This is the series finale. Across five episodes, the Circular Supply Chain Coalition series has built the system around circular supply chains: coalition architecture, trusted networks, buyer-operator alignment, enabling policy. Episode 5 asks who owns the infrastructure, who has agency, and who benefits when reverse supply chains are built.

Deirdre White is CEO of Pyxera Global with nearly 40 years in supply chain development and social impact, from oil and gas localization on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East to the Jiva program, a 10-year partnership with the John Deere Foundation in rural Rajasthan that transformed agricultural livelihoods, girls' education, and community governance. Deirdre frames community ownership as the opposite of extraction: local people building and retaining the assets that should be theirs.

Nancy Charaya leads circular economy work at Pyxera Global India, with a decade of experience across tire, textile, plastics, and critical minerals value chains. Nancy built the Pride Cooperative in Guwahati, Assam, a female-led waste worker collective organizing 160 informal workers into a cooperative with collective bargaining power and shared governance. India has 4 to 5 million waste workers, up to 80 percent women working informally with zero agency. The cooperative model gives them a seat at the table.

John Holm, SVP of Partnership Development at Pyxera Global, moderates and connects the five-episode arc, framing community ownership as the "Trojan horse" for circular supply chains at scale.

Chapter Markers:

0:00 Introduction: from enabling policy to community ownership

1:05 John Holm: community benefit as the missing layer in circular supply chains

2:03 Deirdre White: 40 years of supply chain localization, from Sakhalin to CSCC

5:41 Jiva: 10 years with John Deere in rural Rajasthan

7:08 Why the changes held two years after the program ended

7:54 "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution"

8:25 India's waste sector: 4-5 million workers, 90% informal, 60-80% women

9:27 Pride Cooperative: 160 waste workers, collective bargaining, government access

10:26 The smart dustbin story: waste worker knowledge vs. high-tech design

11:21 Cooperatives in the global north: Land O'Lakes and hidden scale

12:37 Community-owned business: keeping equity local in reverse supply chains

14:44 Building trust: 36 person-weeks of listening in three villages

16:11 Pride as a female-led cooperative: agency and collective voice

17:15 Lightning round: misconceptions, capabilities, optimism

19:34 Series close: the complete blueprint for a circular economy

Key Topics:

Community ownership, cooperatives, circular supply chains, reverse logistics, waste workers, informal economy, critical minerals, cooperative governance, Pyxera Global, CSCC, Pride Cooperative, Guwahati, MSMEs, female-led enterprise, global south innovation

Connect and Learn More:

Circular Supply Chain Coalition: circularsupplychain.org

Pyxera Global: pyxeraglobal.org

John Holm: jholm@pyxeraglobal.org

Deirdre White: linkedin.com/in/deirdre-white

Nancy Charaya: linkedin.com/in/nancycharaya

Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com

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Circular supply chains do not scale on corporate pilots alone. They require enabling policy: state-level incentives, workforce alignment, environmental regulation, capital pathways, and cross-border investment structures that make reuse-based business models viable. This is episode four of a five-part series with Pyxera Global and the Circular Supply Chain Coalition, exploring what the enabling environment looks like when policy moves from aspiration to implementation.

Secretary James Kenney leads the New Mexico Environment Department, where he has built one of the most ambitious state-level circular economy strategies in the US. Under Governor Lujan Grisham, New Mexico offers free education from pre-K through university and trade school, universal child care, a 50-year water action plan backed by $400 million in annual investment, and PFAS legislation that listed discarded PFAS as hazardous waste with a consumer-facing label accessible to every New Mexican. The department created economic development positions whose only metric is jobs created and net income generated.

Manuel Carmona Yebra is Deputy Head for Global Issues and Innovation at the EU Delegation to the United States. He has led EU-US circular economy engagement at the state level, engaging governors including Governor Wes Moore (Maryland), Governor Hobbs (Arizona), and Governor Lujan Grisham (New Mexico). His work has revealed that circular economy is bipartisan because it addresses economic development, environmental protection, employment, and supply chain security simultaneously.

John Holm, SVP of Partnership Development at Pyxera Global and CSCC representative, frames the enabling environment strategy and explains why the coalition focuses on governor-level alignment rather than federal solutions. Together they unpack why states are laboratories for policy that scales and why the EU Circular Economy Act is expected to require 25% of critical minerals supply from recycling.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction: the enabling environment
1:00 John Holm: enabling environment in practice
1:33 Security economy framing
2:38 Why CSCC focuses on states and governors
3:42 Secretary Kenney: New Mexico's model
4:45 Free education, child care, workforce transition
5:46 50-year water action plan
6:19 Waste to marketplace: critical minerals
7:48 PFAS legislation and the consumer label
9:25 Consumer access to information about PFAS
10:08 Secretary Kenney on trade association lawsuits
11:12 EU Circular Economy Act and competitiveness
12:26 25% of EU critical minerals from recycling
13:04 EU-US state engagement
14:18 Why the EU engages US states directly
15:04 Circular economy as bipartisan
17:48 Replicability and interstate symbiosis
19:55 Sovereign supply chains, Mexico border corridor
21:01 How to engage

Topics: Circular economy policy, PFAS, EU Circular Economy Act, critical minerals, economic development, workforce transition, bipartisan policy, reverse supply chain

Connect:
New Mexico Environment Department: env.nm.gov
Manuel Carmona Yebra: linkedin.com/in/manolo
CSCC: circularsupplychain.org
Pyxera Global: pyxeraglobal.org
John Holm: jholm@pyxeraglobal.org
Supply Chain Queen: supplychainqueen.com

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This is episode three of a five-part series produced in partnership with Pyxera Global and the Circular Supply Chain Coalition. Recovering a material is only the beginning. For circular supply chains to scale, operators must understand what buyers can qualify and use, while buyers must create credible demand signals and procurement pathways for secondary materials. This episode covers the matchmaking layer: how the CSCC connects reverse supply chain operators with industrial buyers.

Ryan Melsert is the co-founder and CTO of American Battery Technology Company (ABTC), which operates a battery recycling facility selling approximately one thousand tons per month of critical minerals back into the market. Ryan's career spans Tesla (where he helped design and build the first gigafactory) and the company is now BASF's exclusive battery recycling partner for all of North America. Rafael Vasquez Lombardo leads sustainability strategy and customer solutions at Cummins, a 100+ year industrial manufacturer with global remanufacturing operations. Anita Schwartz returns as CSCC co-founder.

Together they unpack what it takes to move from collecting battery feedstock to producing materials that industrial buyers can evaluate, qualify, and integrate into established supply chains. Rafael outlines the performance-cost-trust triangle that governs sourcing decisions at scale, and Ryan explains why the qualification process will never get shorter (consumers demand zero tolerance for component failure). They close with a lightning round where Rafael delivers the episode's defining line: stop talking about circular sourcing, this is just sourcing.

Chapter Markers:

0:05 Introduction: buyer-operator matchmaking in reverse supply chains

1:19 Meet Anita Schwartz (CSCC co-founder)

2:06 Meet Ryan Melsert (ABTC): Tesla, gigafactory, battery recycling

3:47 Meet Rafael Vasquez Lombardo (Cummins): engineering to circular economy strategy

6:33 From convening to active matchmaking: what changes

7:50 Operator perspective: from feedstock to buyer-ready supply

9:10 BASF partnership: becoming their exclusive North American battery recycling partner

10:51 Buyer perspective from Cummins: performance, cost, trust

15:04 After the introduction: what happens day-to-day

16:59 Data exchanges, audits, and the high-trust environment

17:33 Validation steps from pilot to production

20:07 Lightning round: what to stop, what data matters, optimism

Key Topics:

Reverse supply chain, buyer-operator matchmaking, battery recycling, critical minerals, Cummins, ABTC, BASF, circular procurement, secondary materials, supply chain qualification, remanufacturing, performance specs, supply chain trust, CSCC, Pyxera Global

Connect and Learn More:

American Battery Technology Company: americanbatterytechnology.com

Cummins: cummins.com

CSCC: circularsupplychain.org

Pyxera Global: pyxeraglobal.org

Sheri Hinish: supplychainqueen.com