That’s why we’re inviting you to join the National Roundtable on the American Dream, a nationwide series of small-group conversations happening August 11-15, 2026 that brings together Americans from different backgrounds to share experiences, learn from one another, and help inform a national Newsweek report.

You’ll be matched with a small group of people from across the country for a guided online conversation about opportunity, success, security, and what the American Dream means today. It’s designed to be welcoming, respectful, and easy to participate in—no preparation is needed. Simply register, click the link you receive by email, and join the conversation.

As a thank you, you’ll also receive six months of complimentary AllSides Sustaining Membership, including The Insight, a premium newsletter that helps you understand today’s biggest issues with balanced perspectives and make more informed decisions.

We hope you’ll represent our community by sharing your perspective and listening to the experiences of others.

Register Here

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we invite you to meet, learn, and connect with those who are creating a stronger and more connected America.

On Wednesday, July 22nd at 9:30am PT/12:30pm ET over Zoom, we are hosting:

“Interdependence: 250 Years After Independence”

a special meeting of the Leadership Circle featuring:

• John Gable, CEO of AllSides, which helps people better understand the world and each other by revealing bias and providing perspectives from all sides of media stories.

• Maury Giles, CEO of Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.

We look forward to sharing their important work with you, and engaging in a conversation about what it takes to build a stronger and more connected America.

Register Now

California is considering legislation that would sharply restrict the use of something called “mass balance accounting.” Most people have never heard of mass balance accounting. That is understandable. Almost nobody notices accounting systems when they work well.

But if California gets this wrong, we could make recycling more expensive, make sustainable products harder to produce, increase pollution overseas, worsen the affordability crisis, and slow progress toward a circular economy.

The hidden accounting that makes sustainability work

Imagine you sign up for wind power. Will the exact electrons generated by a wind turbine travel all the way from that turbine to your home? Of course not. Electricity from many sources mixes together on the power grid. An accounting system tracks how much renewable electricity was generated and how much was purchased. Without that accounting system, renewable energy markets would be rare, and almost impossible to operate.

Now imagine buying recycled paper. Should the paper mill have to guarantee that every fiber in your notebook came from a particular newspaper collected hundreds of miles away? Should sustainably harvested wood from a certified forest in Oregon be shipped all over the country so that every customer receives only the exact wood fibers from that forest?

Should coffee beans from a certified sustainable farm be physically separated from all other beans throughout every step of processing, storage, transportation and roasting? Should recycled aluminum from a particular collection program be physically tracked through every smelter and factory until it reaches a specific soda can?

The additional transportation alone would increase emissions and environmental impacts. The environmental benefit would often disappear. The cost would be enormous. Billionaires could afford to be eco-friendly. The rest of us could not.

The same principle applies to renewable energy, sustainable timber, recycled paper, recycled metals, recycled plastics, biofuels, textiles, chemicals, coffee, chocolate, cotton, and many other products. The physical materials frequently mix together. A mass balance accounting system tracks the environmental value.

That is how modern sustainability markets work.

What happens if we ban practical accounting?

Supporters of California’s AB 2253 want products labeled “recycled” to contain physically traceable recycled material. At first glance, that sounds reasonable. But manufacturing systems do not work that way.

Consider recycling technologies that convert used plastics into raw materials used to manufacture new products. The recycled material often enters large industrial systems where many inputs and outputs are combined. Mass balance accounting allows manufacturers to track how much recycled material enters the system and assign that value to products leaving the system. That enables all of us to shift step-by-step from linear extractive practices to circular ones.

Without that accounting method, much of the recycled content becomes difficult or impossible to verify in a practical and affordable way. The result is predictable. Recycling becomes more expensive. Affordability is reduced. Investment becomes riskier. Less recycled material is used. The value of collected materials declines. Markets weaken. And more waste ends up on land, in the ocean, or exported to nations where labor and environmental standards are lax, at best.

That is the opposite of what we want.

Transparency, not prohibition

Certainly, some environmental marketing claims deserve scrutiny. A package made from difficult-to-recycle film may be covered with green symbols and environmental messaging. Consumers have every right to be skeptical when they see packaging that appears difficult or impossible to recycle being promoted as environmentally friendly.

Some claims are confusing. Some are exaggerated. Some are misleading. Those problems should be addressed. But the answer is not to prohibit one of the most important accounting tools used throughout the sustainability marketplace.

The better answer is transparency, auditing, and disclosure. Consumers should know what claims mean. Companies should substantiate those claims. Third-party auditors should verify them. All of us should crack down on deceptive marketing.

But we should be very careful before dismantling systems that have helped drive decades of environmental progress.

Think in systems, not slogans

For more than three generations, environmental leaders have worked to move our economy away from a purely extractive model. We increased recycling. We invented more sustainable forestry. We launched and expanded renewable energy. We created markets for more sustainable products. None of this happened by accident. It required practical systems that connect environmental goals with economic reality. Mass balance accounting is one of those systems.

A linear economy often fails because it focuses on one impact and ignores the rest. It solves one problem while creating several new ones. We should not make the same mistake in public policy. The authors of AB 2253 are trying to solve a legitimate problem. Some environmental claims are confusing. Some may be misleading. Those concerns deserve attention.

But policymakers should also consider the unintended consequences. Will this legislation reduce recycling? Will it discourage investment? Will it increase exports of recyclable materials? Will it make sustainable products more expensive? Will it weaken domestic manufacturing? Will it slow innovation? These questions deserve careful consideration.

Let’s get this right

Instead of rushing forward, let’s sit down together. Let’s bring environmental groups, consumer advocates, recyclers, manufacturers, scientists and policymakers to the same table. Let’s improve transparency, disclosure, auditing and verification. Let’s stop misleading claims, and increase public trust. But let’s do so without undermining the accounting systems that make sustainability possible.

Our goals should be simple: Reduce waste. Keep plastics out of the oceans. Keep pollution out of communities. Increase recycling. Encourage innovation. Create stronger markets for sustainable materials. And do all of this in ways that work in the real world.

Inside the Circle is a monthly column on circular economy trends transforming source reduction and recycling written by Bill Shireman and published by Resource Recycling.

This was article was first published online by Resource Recycling | July 13, 2026

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, something remarkable is happening. Across the country, organizations that have never coordinated with one another are arriving at the same conclusion:

America needs a new declaration. Not a new Declaration of Independence. A Declaration of Interdependence.

Organizations as different as Braver Angels, BridgeUSA, #unifyUSA, Next250, the National Civic League, Rotary leaders, bridge-building organizations, civic renewal groups, faith communities, conservation networks, environmental organizations, and countless local organizations are increasingly using the same language. Different words. Different audiences. Different approaches. Yet remarkably similar conclusions.

They are all pointing toward the same truth: America cannot thrive unless Americans learn to work together again.

Why now? Why are so many thoughtful people, from so many different backgrounds, independently arriving at the same idea? Perhaps because they see the same reality. A nation can only become so divided before it faces a choice. Continue fragmenting. Or begin reconnecting.

Independence was the First Step. Interdependence is the Next.

Some hear the phrase “Declaration of Interdependence” and assume it rejects the Declaration of Independence. The opposite is true.

America’s founders declared independence because they wanted a free people to govern themselves. Independence was never the destination. It was the beginning.

The purpose of independence was not to create millions of isolated individuals. It was to create a self-governing people capable of working together freely. A nation. A republic. A community.

The Declaration of Independence freed us. The work since then has been learning how to become whole. That work remains unfinished.

Today our greatest challenge is not disagreement. Americans have always disagreed. Our challenge is that we increasingly struggle to act as one people despite those disagreements.

When citizens lose trust in one another, they become vulnerable. Throughout history, divided societies have often become dependent upon strong leaders who promise unity through force, fear, or loyalty.

But America’s genius has always been something more difficult and more powerful: Free people choosing to work together.

The patriotic challenge of our generation is therefore not greater dependence. Nor merely greater independence. It is greater interdependence. The ability to remain free while acting together.

A Different Story Than the One We See on Television

If you only follow politics and media, you might conclude America is coming apart. Yet beneath the headlines, another story is unfolding. Millions of Americans are rebuilding community. Makers are creating. Volunteers are serving. Environmentalists are restoring nature. Conservationists are protecting it. Faith communities are renewing fellowship. Veterans are serving again. Parents are organizing. Farmers are regenerating land. The MAHA movement is pursuing healthier lives. Yoga and mindfulness communities are helping people reconnect to themselves. Young people are searching for meaning. Older Americans are sharing wisdom.

Most of these people would never describe themselves as part of the same movement. Yet all are doing the same work. The work of reconnection. The work of community. The work of becoming whole.

The Role of Connectors

We at Circle America are not seeking to lead this movement. Many organizations are already leading. Our role is simpler.

We are connectors. We help people discover one another. We help organizations discover one another. We help communities learn from one another. We help weave together strands that already exist.

Among those helping Americans reconnect are:

• Braver Angels

• BridgeUSA

• Living Room Conversations

• National Civic League

• No Labels

• League of Women Voters

• Rotary International

• Citizens’ Climate Lobby

• American Conservation Coalition

• Nature Is Nonpartisan

• Conservative Energy Network

• United by Nature

• In This Together

• #unifyUSA

• Next250

• Thousands of local civic, service, faith, conservation, educational, and community organizations

We also honor the long tradition of courageous citizens who built organizations such as the Boy Scouts, the NAACP, United Way, local congregations, neighborhood associations, volunteer groups, and service clubs.

None owns this idea. None controls it. All are contributing to it. All deserve credit.

A Fourth of July Invitation

This Independence Day, we invite every citizen and every organization working to strengthen community, civic trust, service, stewardship, dialogue, conservation, environmental progress, health, faith, or democratic renewal to take a simple step:

Declare that you are helping America reconnect. Declare that you support a stronger culture of interdependence. Declare that you wish to connect with others doing the same work.

One way to do that is to join Interdependance Day, a growing national network of co-create, collaborative 4th of July celebrations to imagine — and take real steps toward — the America v2.50 we want to live in. Add your local event, find one near you, or come to the flagship festival in Oakland, CA.

Find an Interdependence Day Event

Join us in Oakland

Join Us

We are also contributing to and strengthening the Interdependence Movement. After the holiday, we will convene online to explore what interdependence means and how we can create it together. Join us for:

Interdependence: 250 Years After Independence

Wednesday, July 22, 2026
9:30am Pacific / 12:30pm Eastern over Zoom

The purpose of the gathering is simple: To meet one another. To learn from one another. To recognize one another. To begin planning together.

The generation of 1776 declared independence. Perhaps the generation of 2026 can begin something equally ambitious: A stronger and more connected American community.

Register Now

The EarthX Brand Hero Awards reflect a simple, yet powerful premise: if we want a form of capitalism that regenerates oceans, forests, soils, and climate rather than degrading them, we must reward the companies that move us closer to that goal.

This does not require perfection—no company, individual, or institution can be perfectly sustainable. But the system as a whole can be. The more consumers and investors reinforce companies that restore rather than deplete, the more rapidly markets shift toward circular practices.

The Ten Brand Heroes recognized at Earthx2026 were:

1. Coca-Cola (Oceans, Waters, & Seafood) - Invests in watershed restoration and water-use efficiency in high-risk regions.

2. Google (Technology for Radical Source Reduction) - Supports design-for-repair, refurbishment, and right-to-repair advocacy.

3. Interface (Built Environment) - Designs modular flooring for long life and disassembly, delivering carbon-negative products verified through lifecycle assessment.

4. Logitech (Sustainable Mining) - Committed to Rio Tinto’s low carbon aluminum.

5. Loop (Price Signals that Reward Sustainability) - Deploys reuse-based pricing models that favor durable, returnable packaging.

6. Microsoft (Clean Energy Choices & Carbon Reduction) - Applies an internal carbon fee, requires supplier climate action, and is the largest corporate buyer of carbon removal credits.

7. PepsiCo (Plastic Reduction & Recycling) - Reduces virgin plastic and scales reuse and collection systems globally.

8. Perdue (Regenerative Food, Fashion & Farms) - Strengthens soil health and farmer livelihoods through verified standards and long-term contracts.

9. Unilever (Sustainable Forestry) - Commits to deforestation-free supply chains with third-party verification.

10. Walmart (Sustainable Cargo, Shipping & Transportation) - Reduces freight and cold-chain emissions through efficiency and supplier partnerships.

Check out the video announcing the Earthx2026 Ten Brand Heroes presented by Theo E.J. Wilson and give these brands some love!

Theo EJ Wilson is Executive Director of the Rebirth Earth Foundation, dedicated to achieving maximum positive impact for global ecosystems through practical, market-based action. Theo works with business leaders, citizens, and innovators to demonstrate how markets can become powerful tools for environmental restoration and human prosperity.

Is there a brand you want to nominate for the Earthx2027 Brand Hero Awards? Let us know in the comments!

Learn more about Circle America’s pro-activist approach to recognizing brands for the commitments and progress they have made to protecting ecosystems in The EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy. Download today at CircleAmerica.us.

With America’s 250th birthday just around the corner, one of the organizations we admire most will be gathering in Philadelphia to do something we believe in deeply: renew the pledge that holds a free people together.

From June 25–28, Braver Angels will hold its 2026 National Convention in Philadelphia — the very place where the original pledge was argued over and signed.

Braver Angels leads the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide, convening structured dialogues between conservatives and progressives that rebuild civic trust and demonstrate that disagreement need not produce animosity.

That is the same conviction at the heart of Circle America. We take a pro-activist approach: rather than demonizing opponents, we look for the humanity inside institutions and work alongside people across the spectrum to build something better. The future circular economy ultimately depends on a healthier democracy: citizens willing to listen, adapt, and cooperate across disagreement.

America’s 250th will focus national attention on how we live together as a people, prompting millions to reflect on who we are and who we hope to become. The 2026 Braver Angels National Convention in Philadelphia will be a central moment in that reflection.

The gathering is not simply a commemoration. It is a milestone on the courageous citizenship journey, where citizens renew the skills and build the relationships that self-government requires. Courageous citizenship asks us to speak honestly without contempt, listen without caricature, and stay engaged when retreat to our own tribes is easier.

Participants at the Braver Angels National Convention in Philadelphia will:

• Recommit to Courageous Citizenship, engaging across political differences the Braver Angels Way

• Connect local community efforts to a larger national renewal

• And affirm our shared responsibility for the future of the great American experiment

So here’s our invitation: if you’re able, join the Braver Angels National Convention in Philadelphia this weekend. Learn more, apply, and register: braverangels.org/2026-convention

And if you can’t make it to Philadelphia, you can still honor the moment where you are. Find your local Braver Angels alliance, start a good-faith conversation across a divide, and put courageous citizenship into practice in your own community. Start at braverangels.org

Your dollars and your votes are two of the most powerful tools you have. So is your willingness to sit down with someone you disagree with. This weekend — in Philadelphia and everywhere — let’s renew the pledge.

📘 New here? Download The EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy for a primer on the circular economy: circleamerica.us

At the end of the movie Date Night, Tina Fey’s suburban mother character finds herself surrounded by armed men who are threatening to shoot, bomb, and generally destroy one another.

She has no weapon. No badge. No official authority. She simply slips into her mom voice: “Everybody stop. Put your weapons down. Now.”

The men stare at her. Is she serious? Then she begins counting: “One... two... three... four...”

Apparently she is serious. One by one, they put down their weapons.

Real life is not that simple. But the scene captures something profound. When women—especially mothers—act through individual leadership and coordinated action in defense of something larger than themselves, they possess a unique power. Not merely the power to win elections or influence markets. The power to stop destructive behavior, redirect institutions, and protect the future.

That is why, Circle America’s recruitment drive for 250,000 Americans to champion a circular economy is focused especially on women in strategic economic and political markets.

We believe that, as women increasingly recognize the influence they can exercise individually and collectively, they can become the most important political and economic constituency of the twenty-first century.

Not because they are more ideological. Because they are often less ideological.

Not because they seek power for its own sake. Because they frequently use power in service of purpose.

And today, America desperately needs that kind of leadership.

The Hidden Economic Majority

Women directly control or influence 70-85% of consumer purchasing decisions in the United States1. That represents roughly $7-$13 trillion in annual spending power, depending on the methodology used. It includes food, health care, education, clothing, housing choices, household goods, travel, and an increasing share of financial decisions.

Women, especially mothers, make many of the purchasing decisions that determine which products retailers stock, which brands gain shelf space, and which companies grow or decline.

The numbers become even more striking during childbearing and child-rearing years.

Between roughly ages 18 and 50, women often serve as the primary purchasing decision-makers for families. During these years, their influence extends well beyond their own spending power. They help determine how entire households allocate resources.

Collectively, American women influence trillions of dollars in annual economic activity.

Yet their true power is not simply economic. It is directional.

Women, especially mothers, often evaluate purchases through a broader lens than simple cost and convenience: Is it safe? Is it healthy? Will it help my family? What kind of future does it create?

Those questions ripple outward through entire supply chains.

Why Mothers Often Think Differently

Human beings are individuals. Every person is different.

Yet researchers have documented patterns that help explain why mothers frequently focus on protection, caregiving, and long-term well-being.

Researchers have documented the role of hormones such as oxytocin in strengthening maternal bonding and caregiving behavior. Neuroimaging studies have found that pregnancy and parenting are associated with measurable changes in brain regions involved in empathy, emotional processing, vigilance, and social connection2.

For example, researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and collaborating institutions reported that pregnancy is associated with structural changes in brain networks involved in social cognition and maternal attachment. Other studies have found that maternal brains often show heightened responsiveness to infant signals such as crying, facial expressions, and signs of distress3.

Importantly, these findings describe average tendencies rather than universal rules. Men can be extraordinary caregivers, and many women do not fit these patterns.

Still, taken together, the evidence suggests that human evolution favored strong caregiving capacities among mothers because children who received sustained protection and attention were more likely to survive and thrive.

Anthropologists have also documented that women played central roles in maintaining social cohesion, transmitting knowledge, caring for vulnerable members of communities, and ensuring the survival of future generations throughout much of human history4. That instinct remains deeply embedded in modern life.

Most mothers do not merely advocate for their own children. They often advocate for children generally. The child struggling in school. The child exposed to toxins. The child threatened by violence. The child growing up in a world increasingly shaped by technologies and institutions beyond their control.

This does not mean all women think alike. They don’t.

But it does mean that mothers frequently share a common purpose to protect the next generation that transcends many traditional political divisions.

How Mothers Changed Recycling

Mothers helped drive the consumer pressure that made California’s landmark bottle recycling law possible. The debate involved environmental organizations, legislators, retailers, manufacturers, and consumer brands.

Many retailers had previously opposed recycling legislation. But something changed. The women who formed the backbone of their customer base increasingly supported recycling and expected responsible behavior from the companies where they shopped.

Retailers understood the risk. If they remained on the wrong side of consumers—especially mothers—they could lose trust.

Once major retailers shifted, suppliers shifted. Manufacturers shifted. The entire supply chain moved.

Many factors contributed to the victory, but without the support of everyday moms and other women, it is hard to imagine that California’s recycling system would ever have been established.

The Political Power Nobody Talks About

Most Americans assume national elections are decided by tens of millions of voters. In reality, presidential elections are often determined by extraordinarily small numbers of citizens in a handful of states.

In 2000, roughly 537 votes in Florida determined the presidency. In 2016, fewer than 80,000 votes spread across Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin changed the outcome. In 2020, roughly 44,000 votes spread across Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin determined control of the White House.

The lesson is simple. You do not need millions of people to change history. You need enough people in the right places.

Imagine 250,000 highly engaged women across a dozen competitive states. Not millions. Not tens of millions. Just enough to influence a few thousand conversations in a few thousand neighborhoods. Enough to persuade a few voters per precinct. Enough to increase turnout among citizens seeking practical solutions rather than ideological warfare.

That alone could decide the outcome of many national elections.

Research consistently finds that women are somewhat more likely than men to prioritize consensus-building, relationship maintenance, and collaborative problem-solving5. While partisan polarization affects everyone, many civic organizations report that women are disproportionately represented among volunteers and bridge-builders working across political divides.

If that tendency proves true at scale, women may become one of the most important forces for restoring constructive democratic dialogue.

Why This Matters Now

The challenges facing today’s children are unlike any in history.

Artificial intelligence threatens to automate significant portions of the professional and service jobs that once provided stable middle-class careers. Digital media increasingly contributes to anxiety, depression, loneliness, and social fragmentation among young people. Climate change and ecological degradation place growing stress on the natural systems that support human life. Wars continue to leave trails of broken bodies, wounded minds, and grieving families. Economic insecurity undermines confidence in the future.

Here is the opportunity: Circle America believes that just 250,000 organized Americans—mostly moms, joined by dads and people of every identity—are enough to help transform politics and markets.

A quarter million engaged citizens can influence elections, purchasing decisions, local institutions, schools, businesses, and public priorities. They can reward companies that serve families and future generations. They can support leaders who solve problems instead of fueling division. Most importantly, they can act together.

That is the core idea behind Circle America: building a healthy circular America by connecting individuals and organizations around a shared purpose—creating a future in which children, families, communities, and nature can thrive. Circle America will advance:

• Laws and policies that reduce waste, pollution, and toxins while keeping resources in productive use.

• Market forces that reward stewardship and protect the living systems on which all prosperity depends.

• A circular culture that reconnects people to one another, to nature, and to a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.

Because most parents look at this landscape and ask a simple question: What kind of world are we leaving our children? That question may become the defining political and economic question of our era.

The Constituency That Can Heal America

America does not need one side to defeat the other. America needs a governing majority capable of solving problems.

The middle 70% of Americans already agree on most practical goals: healthy children, safe communities, economic opportunity, clean air and water, effective schools, accountable government, and a future worth inheriting.

The challenge is not agreement. The challenge is organization. Women—and especially mothers—may be uniquely positioned to provide it. They possess enormous economic influence. They possess growing political influence. Most importantly, they possess a unifying purpose that transcends partisan identity.

Business leaders should recognize it. Political leaders should respect it. Both should begin redesigning the rules of the marketplace and the public square around the interests of children and future generations. Because when mothers decide something must change, history suggests it usually does.

Help us build Circle America and organize the 250,000 who can make a difference.

Join Circle America

There’s a quiet lie built into the blue bin. Drop a bottle in, and it feels like the loop has closed — problem solved, conscience clear. But recycling is the last move in a circular economy, not the first. By the time something reaches the recycling stream, most of its value, energy, and design intelligence has already been spent. We’re celebrating the cleanup when we should be questioning the mess.

The deeper idea — the one the new EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy reveals — is that the future economy isn’t separate from nature. It’s a subsystem inside it. And nature has been running a circular economy for about four billion years without a landfill.

In a forest, there is no “away.” A leaf falls and becomes soil. An exhale of carbon feeds a tree. Waste isn’t a problem to manage at the end of the line; it’s food for the next thing in line. A circular economy asks a simple, radical question: what if we designed human systems to work the same way?

The Guide distills the answer into four principles. Here’s the high-altitude view.

1. Zero Waste: treat waste as a design flaw

In a linear economy, waste is the cost of doing business — something to be hauled off, buried, or burned. In a circular one, waste is treated as a mistake in the design, to be engineered out at the start rather than chased at the end.

That’s a meaningful shift. It moves the action upstream, into the choices about materials, toxicity, and how a product is put together in the first place. The most elegant version of this isn’t a better recycling program. It’s a product that never needed one — because it was built to be repaired, refilled, upgraded, or returned. As the Guide puts it, “the cleanest material is the one never extracted”.

2. Keep Materials in Flow: highest value, longest life

If waste is food, the goal is to make sure that food keeps nourishing the system for as long as possible. That means a ladder of priorities — reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, and only then recycle — with the aim of holding products and materials at their highest value, not just grinding them down to their lowest.

You can see this principle walking around in the real world. The Dutch company Fairphone builds smartphones out of user-replaceable modules: crack a screen or kill a battery, and you swap the part instead of the phone. Its devices have earned top repairability scores from iFixit, and the company commits to years of software support so the hardware doesn’t die of artificial obsolescence. It’s a small player in a giant industry — but it’s a working proof that “keep it in use” can be a business model, not just a bumper sticker.

3. Regenerate Nature: go past “do no harm”

Most sustainability talk aims for neutral — net zero, do less damage, reduce the footprint. Circularity sets a higher bar: leave the system better than you found it. The goal isn’t a smaller wound. It’s healing.

Consider Ecovative’s mushroom packaging, grown from mycelium (the root structure of fungi) bound to agricultural leftovers like hemp. It performs like the styrofoam it replaces, but at the end of its life you can compost it at home, where it returns nutrients to the soil instead of sitting in a landfill for centuries. That’s the regenerative move in miniature: a material whose final act is to feed the living system it came from.

4. Innovate: the engine that keeps the other three running

Here’s the principle that’s easy to overlook. You can reduce, reuse, and regenerate all you want, but you can’t repeal thermodynamics — every use of matter creates some loss. Nature’s workaround isn’t to cheat physics; it’s synergy: the new capabilities that emerge when simple parts combine into more complex wholes. The Guide calls this innovation, and treats it as the living force that makes elimination, circulation, and regeneration keep getting better over time.

Crucially, this isn’t just about technology. It includes new materials science, smarter logistics, better policy, and the cultural shift in how we think about ownership and value. Innovation is what turns a good principle into a practice that actually scales.

Why this is worth your attention now

What makes the circular economy compelling isn’t just the ecology — it’s that it doesn’t ask you to choose between prosperity and sustainability, or between left and right. A refillable bottle, a repairable phone, regenerated soil: these are good business and good stewardship at the same time. The frame is both/and, not either/or.

The full EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy goes much deeper — into the practices, the policies, the market signals, and the cultural shift that move these principles from idea to reality, with examples of companies already doing the work.

Get the Guide

If the blue bin is where your thinking about waste ends, the Guide is where it begins.

Just one month ago on Earth Day, we launched Circle America at Earthx2026 in Dallas. I felt deeply gratified — and honestly humbled — standing on the stage at Earthx2026 announcing the launch of Circle America.

About 120 leaders joined us that day: scientists, business leaders, activists, innovators, investors, ranchers, technologists, environmentalists, and bridge-builders from across America’s political and cultural divides.

As I looked around the room, I felt something I haven’t felt in quite this way before. Not triumph. Not certainty. Something softer. Gratitude, maybe. And relief.

Because recently I’ve been thinking a lot about lines and circles. Recently, in this case, means about fifty years!

But I’ve been thinking about them even more lately. At our launch, I began by saying, “The line has had a good run.”

And it has.

The linear economy — materialistic, mechanistic, hyper-rational — powered the Industrial Revolution. It unleashed astonishing productivity and abundance. It transformed human life and helped wipe out material scarcity for billions of people.

Extract. Manufacture. Consume. Discard.

The line produced extraordinary progress. But, increasingly, it also feels like we are reaching the end of that line.

We see it in climate disruption, collapsing coral reefs, disappearing rainforests, mass extinction, oceans filling with plastic, and weapons and viruses and toxic wastes and toxic leaders powerful enough to erase civilization.

We see it in artificial intelligence racing ahead faster than wisdom, and in viruses spreading through an ultra-connected global system where one failure cascades rapidly across the whole.

And perhaps most unsettling of all, we have built a civilization so tightly packed, fast-moving, and emotionally reactive that the wrong leader — or the wrong collective fear — could send the entire system spiraling.

The future, I believe, either becomes more circular, or it circles down the metaphorical toilet.

There is something profoundly hopeful in the geometry of a circle.

Take the two ends of a line, and connect them together. What happens? The beginning and the ending both disappear.

That’s not just metaphorical. It changes our perception of everything. It invites a very different way of seeing life: less dominating, less mechanical, less obsessed with extraction, conquest, and control; more adaptive, relational, regenerative, humble — and strangely, more hopeful.

I feel this intimately because when I was seven years old, my grandfather died. It terrified me. I realized that, someday, I would die too.

Worse, looking around me, I saw that with our exploding population, disappearing forests, and bigger bombs, we all might die - every one of us, forever.

That fear was emboldening. It sent me on a lifelong quest to help life continue.

The knowledge that I had but limited time to help stop humanity’s demise has lived quietly underneath almost everything I’ve done.

But it came home to me forcefully these past two years, when a tumor (combined with ineptitude by the Kaiser system) nearly sent me over the line myself.

Fortunately, extraordinary surgeons and caregivers from other hospitals gave me more time. Today, I feel robust again. Energetic. Optimistic. Unafraid of my own mortality. Yet more alive than ever.

And, perhaps because of that encounter, circularity no longer feels merely intellectual to me. It feels personal.

Circularity reminds me that life persists through constant transformation. Nothing stays the same, yet life continues — in changing forms, through adaptation and relationship, through renewal, through decay feeding growth, through endings becoming beginnings.

Paradoxically, confronting mortality has also made me more ambitious. I was already fairly bold. Now I’ve notched it up.

So with friends and colleagues, we launched Circle America at Earthx2026 — not as another rigid organization, but as an affinity group where people from very different worlds can work through difficult questions together.

That gathering at EarthX felt like an early glimpse of what that future could look like. To name just a few of the highlights (while leaving out many):

John Warner of The Technology Greenhouse inspired us with the possibilities of circular innovation — and with the provocative idea that our intellectual property systems themselves may need redesigning if humanity is to innovate fast enough. Too much knowledge remains trapped inside university silos and corporate vaults when it may need to circulate more freely.

Vicki Hollub of Occidental Petroleum, rancher James Clement, and professor Jim Blackburn explored how nature and technology together can capture carbon and dramatically reduce emissions — even while supporting energy systems the world still depends upon during transition.

Karen Warner of BEAM Circular described breakthroughs in the bioeconomy that turn agricultural byproducts into biological alternatives to petroleum-based plastics.

Colleagues from Eastman and the American Chemistry Council explored the science and challenges of chemical recycling — likely essential if society hopes to move meaningfully beyond today’s painfully low recycling rates for plastics outside deposit systems.

Sarah Teresinski of Redeux Style showed how circularity can become beautiful and aspirational rather than sacrificial — reaching millions through fashion, design, and storytelling.

Kyle Wiens told the story of creating iFixit out of frustration as a college student unable to repair his own technology. That frustration evolved into a global movement helping pass right-to-repair laws across states and nations while Steven Nickel explained how Google is increasingly designing products for repairability rather than disposability.

Maury Giles of Braver Angels reminded us in an inspiring close that a circular economy ultimately requires a healthier democracy too — one built on courageous citizens willing to listen, adapt, and cooperate across disagreement.

Some participants argued for converting portions of existing refineries toward recycling infrastructure. Others favored building entirely new systems. Some emphasized biological pathways, others mechanical recycling, others molecular.

Not everyone agreed. They weren’t supposed to.

That’s what make EarthX distinctive. We bring together everyone. All sides. We listen and learn. Gradually, we discover how each of us fits together, to achieve more than we ever could apart. Just like all complex natural systems.

Similarly, Circle America is not a place for ideological conformity. It is a place for intellectual and cultural diversity. A community where the broadest possible coalition for circularity can gather to work through differences honestly, pragmatically, and without delay.

Because the perfect-but-impossible cannot be allowed to endlessly sideline the good, the necessary, and the achievable.

What struck me most was not agreement. It was warmth. Curiosity. People listening longer than they usually do. Corporate leaders and activists speaking candidly instead of performatively. Conservatives and progressives discovering how their distinctive worldviews together are more reality-based than either apart. People lowering their armor, to let each other in, to connect, without fear.

That too is circularity.

Not merely renewing resources, but renewing trust. Reconnecting people. Repairing social fabric. Allowing feedback and adaptation instead of permanent tribal warfare.

Our aspirations are undeniably large. But surprisingly, they seem well within our reach.

I hope I have many years left to help grow this movement toward a more circular economy and culture. But I also feel profound comfort knowing this work does not depend on any one person.

A circle is stronger than a line because it continues.

Others now carry this forward alongside one another — corporate and activist, left and right, scientist and entrepreneur, young and old. Together, we are helping life continue its long process of adaptation.

And somehow that brings me fulfillment, and almost, serenity.

Because with enough courage, humility, and creativity, perhaps the line itself does not really end.

It may be long, but it bends gently into a circle.

And perhaps, after all this struggle and separation, the circle will not be broken.

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While at Earthx2026 in Dallas last month, Circle America’s Founder, Bill Shireman, had the opportunity to sit down with Jamiel Hampton, host of the EcoVisionaries Podcast.

The conversation explores what it will actually take to build a more practical and collaborative sustainability movement. Bill and Jamiel discuss why rigid definitions of sustainability often push people away, how circular economy solutions can bring different sectors together, and why real progress requires business leaders, policymakers, innovators, investors, and communities to work across traditional divides.

Bill shares his perspective on the importance of good-faith dialogue, the future of recycling and circular infrastructure, and how sustainability can become less about political identity and more about building systems that work.

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You’re invited to join us on Wednesday, May 20th starting at 9:30am PT for “An Invitation to Join Circle America”, a special Zoom gathering for people interested in learning more about Circle America.

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Circle America is the new affinity group and campaign from Solution Citizen that is bringing together advocates, corporates, experts, and more to advance a circular economy.

Circle America is going to meet monthly over Zoom to explore strategies for championing the policies, market practices, and culture of a circular economy.

Circle America’s goals include:

• Educating consumers about the practices and promise of a circular economy.

• Recruiting leaders, partners, and organizations to join our community of circularity champions.

• Mobilizing citizen support and advocacy for circular policies.

Come join us on May 20th to learn about how you can get involved with Circle America and become a champion for a more sustainable future.

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To convert resources to products to waste as quickly as possible, this take-make-waste process demands standardization - of products, processes, and even people. It separates people from their distinctive skills and qualities, and from other people. It drives materialism, both the belief and the practice that material possessions are all that really “matter.” These possessions are owned so long as they are valuable. When spent, they become a burden on the owner, and are cast into dumps. This is true of the products, and again, often the people as well.

This linear model is based on flawed assumptions: that resources are infinite, ecosystems are ever resilient, and disposal is free - things can be thrown “away”.

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A Circular Economy, by contrast, behaves more like a living system—a vibrant ecosystem where resources flow continuously in cycles. Waste becomes a resource, products are designed for multiple life cycles, and ecosystems provide the steady stream of resources humans need to thrive in ways that enhance the health of the ecosystem that produces them. This more organic system rewards diversification, integration, and connection. Ownership includes responsibility for all impacts, including negative ones. The things and people used up by the machine can’t just be thrown “away.” There is no “away” to throw them - the circular economy is a part of nature, not apart from her.

The circular economy also represents a cultural shift. The linear economy rewarded standardization, top-down command-and-control, consumerism, and externalization of costs. It often separated people from their distinctive gifts and from one another. A circular economy rewards diversity, collaboration, creativity, and distributed leadership. It replaces narrow competition with system optimization. It embraces feedback and adaptation rather than rigid control.

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We are in a race between two futures:

One future extends a brittle, extractive, command-and-control industrial model that concentrates power and destabilizes ecosystems. The other moves toward a diversified, locally vibrant, globally connected regenerative civilization — one built on feedback loops, adaptation, resilience, and shared responsibility. The circular economy is the economic engine of that second future. The question before us is not whether change is coming. It is whether we will shape it wisely — regeneratively — before ecological and social instability shape it for us.

To support the transition to a circular economy and culture, Circle America - in partnership with EarthX - has published The EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy, designed to:

• Clarify what a circular economy truly means.

• Distinguish it from narrow recycling narratives.

• Outline core principles and practices.

• Highlight emerging policies and technologies.

• Inspire action across sectors and communities.

Are you ready for more? Download The EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy today!

Download the Guide

For centuries, industrial civilization has operated on a linear model: extract resources, make products, consume them, and discard what remains. This model delivered extraordinary progress — lifting billions from poverty, expanding life expectancy, connecting continents. But it also carried a hidden cost.

Much of what we call economic “growth” has been built on depletion — of forests, fisheries, soils, aquifers, biodiversity, and atmospheric stability. We have learned to generate wealth by liquidating natural capital and externalizing costs. Some of that wealth was genuinely earned. Much of it was borrowed from the future. That is not true prosperity. It is consumption mistaken for growth.

A circular economy offers a different path. By contrast, a circular economy behaves more like a living system—a vibrant ecosystem where resources flow continuously in cycles. Waste becomes a resource, products are designed for multiple life cycles, and ecosystems provide the steady stream of resources humans need to thrive in ways that enhance the health of the ecosystem that produces them. It is the future of a planet in which humans live in harmony with nature, rather than depleting her resources.

The transition to a circular economy represents one of the most profound shifts in human history—a new chapter in how we understand growth, progress, and prosperity. It is a fundamental shift already underway, but its success is not guaranteed.

Introducing Circle America, a new affinity group and campaign to advance a circular economy and culture. Taking a pro-activist approach, focusing on positive actions that grow a broad base of support, Circle America will influence the policy, markets, and culture that can support the transition to a truly circular society.

Learn More About Circle America

Welcome to the new “Circle America” feature of In Between Times, where we’ll be sharing more about a circular economy and what you can do to advance a more sustainable future.

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Braver Angels is leading the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic. They inspire and equip citizens to practice courageous citizenship across political differences through skill-building, convening, and collaborative action.

Under CEO Maury Giles, the organization is expanding local alliances across the United States, creating psychological safety for democratic engagement. This work is needed now more than ever to counter the rising tide of authoritarianism in this country.

We have long admired how they convene structured dialogues between conservatives and progressives, rebuilding civic trust and demonstrating that disagreement need not produce animosity, which is why we are pleased to share that Braver Angels is partnering with Earthx2026.

Earthx2026, happening April 20-22 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, will bring together the world’s foremost environmentalists, conservationists, scientists, political thought leaders, advocates, and academics to bridge perspectives, leverage expertise, and foster multi-partisan collaboration that drives progress for our planet.

And on each day of the event, there will be an opportunity to engage with Braver Angels!

Braver Angels Community Debates

On Monday, April 20 at 5:30pm and Tuesday, April 21 at 1:00pm, come join us at Earthx2026 to participate in Braver Angels Community Debates. A Braver Angels Debate is an opportunity both to exercise our minds and to open our hearts. Unlike some debate programs, the point isn’t to win; it’s to understand the other side a little better. The Braver Angels special parliamentary debate format is designed to encourage everyone to participate, to support good faith, accurate disagreement, and to promote better understanding for all. They are always led by a specially trained Debate Chair. Help us choose the debate topics - contentious environmental issues - by sharing your perspective here.

Participation in these community events is FREE.

Get your free ticket here

United by Nature for America 250

On Wednesday, April 22 at 4:30pm, come join us at Earthx2026 to hear from Braver Angels CEO Maury Giles. As we close Earthx2026 and look towards America’s 250th birthday, let us imagine a future rooted in unity, stewardship, and alignment with nature. Featuring voices from across civic dialogue, indigenous leadership, and environmental action, let us inspire you about the possibility of a circular culture—one that transcends divisions and helps build a healthier, more resilient future for people and planet alike.

Purchase a ticket to Earthx2026 to engage in this discussion. Register at Earthx.org with promotional code CIRCLE399 for our lowest price ticket of $399.

Register for Earthx2026 here

Why is Earthx2026 worth your time?

• People - It’s the most diverse gathering of sustainability and environmentally-minded folks you will find.

• Programming - From circularity to energy to sustainability in sports, EarthX offers thought-provoking and engaging conversations that move the needle. Because it can be overwhelming, here is Bill Shireman’s Insider Guide to Earthx2026 with recommendations as far as what is worth your time.

• Impact - EarthX connects pragmatists who collaborate on environmental solutions, including innovators and investors in green and clean technologies, bipartisan experts on nuclear energy and security, and advocates and business leaders to advance a circular economy.

How can you attend Earthx2026?

Option 1: Join us as a Roundtable Participant at the EarthX Circle America Summit: Advancing a Circular Economy & Culture that we are hosting on Wednesday, April 22. This role is designed for thoughtful and active contributors who want to help shape the conversation by sharing insights and perspectives. As a Roundtable Participant, you’ll receive:

• A discounted pass to all three days of Earthx2026

• Recognition in the official program

• A seat at the table for high-impact discussions

Get your ticket at earthx.org with promotional code CIRCLE399 to access the Roundtable Participant rate of $399.

Register for Earthx2026

Option 2: Not sure that the Roundtable Participant role is right for you, but interested in checking out a family-friendly and educational event for the planet? Get a ticket to attend the Environmental Xperience at EarthX, a public exhibition where you can explore real climate solutions across ocean, energy, food, fashion, and the built environment.

To promote broad and equitable access especially for students, NGO volunteers, Rotarians, and others who may be unable to attend due to cost, we have reserved 2,500 complimentary tickets per day, available through a discount code. Reserve your ticket today!

Register for the Environmental Xperience

Caring about the outdoors used to be a shared American value. But what once brought people together turned into something to argue about, caught up in divisive online rhetoric and our nation’s political polarization.

United by Nature is a new campaign from Nature is Nonpartisan that launched earlier this week to change that. United by Nature proclaims that what unites us is simple: conservation should protect the land, water, wildlife, and the livelihoods connected to them — without radical political agendas. They’re bringing people back together around the outdoors and making it easy to show up in ways that actually create lasting change. Because they know that whether you’re a hunter, hiker, yogi, or tree hugger, that connection to nature runs deep.

Introducing The Fire Pit, a new show from United by Nature where two people from completely different worlds sit down, roast a marshmallow, and discover how much they agree on. Hosted by @ManCarryingThing, the first two episodes have dropped with more on the way. They are both fun and surprising. Check them out below!

Watch these and future episodes on YouTube here.

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Now imagine that everything in this space flows in cycles instead of straight lines. We design. We use. We reuse. We repair. We recycle. And most importantly, we regenerate. That is what a circular economy looks like in practice. For many Black communities, this way of living isn’t new. It already exists. It has existed for generations. Today, organizations like Girl Plus Environment are helping name it, strengthen it, and expand what it can become.

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Many climate solutions are designed in boardrooms and policy spaces far removed from the communities most affected by environmental harm. But across the country, young leaders are building something different. They are designing solutions inside their own neighborhoods, alongside the people living the realities of climate change every day. Girl Plus Environment is one of those organizations. As a Black youth-led climate justice organization, they are reshaping what a circular economy can look like in practice by connecting sustainability to culture, creativity, and collective care.

Girl Plus Environment isn’t just advocating for a circular economy. They’re building a circular culture. They are shifting not only how products move, but how power moves. They are helping communities circulate knowledge, opportunity, resources, and decision-making so they stay rooted where they belong instead of being extracted from the very people most impacted by climate change.

Through its mentorship programming, Girl Plus Environment supported a cohort of young leaders participating in the National Geographic Slingshot Challenge, where mentees designed climate solutions addressing issues ranging from access to culturally relevant foods to reducing microplastics exposure and improving water resilience in communities impacted by growing data center infrastructure. These projects demonstrate what happens when innovation is rooted in lived experience.

The organization also creates spaces where climate learning feels accessible and culturally grounded. Events like Girlies Green Fest and the Blk Grl Climate Dinner bring community members together to connect around climate resilience, storytelling, and collective action. Rather than treating climate education as something technical or exclusive, Girl Plus Environment makes it social, creative, and community-led.

Through its Clean Beauty Justice campaign, Girl Plus Environment is helping Black women understand how exposure to harmful chemicals in personal care products connects to environmental health and climate justice. By shifting how people think about everyday consumption and advocating for safer alternatives, the campaign expands what circular solutions can look like at the household level.

Girl Plus Environment is also supporting economic participation in the clean energy transition. Through the Black Girl Businesses in Clean Energy Fellowship, the organization equips Black women business owners with tools to integrate clean energy practices into their operations while strengthening their role as trusted messengers in their communities. This work helps ensure that the benefits of the clean energy transition circulate locally instead of bypassing the communities most impacted by climate change.

Girl Plus Environment is building a circular culture by creating pathways for knowledge, opportunity, and decision-making power to move within communities instead of being extracted from them. Through its digital campaigns, leadership programs, and national membership network, the organization equips young Black and Brown women and femmes with the tools to take action on issues like energy affordability, environmental health, and disaster preparedness. Their work shows that a circular economy is not only about materials. It is about relationships, access, and who gets to shape solutions.

Diamond Spratling, founder and executive director of Girl Plus Environment, is an award-winning environmental justice advocate, public speaker, and storyteller. When Diamond isn't championing environmental causes or speaking on global stages, she loves crafting stories that inspire young readers to dream big and care for people and the planet. Her newest book, Sage Sails the World: A Little Girl’s Journey Across the Great Barrier Reef, is available for preorder now.

On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, you can hear Diamond Spratling speak on “Creating a Circular Culture” at Earthx2026, taking place at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX. Click here to register and use promo code CIRCLE50 for $50 off. Or contact us at Hello@SolutionCitizen.org to explore participation at Earthx2026.

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We Know What We Want

A circular economy promises something both ambitious and deeply practical: prosperity with fewer toxins, less pollution, less extraction and waste, healthier ecosystems, and far greater levels of reuse and recycling. Plastics—so versatile, so ubiquitous, and so often mismanaged—sit squarely at the center of that transition.

From that clarity of purpose, a natural instinct arises. If we know the destination, why not move directly toward it? Why not ban the harmful materials, mandate that every product be recyclable, require that everything actually gets recycled, and use the power of government to bring the system into alignment—quickly, decisively, and at scale?

In a moment that feels urgent, even precarious, this approach carries real emotional force. If systemic breakdown looms, why hesitate? Why not draw a straight line from here to there?

And yet, that straight line contains a hidden flaw.

It is the same kind of thinking that created the problem in the first place.

The Hidden Flaw: Linear Thinking About a Circular World

For centuries, industrial systems have conditioned us to believe that complex challenges yield to centralized design. We define the problem, engineer the solution, mandate compliance, and scale it across the system. This approach has delivered extraordinary gains when applied to bounded, mechanical problems. But plastics are not a bounded problem. They are woven into nearly every aspect of modern life—packaging, medicine, food preservation, electronics, transportation. They are not a sector we can adjust in isolation; they are a system embedded within a larger system.

And systems do not transform through command. They evolve.

When we attempt to force a system like plastics into a new shape through bans and rigid mandates, we tend to trigger patterns that are as predictable as they are frustrating. Materials are substituted in ways that appear cleaner but often require more energy or generate different forms of harm. Costs rise, and with them, resource consumption. Compliance falters at the margins, giving way to workarounds, evasion, or quiet noncompliance. And perhaps most troubling, unintended consequences emerge from interactions too complex for us to anticipate.

None of this happens because intentions are misguided. It happens because the method is linear, while the system we are trying to influence is dynamic, interconnected, and co-evolving.

A Different Lens: Evolution, Not Engineering

More than a century ago, a naturalist working alongside Darwin helped illuminate how such systems actually change. Alfred Russel Wallace, independently of Charles Darwin, described a process that does not rely on centralized control but unfolds through variation, selection, feedback, and adaptation. From these interactions, complexity increases. Diversity expands. New forms emerge that could not have been predicted from the outset.

No one designed a rainforest. No authority mandated biodiversity. These systems arose because the conditions favored continuous experimentation and rewarded what worked.

That insight is not just a biological curiosity. It is a guide.

What This Means for Plastics

If we want plastics to become safer, more circular, more regenerative, and economically viable within that circularity, we do not need to specify every endpoint or prohibit every misstep. We need to create conditions under which better outcomes consistently outcompete worse ones.

This requires a shift that is subtle in theory but profound in practice. Instead of relying primarily on command and compliance, we begin to work through incentives and adaptation. Instead of trying to eliminate every externality through prohibition, we focus on internalizing those externalities so that they shape behavior from within the system.

When pollution, waste, and ecosystem damage carry no cost, they are treated as invisible. When they are priced—even imperfectly—they begin to matter in every decision.

This is not about assigning a dollar value to what is sacred. It is about ensuring that those who disregard that value no longer do so without consequence. Without that correction, the system will continue to reward extraction, throughput, and disposal, no matter how many rules we write.

How Circularity Actually Emerges

Once these signals are introduced, even modestly, something remarkable begins to happen. The system reorganizes itself. Competition, now informed by more complete information, becomes a creative force.

Companies begin to specialize, focusing on particular materials, technologies, or recovery systems where they can excel. Multiple pathways emerge in parallel—mechanical recycling improving in some contexts, advanced recycling technologies evolving in others, reuse and refill systems finding footholds where they make sense, and material science opening entirely new possibilities. As these approaches develop, supply chains become more interconnected. What was once waste becomes feedstock. What was once discarded becomes valuable.

Out of this growing complexity, integration follows. Product design, packaging, logistics, and recovery systems begin to align—not because they were centrally coordinated, but because alignment becomes the most competitive path forward.

And then, inevitably, emergence. Solutions appear that no regulator, no planner, no algorithm could have fully anticipated. The system begins to display qualities—efficiency, resilience, circularity—that were not imposed, but cultivated.

Why This Works—And Mandates Alone Don’t

This approach can feel less satisfying than a direct mandate. It does not offer the clarity of identifying a villain and imposing an immediate solution. It requires patience, observation, and a willingness to accept that the future will not look exactly as we imagine.

But it works.

When we attempt to leap ahead and prescribe a fully circular system, we assume knowledge we do not possess, suppress innovation we have not yet conceived, and impose costs that can undermine the very progress we seek. When we instead create conditions that favor continuous improvement, innovation accelerates, costs decline over time, and better solutions take root because they are more effective, not because they are required.

This is not slower in any meaningful sense. It is faster where it counts—where ideas become practices, and practices become systems.

A Cultural Shift: From Control to Stewardship

What this ultimately asks of us is a cultural shift as much as a policy shift. We move from the belief that we can design and enforce a perfect future to the recognition that we must cultivate the conditions from which a better future can emerge.

That shift can feel like relinquishing control. In reality, it demands a deeper form of responsibility. It calls for attentiveness, humility, and a commitment to continuous adjustment. It asks us to guide rather than dictate, to participate rather than dominate.

Not weaker leadership, but wiser leadership.

The Real Choice

Some frame this as a choice between two political approaches: regulation on one side, markets on the other. That framing misses the point. The real choice is between an illusion of control and a system that can actually adapt, learn, and improve over time.

To build a circular plastics economy, we must begin to behave like one. Adaptive. Integrated. Responsive. Creative. Not only in the materials we use, but in the way we think, decide, and act.

Plastics themselves are not the enemy. They are a material—one that can either amplify harm or enable efficiency, depending on the system in which they operate.

If we reshape that system—if we align incentives with ecological reality and allow innovation to flourish within those boundaries—plastics can become one of the most efficient and valuable materials in a circular economy.

Not because we forced them into compliance, but because the system evolved in that direction.

Today, EarthX announced 50 nominees for the Earthx2026 Brand Hero Awards, recognizing companies championing market-based solutions to environmental challenges. These companies represent 10 critical categories of innovation, from the buildings we live in to the technology in our pockets. By highlighting brands that are using their market leadership and supply chain influence to advance a more sustainable economy, we can use consumer power to reinforce positive change.

The 2026 Nominees by Category

1. Built Environment - Focusing on buildings designed for long life, adaptability, and material reuse.

• Nominees: CBRE, Home Depot, Interface, Lowe’s, and Signify (Philips Lighting).

2. Clean Energy Choices & Carbon Reduction - Rewarding suppliers for system-wide carbon reduction and the adoption of “any/all-of-the-above” clean energy.

• Nominees: Microsoft, Sony, Target, Tesla, and United Airlines.

3. Oceans & Waters - Incentivizing sustainable seafood, traceable marine inputs, and the restoration of “blue-carbon” ecosystems like mangroves and seagrass.

• Nominees: Chipotle, Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Nestlé, and Whole Foods.

4. Plastic Reduction & Recycling - Moving toward a circular market for plastics by prioritizing reuse, recyclability, and reduced virgin plastic use.

• Nominees: Costco, Keurig Dr Pepper, Lush, PepsiCo, and SC Johnson.

5. Price Signals that Reward Sustainability - Supporting market mechanisms—like internal carbon fees and federal carbon pricing—that reward lower-carbon commerce.

• Nominees: Allbirds, Amazon, Etsy, ExxonMobil, and Loop.

6. Regenerative Food, Fashion & Farms - Investing in suppliers that improve soil health and biodiversity through market premiums and performance metrics.

• Nominees: Danone, Eileen Fisher, General Mills, Mars, and Perdue.

7. Sustainable Cargo, Shipping & Transportation - Prioritizing transparency, fleet electrification, and the elimination of illegal trafficking in global logistics.

• Nominees: FedEx, Maersk, Nike, UPS, and Walmart.

8. Sustainable Forestry - Incentivizing forests managed for biodiversity and climate resilience beyond just “zero deforestation”.

• Nominees: Georgia-Pacific, IKEA, Kimberly-Clark, McDonald’s, and Unilever.

9. Sustainable Mining - Demanding high standards for land and labor protection while investing in circular alternatives like mineral recycling.

• Nominees: Apple, BMW, Dell, Intel, and Volvo.

10. Technology for Radical Source Reduction - Using AI, innovative design, and green chemistry to prioritize product durability, repairability, and “dematerialization”.

• Nominees: Epson, Fairphone, Google, Sonos, and Zoom.

What’s Next?

These 50 nominees were selected with feedback from our Brand Heroes Nomination Committee. From this list, the top 10 Brand Heroes will be awarded in person at Earthx2026, held April 20-22 in Dallas.

Stay tuned as we continue to highlight how these market leaders are proving that sustainability and business success can—and must—go hand in hand.

Register for Earthx2026

Use Your Voice

When we publicly acknowledge a brand’s commitment to circularity or supply chain transparency, we provide the internal champions at these companies with the “market proof” they need to keep those programs funded and expanding.

• Vote with Your Narrative: Pick one or two nominees from the list above whose mission resonates with you. Share this post on social media and tag them. Tell them why their commitment to things like regenerative farming or sustainable mining makes you more likely to remain a loyal customer.

• The “Positive Inquiry”: Next time you interact with these brands—whether via a customer service chat, a store manager, or a social media comment—skip the complaint. Instead, ask: “I saw you were nominated for an EarthX Brand Hero Award for your recycling initiatives. How can I, as a customer, help support that specific goal?”

• Direct Engagement: Use the hashtag #EarthXBrandHero to highlight the specific products or services from these nominees that you believe set the gold standard for the industry.

By shining a spotlight on these commitments, consumer can help brands see that we are paying attention, that their sustainability priorities matter to us, and that sustainability is good for business AND the planet.

Xiye Bastida is a 23-year old Mexican climate justice activist and storyteller. She began her activism after her hometown of San Pedro Tultepec, Mexico, experienced flooding. Since then, she has become a leading voice in the youth climate movement, organizing climate strikes, advocating at the United Nations, and championing justice-centered climate solutions. Of Otomi-Toltec heritage, Xiye integrates Indigenous worldviews of reciprocity, interdependence, and intergenerational responsibility into global climate advocacy. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Re-Earth Initiative, a global youth-led organization supporting resource distribution and frontline leadership. Xiye is a Planetary Guardian, a Climate Advisor for multiple organizations, and a UN High-Level Champion Ambassador. She has been recognized as a TIME 100Next honoree, and is a recipient of the UN Spirit Award. Xiye is currently working on the launch of The Way of The Whale, a feature documentary on the story of gray whales from Mexico to the Arctic.

At the Earthx2026 Congress of Conferences - April 20-22, 2026 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX - you’ll have the rare opportunity to be inspired by one of the most powerful youth voices in the global climate movement as she shares how circular economy principles—rooted in Indigenous wisdom and regenerative systems—can transform the way we design, consume, and reuse resources to build a more just, waste-free future.

Xiye joins an exciting lineup of leaders confirmed to speak and participate at Earthx2026, including:

• Bob Ballard, Oceanographer and Founder, Ocean Exploration Trust

• Ed Begley, Jr., Actor and Environmentalist

• Felipe Calderón, Former President of Mexico

• Kristy Drutman, Founder Browngirl Green and co-founder of Green Jobs Board

• Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder, Mission Blue

• Isolde Fair, Grammy Award-winning Singer-Songwriter and Performing Artist

• Lord Fatafehi Fakafānua, Prime Minister, Kingdom of Tonga

• Peter Fiekowsky, Founder, Foundation for Climate Restoration

• Torrei Hart, Comedian, Actress, and Social Impact Entrepreneur

• Mariel Hemingway, Actor, Author, and Environmentalist

• Danielle Holly, Executive Lead, North America, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

• Dr. Serena McCalla, Ph.D., Founder, iResearch Institute; nationally recognized science education pioneer

• Juan Carlos Monterrey, Special Representative for Climate Change of Panamá

• Steven Nickel, Director, Consumer Hardware Operations, Google

• Adam Peer, Senior Director, Plastics Sustainability, American Chemistry Council

• Charlie Schwarze, Senior Director, Keurig Dr. Pepper & Board Chair, Circular Action Alliance

• Jeff Seabright, Former Chief Sustainability Officer, Unilever North America

• Bershan Shaw, Entrepreneur, Global Speaker, and Leadership Coach

• Stormy Simon, Former CEO, Overstock.com

• Dr. John Warner, CEO, The Technology Greenhouse and the founder of “green chemistry”

• Richard Wiese, President, The Explorers Club

• Andrew Winston, Author of Net Positive; Thinkers50 “#1 Management Thinker in the World”

Learn More

Get Your Tickets to Earthx2026 Today!

Happening April 20-22, 2026 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX

Are you a student? —> Apply here for a free ticket

Are you a young professional? —> Apply here for a discounted $399 pass

Are you a teacher? —> Apply here for a discounted $399 pass

Are you a nonprofit? —> Apply here for a discounted $399 pass

Are you a sustainability-focused entrepreneur or startup? —> Apply here to attend the EarthX E-Capital Summit for a discounted $399 pass

Are you a reader of In Between Times? (That’s a yes for you!) —> Purchase your ticket here with promotional code CIRCLE50 for $50 off the registration price

Are you unsure about attending the Earthx2026 Congress of Conferences, but you are in the Dallas area and would like to check out a family-friendly and educational event for the planet? —> Register for free to attend the Environmental Xperience at EarthX

Questions? Email Us