What Does CleanHub Do?

CleanHub’s social impact is more solid than plastic.  

In this article, we will understand –

• What Is CleanHub?
• What Does CleanHub Do?
• How Does Plastic Credit Work?

Historically, the plastic waste industry has had many small and informal players, with many people working in this “dirty” sector being marginalized and poorly treated by society. CleanHub aims to respect the dignity of people working along waste streams in the regions of the global south where these green tech startups operate.

Being committed to the social justice needed alongside environmental protection, the company influences and helps fund social change, through partnering with local waste management partners to pay fairer wages to some of the lowest paid, legally due health and other social insurances, and stable work formality in safer workplaces.

What Is CleanHub?

CleanHub is an environmental services company founded in 2019 and based in Berlin, Germany, with a mission to end plastic pollution by preventing waste from ever reaching our oceans.

CleanHub was established in 2020 by Joel Tasche, Bosse Rothe, and Florin Dinga to develop systems to minimize plastic waste that threatens oceans. Their approach emphasizes collecting plastic waste right at the source to avoid it being discarded improperly.

In 2021, CleanHub introduced its digital platform for waste traceability, enabling comprehensive monitoring of plastic collection activities. This software tracks each kilogram of waste from the moment of collection until its verified disposal.

Utilizing QR codes, mobile data input, geo-data, and a blockchain-like logging mechanism, the platform supports third-party audits and allows for real-time tracking. That same year, in June, CleanHub secured nearly €4 million in a seed funding round, backed by Lakestar Ventures and 468 Capital.

The company has implemented an AI-driven automated tracking system that records each collection through a track-and-trace mechanism. Each step involves uploading photos, which the AI analyzes for weight, condition, and GPS data. This system enhances the documentation and monitoring processes associated with plastic waste recovery.

In January 2023, Louis Pfitzner joined as co-CEO, marking CleanHub as the first ISO-Certified plastic credit system to achieve verification by prominent environmental impact auditing firms, including TÜV SÜD, in accordance with the ISO 14064-3 standard. This certification was set to be renewed in January 2025.

Through a network of so-called “CleanHubs” in coastal hotspots, CleanHub partners with local waste-collection organizations to provide door-to-door or on-site (beach and riverbank) plastic collection services.

By creating safe, dignified jobs with fair pay, these hubs intercept plastic at its source and ensure it is sorted either for recycling or for use as alternative fuel, keeping it out of landfills, open burns, and natural environments

CleanHub employs proprietary tracking technology, verified under ISO 14064-3:2020 by TÜV SÜD, to digitally verify every kilogram of plastic collected in real time. Brands and individuals can calculate their plastic footprint, subscribe to collection plans, and transparently follow the impact of their contributions via live dashboards and weekly updates. To date, CleanHub has helped collect over 14 million kilograms of plastic waste and partnered with more than 500 brands, advancing toward a vision of “plastic neutrality,” where every kilogram of new plastic produced is matched by a kilogram permanently removed from vulnerable environments

CleanHub prides itself on doing robust, honest work, investing in deep worker human rights conditions assessment baselines, then ongoingly engaging to drive real social impacts (e.g., to SDG 8 for Decent Work).

CleanHub’s approach is grounded in social as well as environmental impact. By working with local waste managers, they establish long-term waste-management infrastructure, empower communities through education and fair employment, and discourage the open burning or dumping of plastic.

In helping improve waste worker livelihoods, we help our partners actively help remove social bias historically associated with waste collection and processing activities, and deliver improved livelihoods.

When you buy from a company, like Tangie, that gives profits towards the ethical treatment of workers while helping to keep plastic waste from entering the oceans, you can feel good about the purchases you make that help clean your home, your body or your pet while keeping the flow going in the right direction!

When people are treated equally for pay, have safe workplaces, and have can chance for improvement in their lives, our global society becomes a better place.  When the planet has less trash floating in it and our water sources are cleaner, you have a healthier future ahead. These changes are beneficial ripples that reach far into the generations ahead of you.

What Does CleanHub Do?

CleanHub’s strategy is based on both social and environmental impacts. By collaborating with local waste management teams, they create sustainable waste management systems, empower communities through education and fair job opportunities, and prevent the open burning or disposal of plastic.

Their “Theory of Change” focuses on collective action, integrating brand collaborations, technological transparency, and community involvement, to promote systemic enhancements in global waste management and protect oceans for future generations.

What Is CleanHub’s “Theory of Change”? Fund & Incentivize – Brands pay for the recovery of every kilogram of plastic they produce, creating funds to collect even non-valuable waste. Local, Asset-Light Hubs – Small, scalable “CleanHubs” partner with local collectors to intercept plastic at its source—door-to-door, on beaches, and along riverbanks. Transparent Track & Trace – Every kilogram is weighed, logged, and verifiable in real time via an ISO-verified digital platform, ensuring that contributions translate directly into impact. Responsible Processing – Collected plastics are either recycled locally or co-processed as fuel, preventing landfill dumping and open burning. Community Empowerment – Fair wages, safe working conditions, and education turn waste collection into dignified, sustainable jobs, embedding long-term waste-management solutions. Together, these pillars align financial incentives, technology, and social impact to ensure that for every kilogram of new plastic produced, an equal amount is permanently diverted from nature, moving the world toward true “plastic neutrality.”

Establishing Local “CleanHubs”

In regions with a high risk of mismanaged plastic waste, particularly coastal communities across Asia and Africa, CleanHub either builds its own collection centers or partners with existing local operators.

These CleanHubs coordinate door-to-door collection services as well as targeted beach and riverbank clean-ups, creating safe, dignified jobs with fair pay for local workers and ensuring plastic is intercepted before it can pollute the environment

Tracking & Verifying Every Kilogram Collected

Each piece of collected plastic is weighed, sorted, and digitally logged through CleanHub’s proprietary tracking platform. This system has been ISO 14064-3:2020-verified by TÜV SÜD, providing brands and individuals with real-time, auditable proof of their contributions to plastic recovery, often referred to as a “plastic credit” model.

Empowering Brand Partnerships

Over 300 global brands have signed up to offset their plastic footprint by funding CleanHub’s collection efforts. Through API integrations, Shopify apps, or subscription plans, businesses can automatically match every product sold with a corresponding quantity of plastic collected, and then share their verified impact with customers via live dashboards and marketing collateral

How Does CleanHub’s Plastic Credit Work?

Plastic credits are a simple but powerful way to fight plastic pollution, especially in countries where waste management systems are weak or missing. They allow individuals or businesses to take responsibility for their plastic use by funding the collection of plastic waste from the environment.

Brand / Buyer Engagement & Plastic Footprint Assessment

A brand or individual decides how much plastic waste they want to offset. CleanHub helps determine a “plastic footprint” for the brand, i.e. amount of plastic to be accounted for. Then the buyer purchases an equivalent amount of plastic credits.

Funding Plastic Waste Collection

The money paid for credits goes toward funding waste collection operations in underserved or coastal communities. These are areas that often lack formal waste management systems. CleanHub partners with local collectors and organizations to carry out this work.

Traceability & Monitoring via Technology

One of CleanHub’s core features is its tracking technology. Collection partners register waste via a mobile app (scanning QR codes, uploading photos, logging geo-data). These inputs create a transparent “audit trail” so that every kilogram of plastic can be accounted for.
The system monitors sorting, transport, and final processing (e.g., recycling or safe disposal) to ensure the plastic is managed responsibly.

Issuing & Verifying Credits

Once the collection and processing are verified, CleanHub issues plastic credits corresponding to the dry weight of collected plastic. These credits are then tied to the brand or buyer who funded them. CleanHub is among the first to be verified by TÜV SÜD under ISO standards, which adds a layer of credibility to their data and claims.

In addition to traditional plastic credits (which often address unrecycled waste), CleanHub now offers recycling credits. These focus on plastics that can be recycled, but in many regions are not, due to economic or infrastructural barriers. They step in to fill the financial gap, making it viable to collect and process those difficult-to-handle plastics. The goal is to push the system toward full circularity, not just undoing damage.

Reporting & Transparency

Brands receive dashboards and impact reports showing how much plastic was collected, where it was processed, and how their investment made a difference. This transparency helps prevent greenwashing and strengthens accountability.

CleanHub’s Process To Manage Waste

In most developing countries, formal and informal waste management systems co-exist. While formal systems are governed by labor laws and have worker benefits and safety protocols, informal systems have historically been characterized by worker exploitation and a lack of labor laws and safety protocols.

Cleanhub guides their partners on the ground towards compliance with their international industry standard Code of Conduct that was built on fundamental UN ILO Conventions (International Labor Organization) as summarized by three leading international worker rights non-profits, and informs our commitment to using our buying engagement power to influence respect for human rights:

• The UK Ethical Trade Initiative’s Base Code, created by trade unions, non-profits, and businesses together, and which in particular requires respect
  for workers’ human rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and real living wages.
• The Social Accountability International’s SA8000 Code, which, in addition to the above, guides good social management systems
• The USA’s Fair Labor Association is also strong on safety guidance.

CleanHub is proud to have been influencing improvements to more and more partner sites. They work to influence that if any workers were not paid all legal minimum wage rates (sometimes an issue at very small sites before our partnership begins), then this is improved, that all social insurances are eventually paid, that workers are given proper contracts, policies improved to respect worker rights and that holistic safety improvements are made on-site.

Small improvements like these can make a massive difference in the livelihoods of waste collectors and sorters, who are often women, parents, or marginalized youth. Ensuring people are paid legal minimum wages and all benefits and have proper contracts and registration in government social security systems is better than charity: it’s about dignity, empowerment, and fairer chances for all.

Independent worker rights

CleanHub’s social assessments and engagement are led by experienced, independent worker rights-focused local experts. The site Social Assessors and
Standards advisors CleanHub has commissioned, worked with, and in: 

• ILO Better Work program 
• Human Rights Watch 
• The Ethical Trading Initiative 
• HERProject 
• The World Bank  
• Smaller worker welfare organizations like Handshake.  

They have deep experience with the issue of falsification of wages and hours records in the industry of “social audit” of large apparel and other manufacturing sites.  Whilst less risk in the waste sector, Social Audit visits are nevertheless designed carefully towards gaining transparency and helping our Supplier Partners improve with Coaching so that they stay honest about their challenges before and while working with CleanHub. 

Tangie is a proud partner of CleanHub and the work they do to improve and establish local waste management facilities around the globe to keep ocean-bound plastic waste from ever entering our shared oceans.  

Reducing waste is important, but taking care of people and their work conditions is the highest priority. Read more about that HERE.