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Name
Stephen Lautze
Title
Chief Ecological Officer, Resource Revolution
Bio
After working for 20+ years as the Green/Industrial Specialist on the City of Oakland's Business Development Team, Steve has retired from local government to pursue independent projects in recycling market development, and other sustainability initiatives. Through this change, Steve will continue to seek strategies that create good jobs while reducing climate impact.
Steve co-founded the Recycling BIN (Build Infrastructure Now) Coalition, and is past President of the California Assn. of Recycling Market Development Zones (2003-19) and the Northern California Recycling Association (1993-95). He is currently on the boards of the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse and SPRAWLDEF.
Are You a Pro-Manufacturing Environmentalist?
The realities of China's National Sword, California's unfulfilled recycling mandates, and the larger imperative to address climate change combine to present waste reduction enthusiasts with a sobering sense of starting over. How can we connect the vision of Zero Waste to parallel efforts to create a Circular Economy?
How can we balance the push for increased diversion from landfills with the demand for consistent, high quality feedstocks for manufacturing? What lessons can materials managers learn from the successful growth of renewable energy technologies and companies? As the push to drive organic materials out of the waste stream, what is required to finance, site, permit, and build the necessary infrastructure to make quality compost and other products that truly closes the loop for this material? While these are certainly some of the right questions to frame where materials management stands today, the answers are harder to grasp.
Surely however, much more attention needs to be paid to the "demand side" of the Zero Waste equation (vs. the supply side). This shift will require a fundamentally different approach. With government resources stretched thin for the foreseeable future, we need to use a skillful blend of carrots and sticks to leverage private investment to drive toward a Circular Economy, much faster than we will get there by simply mandating achievement of landfill diversion targets.
While the export market will always play a role in our marketplace, the next phase of materials management requires that we focus on building a strong, sustainable manufacturing economy in California, and with partners throughout the western United States.
Steve co-founded the Recycling BIN (Build Infrastructure Now) Coalition, and is past President of the California Assn. of Recycling Market Development Zones (2003-19) and the Northern California Recycling Association (1993-95). He is currently on the boards of the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse and SPRAWLDEF.
Are You a Pro-Manufacturing Environmentalist?
The realities of China's National Sword, California's unfulfilled recycling mandates, and the larger imperative to address climate change combine to present waste reduction enthusiasts with a sobering sense of starting over. How can we connect the vision of Zero Waste to parallel efforts to create a Circular Economy?
How can we balance the push for increased diversion from landfills with the demand for consistent, high quality feedstocks for manufacturing? What lessons can materials managers learn from the successful growth of renewable energy technologies and companies? As the push to drive organic materials out of the waste stream, what is required to finance, site, permit, and build the necessary infrastructure to make quality compost and other products that truly closes the loop for this material? While these are certainly some of the right questions to frame where materials management stands today, the answers are harder to grasp.
Surely however, much more attention needs to be paid to the "demand side" of the Zero Waste equation (vs. the supply side). This shift will require a fundamentally different approach. With government resources stretched thin for the foreseeable future, we need to use a skillful blend of carrots and sticks to leverage private investment to drive toward a Circular Economy, much faster than we will get there by simply mandating achievement of landfill diversion targets.
While the export market will always play a role in our marketplace, the next phase of materials management requires that we focus on building a strong, sustainable manufacturing economy in California, and with partners throughout the western United States.
