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Recycling Partnership Launches Circular Economy Accelerator

by Bill McCool on 04/11/2019 | 2 Minute Read

The nonprofit organization Recycling Partnership’s mission is to improve the recycling landscape across the US by partnering with major brands and corporations to improve infrastructure and increase the volume of recyclable materials. After all, these are valuable materials, and if a brand wants to use more recycled content in their packaging, then they need to expand the ways in which they capture these materials.

Today, Recycling Partnership has announced that they want to further that mission by launching their Circular Economy Accelerator. It’s the organization’s latest effort to bring progressive brands to the table in order to aggressively pursue policy solutions that will kickstart a circular economy. Not only will the Accelerator program promote increased sustainable funding, but they also advocate for policies to incentivize recycling while developing new recovery models for circular systems.

“Consumers, businesses, and policymakers recognize that the U.S. recycling system is facing a critical inflection point – but we see it as an opportunity,” said Sarah Dearman, Executive Director of the Circular Economy Accelerator in a press release. “By leveraging public-private solutions to drive sustainable investment in recycling infrastructure and implementing policies that incentivize recycling over disposal, we can put the U.S. on the path to a truly circular economy.”

“America doesn’t have time to wait for a better recycling system,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership in the same press release. “Current global market challenges pose serious headwinds to community recycling programs. The Circular Economy Accelerator will jump-start the critical conversations to advance the recycling system so that recyclable materials make it from citizens’ recycling bins back to store shelves as new products”.

For the past five years, Recycling Partnership has helped communities and brands invest more than $32 million into recycling infrastructure, making it much more accessible for consumers while also educating them so that the system can work to its full potential and recover these materials. With the Accelerator, they’ve created another avenue to promote change so that recycling can work for all stakeholders, whether they’re a Material Recovery Facility or the brands that desperately need these materials.