned into recycled aggregates that can be reused in new construction projects.
To make this happen, Big Sack teamed up with Swissroc, Holcim, H2M and transport partners, each contributing a link in the chain: collection, transport, processing, then the production of concrete containing recycled aggregates. This collaborative project received the Innovation Award in the sustainable collaborative projects category at RENT Swiss 2024.
The stakes go beyond the start-up. According to the canton of Vaud, most mineral construction waste is recyclable, and recycled materials are generally cheaper than new ones while preserving gravel resources that are not infinite. What was mainly missing was a simple way to take these materials off a construction site, properly sorted, and put them back into the loop. That is exactly the role of the network.
Approved centres and end to end traceability
Big Sack works exclusively with approved recycling centres. The path of the waste is tracked from the collection of the bags to the final outlets, as are recycling rates. For a company, this means being able to follow quantities, categories, destinations and results, and to back its circularity goals with concrete data.
What Big Sack can build with you
Distributors. Integrate Big Sack into your customer journey and offer waste removal at the same time as materials, in store and online. It is a service that complements your range and extends the customer relationship from the purchase of materials to the collection.
Businesses. Construction sites, renovations, building or park maintenance: remove your waste with a simple service ordered online, and track your results from end to end.
Carriers. Make your truck fleet more profitable by collecting bags on your way back to the depot: fewer empty kilometres, fuller rounds.
Recycling centres and industry players. Join a chain that brings you volumes sorted at source, with a tracked path.
Let’s talk partnership
Distribution, transport, recycling, business or something else: if you would like to develop a partnership with Big Sack, go to the Partners page to fill in the contact form, write to us at info@bigsack.ch or call 0800 284 284.