SNOHOMISH COUNTY — Economic Alliance Snohomish County (EASC) hosted a Coffee Chat on Aug. 11 focusing on turning resource challenges into competitive advantages through circular economy practices and industrial symbiosis.
The virtual session, titled “Circular Economy and Industrial Symbiosis: From Efficiency to Opportunity” was held in partnership with 425 Business, drew business, government, education and community leaders.
Moderator Rachel Morera, EASC’s director of community engagement, opened by emphasizing the alliance’s mission to strengthen the regional economy through collaboration.
“As organizations face rising resource costs and evolving supply chains, many are discovering innovative ways to turn challenges into competitive advantages by rethinking how materials, energy and resources are used,” Morera said.
The program began with a presentation by Kyle Gitchell, circular economy development director for the Washington State Department of Commerce. Gitchell leads statewide efforts to advance circular initiatives that boost business competitiveness, encourage innovation and build more resilient supply chains.
He contrasted the traditional linear model — “take, make, use, waste” — with a circular approach that returns products and materials to use through recycling, reuse, refurbishment and other strategies.
“In a circular system, the circular economy is moving away from that take, make, use, waste and really returning the product back into circulation,” Gitchell said, noting that industrial symbiosis extends this concept by linking industrial sites, so companies share materials, water, energy and byproducts.
Examples include one manufacturer’s residual materials becoming another’s feedstock, or warm process water being piped to a neighboring facility instead of being discarded. The benefits, he said, include lower disposal and energy costs, smarter resource use and reduced environmental impact.
Gitchell shared data showing at least 36,000 jobs in Washington tied directly to core circular activities, with thousands more supported indirectly. Recycling alone generates $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion in annual revenue statewide, and roughly 9% to 11% of the state’s economy already operates circularly.
The state’s industrial symbiosis grant program, now in its fifth year, has awarded 22 completed projects totaling $5.1 million in investments, with more in the pipeline. Local Snohomish County examples include a consultant helping Kettle Cuisine analyze waste streams for composting and container reuse; Qualco Energy, a partnership with the Tulalip Tribes converting dairy manure into renewable natural gas that serves about 500 homes; and Arlington Recycle in Mukilteo, one of the few regional operations recovering mattress components.
Following the overview, a panel of regional practitioners explored how these ideas move from concept to practice.
Bryce Hesterman, senior consultant and director at RRS and program lead for NextCycle Washington, described supporting more than 75 businesses and organizations over four years. He highlighted both upstream solutions focused on waste prevention and product design, and downstream efforts centered on recycling and converting materials into new feedstocks.
One standout was Oceanade, which replaces virgin plastic plant pots with versions made from kelp byproducts that also release nutrients to support plant growth.
“That is a really great example of something that’s not only supporting a circular economy, but a regenerative economy,” Hesterman said.
Other examples included Ravel, which developed a process to separate mixed textile fibers and produce high-quality polyester for new yarns; Okopy, which operates a reusable coffee cup system across cafes in Oregon and Washington; and Glacier, which integrates AI and robotics into material recovery facilities to improve sorting accuracy.
Joel Lippold, director of composites at the Composite Recycling Technology Center in Port Angeles, explained how the nonprofit, founded in 2015, turns surplus uncured carbon fiber prepreg — much of it linked to Boeing suppliers — into new products. Early work produced pickleball paddles; the center now makes patented net systems, extreme-environment benches, aquaculture systems using carbon fiber rope that reduces marine entanglement, and orthotic components.
CRTC has expanded beyond carbon fiber, partnering with the Makah Tribe to thermally modify coastal western hemlock for premium building materials and cross-laminated timber used in rapid-deployment structures and flat-pack homes. A current industrial symbiosis grant project combines wood shavings and dust with plastic waste streams from local ski and snowboard manufacturers and shellfish farms to create composite wood products.
“We design products around our materials,” Lippold said. “We start by understanding what makes that material valuable and then we develop products that take advantage of those properties. … We’re not looking to maximize profit. What we’re looking to do is maximize value.”
Rhys Roth, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Infrastructure, shared lessons from Denmark, widely credited with pioneering industrial symbiosis as an economic strategy roughly 50 years ago. CSI has taken more than 250 Washington and Oregon leaders on tours of Danish sites.
In Kalundborg, a town of about 17,000, pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk anchors a network of more than a dozen facilities linked by shared infrastructure for heat, energy, water and organic waste. The system generates an estimated $28 million in annual economic value through roughly 30 resource-sharing partnerships while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 600,000 tons a year.
A newer green industrial park in a former farming community has attracted $450 million in investment — mostly private — by providing plug-and-play access to clean heat, water cycling and other services.
“Industrial symbiosis opportunities are going to be unique to every community,” Roth said, “but it really can apply in the smallest towns to the biggest cities.”
Gitchell explained how NextCycle, CSI and CRTC fit into the state’s broader strategy. Commerce’s circular economy team is small, so these partners provide on-the-ground innovation, technical assistance, scaling support and international knowledge exchange.
“Just as industrial symbiosis and its concepts require collaboration between businesses, I think supporting a circular economy requires collaboration,” Gitchell said. “We’re talking about an ecosystem that we’re constructing here.”
He linked the work to both economic strength and climate goals: “I don’t really see a way that we maintain a strong economic foundation while also meeting climate commitment goals without resource efficiency.”
Hesterman advised businesses unsure where to begin to connect with NextCycle’s accelerator program, a six-month cohort offering business planning, supply-chain connections, market validation and pitch training. Applications for the next round are expected to open in late September, with the program running January through June. Partnership options and office hours are also available for organizations at any stage.
Gitchell said such projects fit the industrial symbiosis program, though the next funding round is not expected before fall 2027 after the state budget cycle.
Lippold outlined challenges unique to working with nontraditional material supplies: designing around high-temperature processes and variable material availability rather than conventional demand forecasting; ensuring complementary components match carbon fiber’s performance; and recognizing that recycled content alone rarely drives purchases.
“Our products still have to be cost competitive, and they ideally need to be better performing,” he said. “Sustainability can be an additional benefit, but we can’t rely on it as a primary value prop.”
Success, he added, depends on partners who know their markets and a dynamic team willing to adapt.
Roth stressed the convening role of organizations such as EASC, economic development agencies and ports in bridging silos. He cited an example of a gummy bear factory whose expensive waste slurry became a valuable carbon source for a neighboring wastewater treatment plant once the two were brought together.
Looking ahead five to 10 years, Gitchell urged a mindset shift: treat what is currently discarded as an asset rather than waste.
“There’s no such thing as waste; it’s just resources in the wrong place,” Gitchell said, citing opportunities in wood residuals for biofuels and biochar, critical mineral recovery from electronics and batteries, and textiles — one of the least effectively captured material streams.
Hesterman linked circular strategies to supply-chain resilience, noting how localized recycled markets provided a buffer when global disruptions hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Closing takeaways reinforced collaboration. Gitchell encouraged businesses to inventory what they produce and discard and to reach out for matchmaking. Roth called for investment in convening that allows exploratory conversations across fence lines. Lippold urged finding like-minded partners and asking how organizations can make one another better rather than focusing solely on competition.
“Build relationships, build community, ask questions, and communicate with honesty and integrity,” Gitchell said.
Hesterman added that many solutions already exist and the task is often to scale and adopt them through connectivity.
