How Five U.S. Cities Are Carving Out Paths to Circularity - Part OneHow Five U.S. Cities Are Carving Out Paths to Circularity - Part One
Cities play a vital role in advancing zero-waste goals, and Phoenix, Arizona, exemplifies this with its Resource Innovation Campus, which fosters circular business models, and partnerships like those with Arizona State University for initiatives like the circular plastics microfactory. With dedicated public outreach, innovative programs like “Oops/Shine On,” and a focus on achieving 50% waste diversion by 2030, Phoenix sets itself apart by owning its waste management systems and prioritizing sustainability at all levels of leadership.

As home to more than half the world’s population, cities can have meaningful impact on the march to zero waste. Recognizing that, more and more municipalities are bringing robust recycling and amazingly creative circularity initiatives to life.
This two-part series launches with Phoenix Arizona’s sustainability story, told by Amanda Jordan, circular economy project manager, Phoenix, Public Works.
Part two is a vibrant snapshot of the sustainability work of four more cities across the U.S.
Waste360: Tell us about the Resource Innovation Campus
Jordan: Our Resource Innovation Campus is a business park and hub that will focus on advancing a circular economy. For companies to locate there they must demonstrate a circular business model. It will sit on 40 acres of city-owned land, co-located with our compost facility, materials recovery facility, transfer station, and one closed landfill. Twenty of the 40 acres are currently slated for build out including the headquarters facility that will have resources such as R&D labs, office space, education space, and business incubation/acceleration services. We anticipate construction to be completed before 2030.
Companies that are approved to locate on site will have access to the waste streams at the transfer station, MRF, and compost facility and will be able to pull out materials free of charge to use as manufacturing feedstock for their R&D and pilots.
Waste360: What has gone on at Phoenix’s circular economy” business incubator?
Jordan: Phoenix partnered with Arizona State University (ASU) from 2013-2020 to launch a program called the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network (RISN) which tests research happening at the university in real world applications. As part of RISN, the RISN Incubator was launched in 2016 as the first circular economy business incubation program in the country at the time. The program was funded by City of Phoenix, ASU, and a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant. The grant funding concluded in early 2020, so the program is in a bit of a hiatus at the moment, but the intent is to reactivate similar programming upon completion of the Resource Innovation Campus headquarters.
During its run, the RISN Incubator worked with 19 startups in the circular economy space that collectively created 68 jobs and 55 internships. They raised $3.72 million in capital, generated $4.14 million in revenue, launched 25 new products, and filed 14 patents.
Waste360: How do you engage the public and what most resonates with them?
Jordan: Public Works has a dedicated Zero Waste team that leads all public outreach, engagement, and education efforts. Among activities, the team leads tours of our facilities to help people understand the importance of participating in recycling. The community is always blown away at the volumes of materials moving through the facilities. It helps them understand that when they “throw something away,” it doesn't actually go away. It’s one of the most impactful educational tools that we have. Last year, the team engaged with over 18,000 individuals conducting facility tours, presentations, community event tabling, and Green Business Leader seminars.
Waste360: How close are you to your zero-waste goal? And what do you believe will be your greatest levers to get closer?
Jordan: Our current focus is on our 2030 goal of achieving 50 percent waste diversion from landfill and ultimately moving the needle toward achieving zero waste (90%+ diversion) by 2050. Today we are hovering at 36 to 37 percent diversion. We recognize that we have our work cut out for us to hit that 2030 target, and it's very exciting that we are officially pushing forward on the Resource Innovation Campus to help us recover more materials. We plan to attract businesses that can help Public Works divert materials that we don't currently have pathways for.
For example, with plastics, today we only have solutions for ones, twos, and fives. But those threes, fours, sixes, and sevens are a decent portion of the recycling stream. So how do we find providers that can tackle those materials that we as the city are not actively able to process?
Waste360: What is the community’s overall attitude about recycling and how good are they at it?
Jordan: Generally, our residents are very committed to recycling. The City of Phoenix services nearly 425,000 single-family residential households, and about 95 percent of those households actively participate. Of the materials we collect, we are only able to divert around 36 to 37 percent annually from landfill.
Understanding that behavior change is a crucial component to increasing diversion rates, we launched an iteration of the “Oops/Shine On” program to help improve residents’ recycling habits. Our environmental specialists do walkthroughs of neighborhoods and peek into the recycling bins. If they see contamination, they stick an oops sticker on the bin. Residents doing it properly receive a shine on sticker.
We found great success with this approach that we believe is simply because of peer pressure. Folks would come out and notice who had an oops sticker and who had a shine on sticker. When we first piloted this initiative, we picked the highest contamination neighborhood and within six months we saw significant decreases in contamination levels and marked improved participation.
Waste360: Tell us more about your partnership with Arizona State University and your circular plastics “microfactory”
Jordan: The ASU team especially has been a crucial component of our engagement in circular economy initiatives and our success. Most recently, we collaborated with the University to launch our circular plastics microfactory (Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona and Hustle PHX are also project partners). We clean, shred, flake, pelletize, mold, and remanufacture plastic waste into new products all within a 10,000-square-foot space. This facility opened in February 2024 and has since diverted nearly 110,000 pounds of plastic waste.
ASU has been a strong partner on projects beyond the business incubator and microfactory. For instance, we have engaged them for extensive research around impacts of our greenhouse gas emissions in Metro Phoenix. And they have investigated pathways to curb those emissions, including those associated with transporting our waste.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of partnerships, and we have many of them. For example, we are a founding member of the U.S. Plastics Pact, which is working toward ensuring that all plastic packaging is compostable, reusable, and/or recyclable by 2030. That membership has led to more collaborations with consumer product goods brands. Some of those brands have come to our MRF and run their products through the system to assess capturability and sorting capabilities to ensure that materials would end up in the correct bales rather than spend millions to change their packaging.
Waste360: In closing, what most sets Phoenix apart from other cities?
Jordan: Phoenix is one of very few municipalities in the U.S. that maintains ownership over its waste management systems. So, we have a bit more control and flexibility in terms of data insights, public private collaborations, and exploration of innovative solutions via the circular economy.
Most importantly though, we are fortunate that all of our work is driven from the top down. It's our mayor, our city council, and our department leadership wanting to pursue zero waste and circular economy efforts to create a healthier environment for our communities.
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