How to: Scaling Equitable Reverse Logistics

How can building an inclusive coalition improve equitable, reverse logistics at the regional level?

The negative externalities of the linear, take-make-waste system fall disproportionately on the world’s poor and marginalized communities. As we strive for a more just, circular future, it is essential that both public and private sectors support solutions that acknowledge and address this inequitable distribution of consequences.

Coalition building can bring new stakeholders into a supply chain to build scalable and regenerative community solutions. Improvements to material circularity — for example, efficient reverse logistics to collect, process, and recover value from used products and materials — offer new avenues to support economic opportunity in marginalized communities. Collaboration to advance circular solutions through offtake agreements, subsidies, and economies of scale offer new opportunities for community engagement and resilience-building. Join this session to learn how one coalition is working to bring together local economic development with sustainability efforts to set the standard for equitable reverse logistics.