Indiana's circular economy starts before the recycling bin, with buildings designed for deconstruction and manufacturers recovering their materials.
Circular Indiana board president Pam Francis, vice president of Schott Design, and board member Ken Miller talk with The Environmental Transformation podcast host Sean Grady about keeping products and materials in use longer. They explain the organization's shift from the Indiana Recycling Coalition, the upfront costs of changing business practices and the challenge of keeping recovered materials close to Indiana manufacturers.
The conversation covers AI-powered waste sorting, digital product passports and extended producer responsibility, or EPR. Francis and Miller discuss their focus on batteries, the fire risks that shape that work and the questions surrounding producer-funded collection, consumer costs and convenient drop-off locations.
Francis describes practical changes in commercial interiors, including carpet recycling, furniture reuse and designing spaces that can adapt without sending usable materials to a landfill. Examples include Shaw Industries' carpet take-back model and Sortera's use of AI to separate aluminum alloys, along with discarded tires turned into road barriers and unsold food recovered for animal feed.
The guests also preview the 2026 Circular by Design: Innovation Meets Action conference, scheduled for Oct. 5 at The Heritage Group's Indianapolis venue, The Center, with speakers including Heidi Sanborn and Kent Holm.
Conference registration and membership: circularin.org
Podcast, newsletter and updates: seankgrady.com
#CircularEconomy #BatteryRecycling #SustainableDesign
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Welcome and Guest Introductions
2:00 Moving Beyond Traditional Recycling
6:00 Measuring Circular Economy Progress
8:00 Circular by Design Conference Preview
11:00 The Business Barriers to Circularity
14:00 AI Sorting and Recycling Infrastructure
17:00 Recovering Recyclables From Mixed Waste
20:00 Circular Indiana's Battery EPR Plan
23:00 Building an EPR Stakeholder Coalition
25:00 Battery Fires and Recycling Safety
27:00 Sponsor Break
30:00 Indiana's Manufacturing Supply Chains
34:00 Tires and Food Waste as Raw Materials
36:00 Heidi Sanborn and EPR Experience
39:00 Kent Holm and Battery Collection Models
43:00 Oil Containers and Hazardous Waste
45:00 Designing Out Construction Waste
49:00 Reusing Carpet, Furniture and Doors
51:00 Shaw's Carpet Take-Back Model
53:00 Building Deconstruction in Boulder
56:00 Waste Industry Partnerships
58:00 Sortera and AI Aluminum Sorting
1:01:00 Battery EPR and Long-Term Goals
1:04:00 Keeping Resources in Use
1:07:00 Closing and Conference Reminder
