Phoenix, AZ Diversion Rate = 30% (2017)

Since we never stop learning, Phoenix built a campus.

Phoenix

In 2014, Phoenix uncovered sobering information about its waste system: The overall recycling rate was only 20%, and nearly 45% of the local landfill stream consisted of compostable organic materials.

Phoenix has very few formal policies to mandate waste diversion and aid in the development of a local circular economy. Neither recycling nor composting are required for households or businesses.

Still, two years after this waste analysis, the city made the ambitious decision to become a zero waste, circular economy by 2050. Phoenix identified three key strategies to get there:

  • Expand education and access to services
  • Incubate local businesses and industries that can help divert waste from landfills
  • Encourage the local retail industry to provide products that can be completely recycled or repurposed

Phoenix’s first step was to partner with Arizona State University (ASU) to launch the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network (RISN) program. Funded through Phoenix’s municipally-owned waste and recycling infrastructure, RISN engages in research on behalf of the city.

RISN is also helping to implement something called the Research Innovation Campus (RIC). RIC is an eco-industrial and manufacturing incubator sitting on roughly 50 acres that will be turning trash into resources. Businesses around the city can also lease parcels of RIC land to develop technologies and processes that use waste to create new products.

The first business to secure space at the RIC plans to take palm fronds – a common local waste product that is difficult to compost – and grind them with nuts and dates to make livestock feed.

In the future, ASU will establish a business incubator at RIC to provide support and technical services to startups that promote a circular economy. At that point, Phoenix will solicit proposals to creatively address other problematic materials in its waste stream, including carpet, foam, latex paint and treated wood.

But already, RIC is becoming a center for innovation, waste minimization and economic opportunity.