Small Business, Big Mission: The Story Behind Circulayo

When people ask what Circulayo does, the short answer is easy: we use technology to help businesses track reusable packaging and measure their real sustainability impact. But it all started somewhere.

Walking around any event, café, stadium or arena, you see single-use piling up, and reuse schemes not working efficiently. We worked on a trial with the University of Chester on reusable containers, which saw the beginning of Circulayo with the belief that technology could genuinely enhance reuse and reduce single-use waste.

We Started Small. We Still Are

We’re a small, close team based in Derby, and we think being small is quietly one of our greatest strengths. We’re agile, are able to collaborate closely with every client, and build solutions that genuinely fit each client and industry we work with, not one-size-fits-all solutions off a shelf. When a business comes to us, we work alongside them to support their transition to reuse in a way that truly works for them.

Our first real test came at the Derby Live Beer Festival in 2021, where we ran our Flow Platform across 7,500 reusable cups, tracking their lifecycle. We hit a 95% return rate. We were thrilled. It proved that reuse at scale was genuinely achievable, and people wanted it. With the right technology, venues and events can run successful reuse schemes.

The Moments That Keep Us Going

There have been late nights and changes along the way, as there are with any small business, but we often have something happen that brings everything back into perspective.

That’s our clients, and the incredible impact they are achieving.

From stadiums and arenas to event venues and universities, our technology has been supporting businesses in delivering remarkable environmental and commercial results. Since 2021, we’ve seen over 1 million items reused with the support of our technology. This amounts to over 30,000Kg single-use plastics and 70,000Kg of CO2 saved from entering the environment. We’re incredibly proud to see businesses making an impact and running successful reuse systems.

What Small Business Week Means to Us

It’s easy to talk about small businesses in terms of jobs, revenue, and local growth. But for us, being a small business gives us room to care about making a sustainable impact and supporting our clients.

We believe in using technology to scale reuse to reduce plastic and supporting businesses of all sizes to run a successful reuse system. With no compromise in what we believe in. We’ve been lucky to win awards, receive national recognition, and be selected for the 2025 Mastercard Start Path’s Growth Programme.

We’ll keep showing up, keep developing our innovative tech solutions, and solving a problem that we believe in. Because that’s what small businesses do.

Special Small Business Week Offer: Sign up with us this week and receive four boxes of reusables free on your first order!