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Turning local plastic waste into coasters: meet Jietse Goes (Belgium)

Lennard Ameys, Ghent, 08/01/2026

In June 2024 founded Jietse Goes, Looping Factory in Belgium. After years of being passionate about sustainability and design, he decided to follow his own path. I no longer wanted to stand by and watch plastic end up as waste, but instead show that it can be transformed into something beautiful and valuable.

Looping Factory is a circular mini-factory that locally processes plastic waste into coasters with a sustainable story.

They source their raw materials from local plastic waste streams. With Looping Factory, he wanted to demonstrate that recycling doesn’t have to be boring, but can be inspiring, creative, and tangible.

For example: every month, 10 thrift stores collectively throw away 2,000 kilograms of unsold CDs. We set up a collaboration with a social company, where people with disabilities work; they collect and shred these cd’s and we buy these shredded cd’s and cases from them. Other collaborations are: pipet boxes from the local hospital, bottle lids from households and clothes hangers from clothing stores.

"With Looping Factory, I want to demonstrate that recycling doesn’t have to be boring, but can be inspiring, creative, and tangible."

Social entrepeneurship starts with... passion?

Jietse has always admired people who design and create meaningful things: music, objects, furniture — things that carry value and emotion. Everything shifted when he took a course in social entrepreneurship. During visits to impact-driven companies with circular or social missions, one thing stood out: the passion of the founders. Profit was not the primary goal; belief in what they were building was.

That’s when he knew: “I want to be a circular entrepreneur.”

After the course, Jietse enrolled in a bachelor’s program in Business Management for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. During his studies, he co-founded a design furniture company with friends, working with sheet material made from recycled yoghurt pots. He was immediately fascinated by the material and began exploring its broader potential. But the company wasn’t financially sustainable and came to an end.

Choosing one idea and committing fully

Jietse then moved into a traditional 9-to-5 job. On paper, it was a good position, but it lacked meaning. He couldn’t talk about it with passion. He missed the feeling of creating something he was truly proud of.

So he quit.

The journey toward Looping Factory took much longer than expected — nearly a year. For someone who thrives on ideas, the hardest part wasn’t starting, but choosing just one and committing to it fully. Eventually, everything was narrowed down to a single product: low startup costs, easy to sell to friends and family, scalable, and something he could confidently say, “I made this.”

That’s when the startup truly began.

Today, Jietse works part-time in a bar while dedicating all his remaining time to Looping Factory. This balance provides just enough financial stability to keep moving forward while building the company step by step.

A concrete problem, a circular solution

In cafés and restaurants, thousands of cardboard coasters are used every day. After just one drink, they are thrown away — often without even showing visible signs of use. While this may seem harmless, the cumulative impact is significant: tons of paper waste that often isn’t recycled, and valuable resources lost.

Instead of disposable coasters, Looping Factory offers a circular alternative: reusable coasters made from recycled plastic. They are sturdy, easy to clean, and designed to last — no more soggy, flimsy cardboard. An added advantage is the option to personalise the coasters, giving each set its own identity and story.

Made in Plastic Lab in

De Creatieve STEM vzw

Advice for anyone pursuing a green career

“Many people — friends, family, coaches — will want to give you advice, and most of it is well-intentioned. But my biggest lesson is this: truly listen only to people who have actually done it.”

What’s next for Looping Factory?

Looking ahead, Jietse wants to organise workshops to show people how recycling really works — not as an abstract idea, but as something hands-on, visible, and understandable.

He closes with words that perfectly capture the spirit of Looping Factory:

"We want to learn to work with our hands.

To make things.

To get out of our heads.

Making something yourself matters.

Especially in a world where mass production and perfection are the norm,

we need to relearn how to be happy with imperfection.

As a silent witness to the moment things briefly went wrong.

Which later turns into pride.

Because your effort still clings to it."

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