Our complex transportation networks and supply chains need to highlight circular manufacturing and principles in order to reduce emissions and meet sustainability goals. This session surveys programs addressing closed-loop, zero-emission fuel use, vehicle tire circular systems, auto remanufacturing and electric vehicle battery material recycling and reuse.

Reducing the billions of dollars of food waste lost every year is a priority for every step in the food and ag supply chain. Not only will it help ensure adequate food for a growing population, but there is money to be made. Internet of things (IoT) devices such as sensors on products, distribution points, trucks and trains have helped gather data that can be used to reduce and even eliminate waste. IoT analytics are advancing quickly, with new technologies designed to bring improvements to food processing, packaging, distribution and retail. This session will review some of the new IoT technologies and how companies are using them.

Early-generation wind, solar, and battery storage systems are already reaching the end of their useful lives, leaving us with the possibility of millions of metric tons of waste heading to landfills over the next 20 years. However, there are ways we can collect, process and reintroduce these materials back into supply-chains at current or even higher values. Further, it’s imperative that we design next-generation renewable systems for up-gradeability, perpetual useful life and built-in circularity. Join us to discuss how we can address these renewable energy production material end-of-life challenges at our roundtable.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

Many of the materials traditionally used across industries find their way to landfills. But innovations in materials are enabling us to make products that don’t have this end in sight. Across industries, material science has become a real hotspot for circularity. Some materials have inherently circular characteristics, whether because they biodegrade easily or can be recovered and reused or recycled. Innovations span from the disassembly of electronics for precious metals, to the use of innovative fabrics like banana leaves in apparel, to ensuring chemicals are made from products that biodegrade easily and harmlessly. What will it take to utilize these new materials at scale? Speakers from across industries provide insights.

As the first mainstream electric vehicles age, companies are beginning to explore circular systems for moving batteries from EVs to stationary storage systems to recycling. Though it's still early days for these supply chains, big battery and automakers, investors and materials suppliers are investigating the best ways to design and implement these systems.

By 2050, two thirds of the world will live in cities. However, urban centres designed for the linear economy are grappling with the effects of the current take-make-waste economy. 

But circularity isn't just about materials management. As major engines for economic growth and job creation, cities are also looking to the circular economy agenda to unlock economic, environmental, and social benefits. This session will explore how city leaders are using the transition to a circular economy to rethink material flows, create jobs for their communities, providing safe and affordable places to live and improving how people and goods move throughout the city.

Product take-back programs are commonplace at retailers keen to have customers walk their used printers and sweaters back into the store. Manufacturers commonly offer mail-in programs, and even cosmetics brands have begun accepting empty packaging for discounts on the next purchase. But all this is very old fashioned, and oftentimes the path of used items is not circular, or even sustainable. Digitizing take-back and reverse logistics — including the tracking of goods, maintaining an inventory of materials, managing pick-up and optimizing end-markets has huge potential to accelerate circularity. This session will examine efforts to modernize take-back back and reverse logistics and forge stronger links in a circular supply chain. 

A quarter of our waste gets recycled and yet the system is broken in so many ways. First, it's a business which (like many) doesn’t price in externalities and as a result, the economics often don’t align with municipal objectives. How many times have we heard of a city trashing items that were too expensive to recycle? Even though reducing waste should count squarely as a public policy goal, there is little federal guidance, and the need for more recycling often outweighs profits. China’s decision to stop recycling much of our waste sent the industry into a crisis that its has still not emerged from. Consumers are still confused about how to recycle, recycling is rarely considered during product design, and mostly, we haven’t cracked the profit model. Innovations in financing, policy and municipal contracts offer hope for fixing the system. 

Artificial Intelligence is accelerating our ability to quickly handle vast amounts of data and learn faster from this information, making it a valuable tool to help accelerate and scale the transition to a circular economy. Machine learning can help speed up the development of new products and materials. The use of real-time data can enhance product utilization rates as well as inform systems of reverse logistics. In sectors such as food and electronics, AI is helping to design out waste and bringing savings along with it. Similar opportunities exist across sectors and functions.

In this breakout, hear stories from across a product lifecycle — design, manufacturing, use, and end of life — about companies that are putting AI to use in their circular journey and reveal some of the outcomes they have achieved.