A Circular Vision for Sustainable Growth: How Companies are Building a New 21st Century Economy

Along with Intel’s passion for innovation, our founders instilled a strong commitment to environmental responsibility. We continuously strive to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and conserve resources throughout our operations. Intel has a decades-long legacy of pursuing sustainability through environmentally responsible operations and innovative technology solutions.

Intel has set a goal to recycle 90% of its non-hazardous waste and divert all hazardous waste from landfills by 2020, and since 2008, we have recycled 75% of the total waste generated from our operations. As part of our waste management strategy, we work to upcycle our waste material, moving beyond incineration and landfill to recycle, recover, and reuse. Finding value in waste material helps to reduce our environmental footprint, potentially reduce costs over time, and even generate revenue. This case study explores various efforts that have been employed to reach Intel’s environmental goals.

Copper Reclaim and Reuse

In 2003, Intel developed an on-site electrowinning system that captured and recovered solid copper for reuse (as opposed to off-site disposal) from an aqueous waste steam generated from semiconductor manufacturing. Using copper seed media and electrical current to initiate a transfer of the ionic copper in the waste solution into elemental copper, the process eliminated the need to transport the low PH copper plating waste. The system yields valuable copper that can readily enter the metals market supply chain for reuse in other industrial or commercial applications. This copper recovery process has been replicated at our microprocessor manufacturing sites, and over two-thirds of the waste was recovered in 2016.

High-purity copper waste generated from our factory equipment also serves as a raw material supporting the arts and fostering creativity. Over the past decade, Intel has donated over 1,000 pounds of copper targets, which have been used by students to create sculptures at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.

PFA Remanufactured

In 2012, Intel converted a factory to accommodate a larger silicon substrate moving from a 200 millimeter to 300 millimeter wafer size. This resulted in the generation of perfluoroalkoxy (PFA), an extremely pure and flexible plastic. Our on-site segregation strategy decreased total disposal costs. Diverting the material from landfill, the piping waste was sent back to the original manufacturer for recovery and reuse, creating a “cradle-to-cradle” solution, and the manufacturer avoided purchasing raw materials. This management method has been adopted by multiple factories continuing to eliminate waste at our sites.

Ammonium Sulfate

The semiconductor manufacturing process requires the use of ammonium for cleaning. Waste ammonium is treated through a combination of air scrubbers and water treatment, producing ammonium sulfate, a non-hazardous byproduct. In 2013, ammonium sulfate from U.S. sites was directed to fertilizer manufacturers and used for enhancing alkaline soils. By finding a valuable market use for our domestic ammonium sulfate, as opposed to sending for treatment and subsequent landfill, we upcycled the waste, creating a feedstock that enters the circular economy, eliminating waste and reducing our disposal costs by more than 50%.

Solvent Reclaim

Semiconductor manufacturing uses solvents extensively in the patterning process. In 2016, our engineers worked with one of our chemical waste suppliers to capture, recover, and sell over 650 tons of a valuable solvent from our mixed solvent waste. Through detailed analysis of the constituents in the solvent waste stream and understanding its value, we continue to minimize waste disposal costs while enabling other markets to use our solvents as feedstock in lieu of purchasing raw ingredients.

Exploring novel ways to manage waste is not new to Intel, and with the help of our employees and partners, we collectively work to achieve our 2020 goal and significantly contribute to the circular economy by reducing waste, increasing recovery, and creating feedstock and new supply chains, while helping to decrease the extraction of virgin materials.

One of the most impactful changes is coming soon and will land right under your feet. At DSM we support the move toward a circular economy to address resource scarcity and stimulate business growth. We recently formed a joint venture with Niaga® to develop carpet manufacturing technology that enables full carpet-to-carpet recycling after use. The DSM-Niaga® partnership is an example of the benefits that are realized when large corporations and small startups with similar values and visons for the planet join forces with a purpose in mind: Do something meaningful for the benefit of society.

As a result of this partnership, there is an entirely new flooring category known as unified soft coating and a unique new product, AirO, produced by Mohawk. The carpet itself offers the same quality and price point as conventional carpets. AirO, however, comes with additional advantages—it is much easier to install and does not emit any noxious fumes or adversely impact indoor air quality. Perhaps the best difference is what happens after the useful life of the carpet is enjoyed: Conventional carpet gets shipped to a landfill; carpeting made with the Niaga® Technology can be sold back to the manufacturer, and turned into new carpet. Hence the name “Niaga®”—the word “Again” spelled backward—as in true circular economic fashion all materials can be used again, and again, and again. . . .

The environmental impacts of this new technology are staggering. Greenwaste estimates that for every 1,000 square feet of carpet and padding that is recycled:

• 500 pounds of waste are diverted from landfills
• 48 gallons of petroleum are eliminated from entering the landfill
• 913 pounds of CO₂ emissions (which equates to 950 miles driven by car) do not enter the atmosphere

In scaling up the technology, DSM partnered with LACOM GmbH to develop a commercial-scale laminating machine based on the Niaga® technology, with DSM’s engineered adhesive. The machine uses up to 90% less energy than mainstream lamination processes and reduces water use to zero. Unlike a regular carpet, a carpet made with Niaga® technology does not contain any latex, PVC, calcium carbonate, or bitumen. The absence of any other ingredient besides polyester makes the material 100% recyclable. One of the advantages for consumers and installers alike is that it is safer than carpeting made with latex, there are no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and there is no dizzying new-carpet smell. Another advantage is that it is lighter and more flexible than carpet that is currently on the market, making it less expensive to transport.

Carpeting made with this advanced technology enables effective resource utilization throughout the process, but it is best demonstrated at the end of the carpet’s life cycle, because it can be remade into a new carpet of the same size and of the same quality, without using any virgin raw materials.

A key milestone in the launch of this new carpeting technology was finding the right partner to produce the adhesives. It took a lot of time and energy before the partnership between DSM and Niaga® began. The next key milestone was to scale up production from 10 inches of carpeting produced per minute to 30 feet per minute. Today, the most significant challenge ahead is the transition from a profitable but 50-year-old technology to the latest technology that generates value for everyone involved, including the recycler.

Niaga® redesigns everyday products from the ground up for full recyclability. The first product that came to market is carpet. The only way Niaga® could make this happen was by drastically reducing the complexity of materials used in carpets. The result is a carpet made from only one material, making it fully recyclable in new carpets after use. By surprise, the simplification offered so much more: faster installation, resource-lean production, healthier indoors, and easier cleaning, to name a few. This makes us curious what would happen if other everyday products are redesigned from the ground up by DSM-Niaga®. As a leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, DSM is already investigating the potential for the Niaga® technology to enhance our product portfolio and those of our customers.

Brief description of initiative

At Johnson Controls, our conventional automotive batteries have been designed so 99% of the materials can be reused. Each time a customer needs a vehicle battery replacement, he or she can return the old one—often to the same vendor providing the new battery. Johnson Controls then collects those old batteries and turns them into new batteries. Our circular thinking, coupled with a one-for-one product exchange of old product for new, has enabled us to establish one of the world’s most successful examples of a circular economy and continues to transform how we approach our work.

What we’ve learned

• With a circular economy, a supply chain starts and ends at the same place. We needed a fundamental paradigm shift to look at the end-of-life of a product not as waste, but rather, as a critical source of supply for new products.
• To fully enable a circular economy, products must be designed with materials that can be economically and responsibly recovered or repurposed. By thinking about the life cycle of the raw materials as opposed to just the finished product, we found unexpected financial, economic, and social benefits.
• Logistics are no longer one-way—they must be ideally managed as an entire system to manage the flow of new and used materials at the same time. Additionally, careful planning and execution are needed to match the ability of recycling facilities to supply the manufacturing footprint.

Overcoming challenges

The two key challenges we have worked to address over time include:

1. Managing the supply chain. Since old batteries are used, we collect old batteries in a season that’s different from peak battery sales season. Learning how to manage the timing and logistics of this circular supply chain is a unique opportunity we’ve addressed and continue to refine.
2. Continuing to increase recycling rates. Even though we already have achieved very high recycling rates, we’re not done yet. There are always more batteries to collect. As such, the opportunity to increase the collection rate to 100% is a goal we’re committed to achieving.

Results

Our circular supply chain helped push recycling rates for conventional batteries to 99% in 2015 in North America, Europe, and Brazil—enabling us to produce batteries containing more than 80% recycled material. Some of the key benefits our circular business model creates include:

Economic

• It enables a more resilient, manageable, and visible source of raw material supply.
• Since the raw materials we use largely come from within the geographies we operate, we have diverse supply sources.
• Our closed-loop supply chain and reverse logistics network reduces the need for hundreds of thousands of additional transportation miles each year.

Social

• Recycling batteries creates jobs and economic development for our suppliers, our communities, and our own operations.
• Recycling batteries in our circular supply chain also reduces human health risks associated with improper battery disposal or handling.
• Our employees are engaged and inspired by our work on a circular economy.

Environmental

• The reuse of the metals from used batteries results in 99% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than processing primary ore from a mine.
• The use of recycled plastics uses 90% less energy than processing virgin plastic made from oil or natural gas.
• Reusing materials in our own operations reduces waste.

What’s next

Our vision is a world where 100% of vehicle batteries are recycled. Working hand in hand with customers, suppliers, and logistics partners, Johnson Controls created a circular supply chain that has ensured hundreds of millions of batteries have been properly recycled and materials are recovered for use in new batteries. We are excited to take the next step and explore how to increase battery recycling rates for traditional batteries and new battery technologies.

But our commitment to a circular economy is not confined to batteries. Across our business, we look to extend life, remanufacture, and recycle. For example, we recirculate our Tyco Retail Visual Source Tags, which are security tags used for products such as apparel, which helps reduce resource use and waste. We also help refurbish certain building equipment to extend its life, and we help our building customers reach their goals on waste and material reuse. As part of our Johnson Controls Manufacturing System, we reduce and then reuse materials including scrap metal, plastic, and water, seeking to minimize waste. We will continue to integrate circular economy principles into our business in partnership with our suppliers, customers, and stakeholders.

Rubicon is bringing technology and data to the $1 trillion global waste and recycling industry, and thereby realigning incentives to divert waste from landfills and promote a more circular economy.

A tech company at its core, Rubicon rejects the asset-heavy business model of industry incumbents that profit from frequenting landfills and the make-take-waste culture. Instead, Rubicon built a cloud-based technology and big data platform that connects customers with a network of independent haulers and municipal fleets to enable higher diversion rates, creative reuse of waste material, optimized truck routes and collection, job creation (rather than replacement), and the analysis and ability to act on detailed waste data.

The Problem

The traditional U.S. waste industry is dominated by three large incumbents that own landfill real estate and derive profit from maximizing volume in landfills and increasing trash pick-ups. These players are so dominant that American consumers, businesses, and even public works departments are often unaware of exactly what happens to their waste or even that they have a choice in waste solutions and the ability to collect verified waste data. As a result, $11 billion in recyclable materials are buried in U.S. landfills annually, and recyclable materials represent 46% of landfill material.

The Solution

Accelerating tech development and adopting a circular economic model, Rubicon began by growing its business and network at scale. Beginning in 2008, the company signed on multinational retail brands, convenience store chains, and food distributors as its first set of customers, and connected them with independent haulers with services ranging from waste and recycling to anaerobic digestion and composting. It also built out its sustainability solutions team, helping customers devise unique solutions for diversion and material reuse.

Next, in 2016, Rubicon set out to bring these better waste solutions to “main street,” gaining the critical mass of the $40 billion small-and-medium business (SMB) waste market and bringing them into the circular economy conversation that was already under way with its national accounts. Today, Rubicon works with thousands of SMBs nationwide, from car dealerships to veterinary hospitals to craft breweries and more.

In January 2017, Rubicon rolled out its Smart Cities offering and began implementing technology partnerships with the City of Atlanta, City of Santa Fe, and the City of Columbus, Georgia, with many more to follow later this year. These partnerships are enabling municipal fleets to track city waste streams like never before and make data-based decisions around route optimization, waste infrastructure, resident education, and other improvements.

Results

Today, Rubicon’s asset-light, tech-based approach to waste management realigns incentives with the customer and the environment—less waste to landfill, fewer pick-ups, and more savings for the customer. Furthermore, Rubicon’s technology is enabling independent hauling companies to grow their book of business and create jobs in Main Street America. Rubicon’s technology also optimizes truck routes, thereby reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and reducing hauler operating costs, and collects data for detailed waste analyses, comprehensive reporting, and establishing baseline metrics to enable customers to see and improve their waste and recycling habits.

In 2016, Rubicon grew more than 200% and now provides waste and recycling solutions for more than 200,000 user service locations across the United States and 18 countries around the world. With data verified by Trucost, Rubicon provides its customers with detailed waste data to enable more educated, circular decision making. These data are altering behavior at the waste source, while also helping to build market capacity for non-landfill destinations.

Looking to the future, Rubicon is already pioneering the Smart Cities movement and the industrial internet of things in the waste industry, incorporating analytics and machine learning to gather, analyze, and share big data and enable circular decisions. The company has more than 70 U.S. and global patents pending for its technology, including Rubicon’s proprietary “shake” technology that registers the vibrations of a waste truck, container volume, and weight of container when a pick-up is occurring. This calculates accurate landfill diversion rates and GHG emissions/savings from waste and recycling activities.

In just a few years, Rubicon’s technology and innovative approach to waste and recycling are delivering operational savings and new revenue sources for Rubicon’s network, creating the business case for companies and governments to shift their perspective on waste management, make the case for more upstream evolution, and encourage more circular economic thinking.

EILEEN FISHER’s commitment to circularity and a future without waste is embodied by our evolving and innovative take-back and reuse program. We collect worn or torn EILEEN FISHER garments from our customers to ensure that nothing we create goes to landfill. We ask for our clothes back because we believe that their value doesn’t end with their first wear. We foster innovation so when our clothes can’t be reworn or renewed, they can be remade to start their journey all over again. 

EILEEN FISHER’s take-back program started in 2009 under the name Green Eileen as an initiative within the Eileen Fisher Foundation. The drive behind the program was to raise money for causes that we care about; as a promise, the profits from our resale program are donated to organizations supporting women, girls and the environment. We believe in the quality and timeless designs of our clothing, so we ask our customers to bring back their unwanted garments in exchange for a $5 credit per piece. This way, customers can extend the life of garments they no longer want, while knowing their contributions are positively impacting society and the environment. In 2015 as part of EILEEN FISHER’s larger commitment to sustainability, Green Eileen was moved from the foundation into EILEEN FISHER Inc. to allow for the program to continue growing. 

As Green Eileen developed into a successful resale business, an inventory of unsellable flawed product began to build. Optimistic that we could reclaim the value that remained within the high quality materials, the Makerspace was created in 2014 to avoid the need for overseas donations and/or downcycling. The Makerspace took over the inventory management of the unsellable product stream and began to explore local partnerships for donations and reuse workshops.

In 2015, EILEEN FISHER partnered with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to create The Social Innovator Award which provided three design graduates a yearlong residency to create solutions for the damaged garments that were accruing. They spent months exploring ideas for renewing and remaking the damaged garments into new wearable creations. Approaching the design challenge through the lens of scalability, the Social Innovators identified recurring styles, materials and damages that allowed for the implementation of repeatable production processes. In the summer of 2016, The Social Innovator Award culminated with the debut of the first EILEEN FISHER Remade collection at a pop-up shop in Brooklyn, NY.

By the end of the yearlong Social Innovator Award, we were seeing our path to sustainability a little differently. While our company goals have always been ambitious, as noted in our Vision2020 commitment to sustainability, the enhanced focus on our extended corporate responsibility revealed that this journey we’re on is actually a circular path. Now, in 2017 EILEEN FISHER has made the commitment to build a circular design system by developing the Social Innovators’ Remade project into a focused department within the company.

Our take-back program has grown into a holistic and multifaceted approach to circularity that explores reselling, renewing and remaking post-consumer EILEEN FISHER garments. While we continue to resell the gently worn pieces as a means of supporting our most passionate causes, we have expanded the initiative to incorporate solutions for the flawed garments and their production scraps. At the start of 2017 we opened our EILEEN FISHER owned and operated Tiny Factory in Irvington, NY. Located in the same space as our east coast recycling center, and our Remade design studio, the Tiny Factory is an innovative approach to production that focuses on the re-manufacturing of our Remade collections by deconstructing, cutting and re-sewing flawed EILEEN FISHER garments that we have gotten back.

Our take-back and reuse work employs 35 men and women within its two points of operation: Seattle, WA and Irvington, NY. Since the initiative’s inception in 2009, we have taken back over 800,000 garments and have donated $2 million to causes supporting women, girls and the environment. We view our customers as an integral part of this process; they are the key to the success of our circular commitment. We want to give our customers a place where they can find unique experiences and can make positive impacts with their decisions. While currently we only take back annually about 3% of the product EILEEN FISHER creates, with the help of our customers we will continue to work towards our ambitious goal of taking back 100% of our outputs.

While we continue on our journey towards a circular business model, we recognize that we cannot shift the industry alone. EILEEN FISHER believes that business can be a movement, and at the heart of that movement is transparency and engagement. Our take-back and reuse program may not be a copy and paste business model, but it can be an inspiration for circular design and systems thinking. We invite partnerships and collaborations because we know that we are more impactful together.

Most materials used to make clothing are not recyclable today. Because of this, 12.7 million tons of textile waste is sent to landfills each year in the United States. While the US has some systems to extend the life of clothing, such as Goodwill, fewer than 20% of clothing donations made to charities are resold there.  About 45% of clothing donations are exported by for-profit traders to developing countries around the world. In 2013, the United States exported about 860,000 tons of secondhand apparel to developing countries. The market for the unloading of used apparel is shrinking though, as the East African Community has banned the import of used apparel from western nations starting in 2018. The issue is quickly becoming a domestic one, as textile waste is the fastest-growing component of municipal landfills. The system is linear and it is broken.

The Renewal Workshop was created to change the paradigm of this linear system and to create a circular economy for the apparel industry. This case study will outline why this is important and how it can be done, along with the impact on the environment and on sustainable manufacturing jobs.

Extending the Linear Model First

The apparel industry operates under a linear economy. Apparel comes from natural fibers or synthetic ones derived from fossil fuels. These fibers are spun into yarns, made into fabrics and then apparel, and used. At the end of that use there is no system to capture and recover the resources already invested into those clothes. Today we call it waste, but in a circular economy that “waste” material is ready to go on to its next phase.

The idea of “next phase” is critical when thinking about a material, where it is in its life cycle, and where it goes next. It might be something that moves quickly; take, for instance, an apple—its phases could be blossom, to fruit, to food, to compost, to soil, to nutrients, and so on. Something like a textile, however, could have a slower path—seed, to cotton, to fiber, to yarn, to fabric, to sweatshirt, and stay at sweatshirt for 20 years or more. It then could become a rag, fabric woven into carpet, and then shredded and recycled into a new yarn.

The Opportunity Is in Use

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation laid out a framework and collective vision with its definition of a circular economy.

“A circular economy is one that is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between technical and biological cycles. This new economic model seeks to ultimately decouple global economic development from finite resource consumption. A circular economy addresses mounting resource-related challenges for business and economies, and could generate growth, create jobs, and reduce environmental impacts, including carbon emissions. As the call for a new economic model based on systems-thinking grows louder, an unprecedented favorable alignment of technological and social factors today can enable the transition to a circular economy.” – The Ellen MacArthur Foundation

When reading the Ellen McArthur Foundation Butterfly Framework, the emphasis needs to be on the inner circles. Either cascading the renewables or maintaining, reusing, redistributing, and refurbishing the technical nutrients.

How The Renewal Workshop Prioritizes the Inner Circles of Circularity

Apparel brands and retailers have the greatest tension between the linear and the circular economy. The current system for brands is designed to go in one direction—they make products to be sold to customers and they do not want them back. Their products come back to them, however, for a variety of reasons: returns, warranty, damages, or overstock. In the case of damaged product, an issue as simple as a missing button will triage a product to “waste” because apparel brands have no capability to fix the product here in the United States. Ninety-seven percent of apparel is produced outside of the United States, and so brands have no core competency in the manufacturing of their own product, let alone in repairing it. With no system to effectively deal with this unsellable inventory, the typical solution is shred and landfill.

To help brands and retailers transform this linear process and move this unsellable inventory to the next phase, a system that uses the inner circles of the Ellen MacArthur Butterfly Framework—maintenance, reuse, refurbish, recycle—needed to be designed.

The Renewal Workshop created that system for this next phase by partnering with apparel brands and retailers to recover value from their unsellable returns and excess inventory. Our Renewal System takes discarded apparel and textiles and turns them into one of three categories: renewed apparel, upcycling materials, or feedstock for recycling. These categories align with the Butterfly Framework, recovering the highest amount of value for each product.

Renewed Apparel

Renewed apparel sits within the inner cascades of the Butterfly Framework—using materials at their highest value for as long as possible. The clothing is cleaned using state-of-the art liquid CO₂ technology and repaired in our renewal facility with the goal of getting as much product as possible back out into the market.

Renewed apparel is sold back to the brand so they can sell it through their own sales channels, sold wholesale to retailers, or direct-to-consumer at http://www.renewalworkshop.com/. The Renewal Workshop e-commerce launched in February 2017, where one-third of the products received that can be processed have made their way for online sales. To ensure product quality The Renewal Workshop is the certified renewal partner of the brand and the accompanying label in the garment acts as a seal of trust and quality.

Upcycling Materials

The upcycling stream is made up of product that is deemed not to be renewable but contains materials that can be used to create entirely new soft goods and apparel. We serve as a supplier of upcycling materials as well as a manufacturer of our own and potentially other brands’ products. Upcycling or remanufacturing removes the need for new raw materials to be created—for instance, the fabric of a jacket becomes a new tote bag.

Recycling Stock

Through our own efforts and in partnership with our network of recyclers and partners around the world, we are creating systems and new technologies to recycle apparel that cannot be renewed or upcycled. We take product at its lowest value—true waste—and turn it back into fiber, yarns, or new fabrics that can be sold back into the downstream supply chain to manufacture new clothing and textiles. This turns that zero-value waste into the valuable raw materials that the industry depends on, but with substantial environmental and financial savings. 

The Most Sustainable Article of Clothing Is the One Already Made

The focus for decades has been on making the apparel supply chain reduce its negative impact on the environment and improve its impact on human lives. Efforts in organic agriculture, recycled materials, and Fair Trade have all made incredible advances. Those efforts must continue, but must now include a focus on extending the life of a garment, as this has a significant effect on impact. WRAP, a U.K. nonprofit committed to resource efficiency, identified that if people were to use their clothes for an additional nine months, they could see footprint reductions of 22% less carbon, 33% less water, and a reduction in waste of 22%.

The Renewal Workshop applied our own methodology to measuring the impact of renewed apparel by looking at life cycle analysis (water, carbon, toxics, and energy used) to make an original material combined with the weight of the garments diverted from landfills. In only six months of manufacturing, we have diverted 16,000 pounds of apparel from landfills and created an environmental savings equivalent to 89,000 gallons of water, 47,000 pounds of toxic chemistry, and the equivalent carbon impact of 11,000 gallons of gasoline.

Circular Economy Jobs

The positive impact on the environment is not the only aspect to highlight with The Renewal Workshop’s circular economy model. In the United States, there has been a strong focus on creating and growing manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing has been associated with the living wage jobs that created the middle class. Developments in globalization and technology have dramatically changed the landscape of manufacturing, where production lines are built to move volume through at the cheapest rate possible.

In remanufacturing, or as The Renewal Workshop frames it, renewing, the work varies based on the specific problem at hand. Repair type and materials change with each garment, which means that a high level of skill and problem solving is required combined with the ability to be nimble and agile to drive efficient production. Technology can be used where processes are redundant, simple, and predictable.

The Renewal Workshop has created eight circular economy jobs so far, which required adjusting skills and problem solving approaches. Our work is developing a new kind of workforce: one that positions communities that support circular economy work to increase the quality of jobs they provide to the community.

Real Impact

The apparel industry is going through a transformative shift in part to the efforts of The Renewal Workshop. The infrastructure and services needed to take discarded apparel and manage it for the highest use creates significant positive environmental and human impact. By extending the life of materials already produced and preparing them as feedstock into new materials, brands and retailers now can start to do business in an economy that is truly circular.