Utilitarian

We all want to do the right thing. But most of us don’t know how—especially when it comes to returning or recycling products. That old phone in the drawer. The shoes with a worn-out sole. The tech accessory you forgot you even owned. Circularity doesn’t fail because people don’t care. It fails because the system makes it easier to forget than to act. I started Utilitarian because I couldn’t ignore this problem any longer. I’d worked on national recovery programs, advised major brands, even tried fixing my own broken coffee machine—only to find the entire system set up to frustrate good intentions. Utilitarian exists to change that. We’re building retail-friendly technology that connects anonymous product returns to customer data, loyalty, and real insights—using AI, computer vision, and the principles behind Digital Product Passports (DPPs). It starts with something simple: like returning a pair of shoes in-store. But beneath that moment is a system that empowers retailers and brands to: Capture participation data at the point of return Link it to loyalty and behavioural insight Reduce the cost of compliance (CSRD, EPR, DPP) Build future-ready circular models—trade-in, repair, reuse We're active in both The Netherlands and Australia, with early pilots and partners in each country—like FastFeetGrinded in Europe and leading national retailers back home. Our goal? Make circularity commercially scalable, human-friendly, and so seamless it no longer needs to be explained. It just is. Let’s make the right thing the easy thing.