Circular Supply Chain Strategy: How to Build Circular Economy Infrastructure from Coalition to Community | CSCC x Pyxera Global Series (1 of 5)

Yeah.

Well, I think that that's kind of the, the secret sauce of the Circular Supply Chain Coalition, is that we view supply chain as a systems change approach, that you're looking through it, through its, through the entire stakeholder process, all the way from looking at the subsidies and incentives sitting in policy and how to unlock those mechanisms.

Looking at supply chain as a competitive advantage, specifically as a value proposition that smart companies already knowing how to prosper.

And then third, community, and really trying to frame community, i.e. local procurement, local waste streams, and centering that economic development, or I would say recentering that economic growth and development and providing the communities to have agency around their material streams.

And I know that sounds kind of out there, but in reality, that's not necessarily done.

And by harmonizing, I think, the stake- to really work together cohesively is where the value is in truly, truly unlocking the values of, of, of both the extractive and the reverse supply chain in one process.

Yeah, that's incredible.

And I, and I also love the marriage and balance between the two of you because Anita has a very operational, she has a background in advisory, private sector, and waste is, like, her thing.

[laughs]

And so Anita, from that perspective, what was broken in the way companies were actually thinking about reverse supply chains? And you have a wealth of experience.

Um, what did operators need that the market wasn't necessarily providing?

I think the, the- Big piece that changed, you know, is sort of this understanding that supply chains are not always resilient, and especially in a context of, you know, from, from a global supply chain perspective.

We saw that in COVID, um, we're seeing that again today.

And so that supply chain is now becoming a geopolitical strategy.

It's really imperative for companies to understand where they have capabilities to be able to secure particular materials, but also really looking internally at their own waste as a potential resource.

And I think that that paradigm shift has happened, um, and companies, especially leading companies, are really starting to look at where they can be able to harvest from their own waste streams.

And I think that part of the reason that you're seeing the shift, you know, previously into today are some of those constraints.

But mostly, you know, today's infrastructure and how in- infrastructure's been developed has been very reactive.

Mm-hmm.

So where there has been policy in terms of prohibiting certain materials from landfill or, you know, there's been more of a reaction of there's a proliferation of a particular type of waste stream, so we need to resolve that.

It hasn't been a very strategic way in which waste has been thought about as a resource, um, but more importantly, what the infrastructure is necessary to be able to utilize it as a resource.

Um, so some of the gaps that have existed in the private sector, I feel, is, one, that marriage between policy and infrastructure development with private sector and public sector.

Um, also in terms of how we look at, uh, or how companies are looking at the data availability of where this waste is being generated, how much, how frequently, at what quality.

Um, and so that's-

So true