What is it?
While our project focuses on the potential of circular economy development in Arizona, we are also building a comprehensive national directory of recycling businesses. Use the map below to find businesses near you that are dedicated to collecting, processing, and repurposing discarded materials into valuable resources for new products and manufacturing.
What is provided?
- These businesses help reduce waste and extend the life of materials through innovative recycling and repurposing efforts.
- Discarded materials are processed and turned into valuable new products, minimizing environmental impact.
- Recycling businesses contribute to a more sustainable economy by keeping materials in use for longer.
Recycling
- Collection: Gathering used materials like paper, plastic, glass, and metals.
- Processing: Sorting/cleaning, then breaking down to raw materials.
- Manufacturing: Using these raw materials to create new products.
- Scope: Recycling focuses on turning waste into new materials.
- Focus: Recycling handles waste after it is created.
- Impact: Recycling manages existing waste.
Recycling helps reduce the use of new raw materials, saves energy, and lowers pollution.
An example of recycling is when used aluminum cans are collected and melted down, but instead of being made into new cans, the aluminum is used to create a different product, like a bicycle frame or car parts. In this process, the material is repurposed for a new use, extending its lifecycle but not maintaining the original product form.
Closed-loop recycling of aluminum cans is a prime example of true circularity, where used cans are collected, melted, and reformed into new ones. This process can be repeated indefinitely without any loss in aluminum quality, creating a continuous cycle of reuse.
Policies in the West:
Arizona – Advanced Recycling Bill
- SB 1156
- April 2021
- Helped create new local demand for recycling programs and recycling centers that turn post use plastics destined for landfills into valuable new materials.
California – California Mandatory Recycling Laws
- SB 1383
- January 2022
- All residents and businesses must recycle organic materials
- AB 1826
- Certain commercial businesses and multifamily properties must have recycling collection services
- AB 341
- Requires all businesses that generate 4 cubic yards or more of trash per week to arrange for recycling services
Utah – Utah passes advanced recycling legislation
- HB 493
- Will encourage investment in advanced recycling facilities in the state
Nevada – 2023 Recycling and Waste Reduction Report
- No statewide circular economy policies
- Policies have been proposed the last few years but not passed
Colorado – Colorado EPR bill signed into law
- House Bill 22-1355
- Establish statewide recycling system operated and funded by producers of packaging and printed paper intended to help spur a circular economy for recyclable materials
Oregon – Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act
- Senate Bill 582
- January 2022
- Recycling Modernization Act
- Will make recycling easier for the public to use, expand access to recycling services, upgrade sorting facilities, and create environmental benefits while reducing social and environmental harms
Washington – Washington department assesses recycled content mandate for plastic packaging
- SB 5022 / 2021
- Made an effort to reduce plastic pollution and improve recycling in the state. Requires producers of plastic products to include a minimum amount of recycled plastic in those products
New Mexico
- Nothing passed in recent years
Idaho
- No recycling policies passed in the last few years
- USDA grant has developed a plan to use dairy production bi-products to create a circular economy in one of the largest dairy industries in the country.
Wyoming – Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
- SF0080
- Solid waste management-definition amendments