A "circular economy" isn't some radical, new idea. In fact, as Joe Giudice, Assistant Public Works Director for the City of Phoenix, shared on KLA's recent webinar, it's really the "new old way of doing things."
The notion that you design a product to only be used for a few minutes and then be tossed in a landfill is what's relatively new - and radically ridiculous. But it has become the standard for everything from the clothes we wear (think "fast fashion") to the products we buy (and all that packaging), with devastating consequences.
Experts tell us that we have less than a decade to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to avoid the most dire impacts of climate change. When you consider the full life cycle (from extraction to production to movement to disposal) of the products that end up in the waste stream, the waste sector is actually quite a significant contributor to emissions.
We recently invited Giudice along with Chris Castro from the City of Orlando, Bridget Croke of Closed Loop Partners and John Trujillo of NewFields, to join our Climate Solutions Series webinar to dive deeper into what local governments can do to build a culture of circularity.