Monique Maissan is a Dutch entrepreneur and textile engineer specialised in sustainable solutions for the industry. As CEO and founder of Waste2Wear, she leads a committed team in creating products from recycled plastics since 2007, making them a true pioneer in the industry. The core business is in creating yarns and fabrics from recycled plastic bottles (RPET).
Through Monique’s leadership, Waste2Wear won the highly coveted 2021 World Sustainability Award for the most sustainable supply chain due to the unique Waste2Wear blockchain.
All Waste2Wear suppliers are GRS and BSCI certified making the supply chain sustainable, transparent and traceable. QR codes on all their products provide details of the environmental savings per each production run and a ‘how it’s made’ video.
Monique was instrumental in developing the award winning*, world first post-consumer recycled polypropylene products made from discarded domestic appliances such as fridges and washing machines etc.
In 2021 she introduced the award winning**, world-first, fully certified testing method to verify RPET content in fabrics, (RA-3) to prove if something is really made from recycled plastic bottles and to what percentage.
In 2018, she introduced recycled ocean fabrics in collaboration with local NGOs to target highly congested coastal areas to collect post-consumer, pre-ocean plastic to create new ocean yarns, fabrics, garments and other products.
Monique collaborates with a variety of stakeholders to help create awareness and to find solutions to protect the environment. This includes collaborations with the Jane Goodall Institute, National Geographic and others. Monique is a sought after speaker on conferences and Universities about circularity, and received various awards for her work over the years.
Some Awards and key-note speaking events:
- 2022 Packaging Awards of Canada (PAC) Innovative Sustainable Packaging RPP
- 2021 World Sustainability Award for the most sustainable supply chain due to the unique Waste2Wear blockchain
- 2021 EUCCC** Sustainable Business Award for RPET Recycling Assurance Test (RA-3)
- 2021 Key note at the EXCELerate Virtual Conference in Canada and conference in 2015
- 2020 EUCCC* Sustainable Business Award for world-first post-consumer recycled polypropylene (RPP) products
- 2019 The Personality of the Year award from the Benelux Chamber of Commerce
- 2018 The #1 Business Women Of Excellence award in Egypt
- 2017 The Women Economic Forum’s Outstanding Women for the Advance of Sustainability award
- 2017 Key note at China’s World Creative Economy Summit
- Key note at the EWC Sustainability Summit at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2016 *
- The Sustainable. Business Award from the European Economic and Sustainability Committee in 2014;
- The Entrepreneur the Year award 2012 in the USA from Enterprising Women.
*European Union Chamber of Commerce in China
