BessTrade: The Only Waste is Wasted Waste
Written By: Kriti Anand
Company Overview
The growing rise of plastic products and plastic use, especially single use plastic, is becoming a graver concern by the day. Mounds of plastic are steadily turning into mountains of plastic wastes, while recycling and reusing industries are barely meeting the minimum requirement. Under immense pressure and serious environmental threat, the exhausted recycling industry is constantly in need of a breakthrough which would alleviate such growing concerns for everybody within the industry, and everyone in the world. With its innovative and practical approach to revamping used and discarded plastic products, BessTrade came in like a guardian angel in such difficult times.
The story of its inception begins in 1975, when Ivo Besselsen started his first recycling company, Besiplast. A PVC recycling company ahead of its time, Besiplast became a symbol of knowledge. It was in 2008 that Ivo ventured into the recycling industry again, this time with BessTrade. The sole ambition and aim of BessTrade since its establishment has been to bring out the change generations have been waiting for: a healthy and booming environment.
BessTrade has outlasted and outworked any and all the struggles that time and circumstance presented to it. BessTrade was founded by Mr. Ivo Besselsen and then later was enriched even more by its current CEO, Mr. Huib Van Gulik. While doing what the current generations have counted on them to do, BessTrade is working very dedicatedly to have a strong contribution in healing the world for the coming generations. “The only waste is wasted material” is the belief BessTrade works with: for every waste is a solution and it can contribute to rather than take from the environment.
This ability to reshape the world and improve the environment by the very thing that plagues us is what their journey is all about. They have crafted a simple but elegant solution to not only put the waste of the world to good use but also have used waste to literally shine in the world. They understand the responsibility they have upon themselves in this market and towards the world and it is awe-inspiring to see BessTrade doing the best in both worlds.
The Inception Story
Both Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik began with an ideology that nothing really ever is a waste, it’s always about how one can make the best of someone else’s waste and every waste is an opportunity in disguise. BessTrade believes that everything and anything can be reused and/or recycled, the only question that remains is who is the customer. Both Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik began with an ideology that nothing really ever is a waste, it’s always about how one can make the best of someone else’s waste and every waste is an opportunity in disguise. BessTrade believes that everything and anything can be reused and/or recycled, the only question that remains is who is the customer.
BessTrade saw the light of day in 2003, initially situated near the docks and harbors of Rotterdam and Antwerp. As the business expanded and soared, it had to shift its base of operations and everything else in 2019 to where it is situated today, Lelystad, Netherlands. Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik made an excellent tag team duo. Their mindset and outlook was to believe and work as if everything was possible and that every opportunity could become something huge and everlasting. They used the shift to Leylstad to develop the warehouse as well as the sales office next to each other in a 7000 sq mtr plot of land. At BessTrade these two believe that if at all someone offers a product which they believe to be difficult or new, they see it as an interesting product and do everything to ascertain that how and if at all that product can be recycled.
The motto of BessTrade is “Challenge us with your PVC scrap”. Initially, a number of companies in Europe that produced waste were apprehensive as that would incur more investment on their part. Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik’s can-do attitude convinced all the companies that their waste was recyclable and will make a difference in the world that they will be able to feel. This attitude is what makes BessTrade a huge success. European companies were the biggest contributor/source of waste dispatch, thus, it was important to start good at home to make a difference in the world. So, with a lot of patience and growth with personnel, contacts, and machines that ensure recycling of PVC in the best way possible, they achieved their well deserved breakthrough.
The Entrepreneurs Behind BessTrade
Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gurik are such skilled and innovative entrepreneurs that they aren’t dependent or even reliant on technology to do their jobs. Both these wonderful entrepreneurs believe in the concept of ‘Talk and Travel’, if they feel like there is an opportunity for BessTrade anywhere in the world, they’re on their way to talk to this potential client regardless where they are located. They believe there can be a lot of miscommunication and in general multiple hindrances are present while making deals virtually, so they believe that going to the client in person can ease them in expressing what they exactly need and want while simultaneously assuring the client that BessTrade is responsible and credible as they have come from so far just to make a deal. Trust and faith building is crucial to BessTrade and this practice of meeting the clients in person helps establish a foundation which is very strong and can develop into a long lasting relationship.
Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik aren’t just great entrepreneurs but they are also great leaders for BessTrade. They have a positive office atmosphere which has made them approachable and accessible to the workers and employees of BessTrade. Anyone who has any issues about anything can easily talk to them by directly walking into their office. This transparency they’ve maintained boosts employee morale and thus boosts productivity ensuring BessTrades success.
Mr. Besselsen and Mr. Gulik are very aware of their competitors as well. They believe that they should rather learn from their competitors than fight them. This mindset has helped these two keep an edge over the whole industry. While everybody else tries to simply one up each other, BessTrade actually works and delivers substantial results.
The focus of BessTrade has been the total range of polymers. They constantly evolve their methods and keep on endlessly innovating their functions. BessTrade believes it to be their responsibility to ensure whatever PVC scrap they have gets recycled completely and properly. This doesn’t only mean revamping but also extends to initial transporting, to processing and the trade of the recycled product as well. As the time moves forward, many other steps also get added to ensure safety as well as the thoroughness of all that has been recycled. BessTrade currently trades to and from almost all the countries of the world and has developed a vast chain of producers of PVC as well as end users to constantly be able to recycle all the materials there are.
