Whole Surplus

Whole Surplus, operating in Turkey under the brand Fazla, provides technology-based waste management and circular economy services intended to prevent waste at source and to route unavoidable surplus to its highest economic, environmental and social use. The platform covers surplus across food, packaging, textiles and chemicals, and directs items to one of several channels: discounted resale for products with sufficient shelf life, donation to food banks (with associated tax advantages), conversion of near-expiry or expired food into animal feed raw material, and recycling of packaging and non-food waste.

The company's website presents an AI tool that accepts uploaded photographs or written product lists and automatically identifies items, then produces a report estimating revenue potential, CO2 savings, meals rescued and an impact score. Additional services include a smart weighing system, a consumer-oriented offering, and sustainability consulting. The stakeholder ecosystem spans producers, distributors, retail and e-commerce, HoReCa, animal feed manufacturers, recycling and recovery facilities, food banks and associations, municipalities and individual consumers.

Publicly named partners include CarrefourSA, Metro Türkiye, Migros, Nestlé and Sun Tekstil, whose representatives describe donation operations, resale, animal feed and textile waste recovery programs, and digital traceability and reporting of waste processes.

Founding story

The company was founded by Olcay Silahlı, reported in 2018 as a food waste management solution connecting retailers with food banks. Its stated starting reference point was UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which targets halving per-capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030 and reducing food losses along production and supply chains.

Business model

The company operates a technology platform and service ecosystem that intermediates between holders of surplus goods (producers, distributors, retailers, e-commerce, HoReCa) and parties that can absorb them (food banks and associations, animal feed producers, recycling and recovery facilities, municipalities, consumers). Services listed include the Fazla Market discounted-sales channel, donation management, animal feed conversion, recycling, a smart weighing system, the Fazla İyi consumer-facing offering, and sustainability consulting. Reported activity includes reselling surplus fruit and dairy from supermarkets to companies such as Coca-Cola and Unilever for repurposing into products such as animal feed.

Traction

As of 2018 the company reported working with 14 large retailers in Turkey and 100 non-governmental organizations. Its partnership with Migros grew from one store in 2017 to daily donations at over 400 stores, delivering more than 10,000 tons of food to people in need over six years. The project with Nestlé begun in 2019 is reported to have recovered 6,181 tons of food and avoided 2,357 tons of carbon emissions.