OM DENNE EPISODE
This is episode one of a five-part series produced in partnership with Pyxera Global and the Circular Supply Chain Coalition (CSCC) to explore how to build a circular economy from coalition to community. The series covers origin story, network architecture, buyer-operator matchmaking, enabling policy, and community ownership.
About CSCC:
Anita Schwartz spent over ten years at Waste Management before building out the zero waste and circular economy practice at WSP. John Holm cut his supply chain teeth in Central and Eastern Europe before leading Pyxera Global's circular economy practice. They connected at a GreenBiz panel in 2021 and realized their complementary perspectives could form the architecture for something the market was missing: a coalition that convenes the entire value chain around reverse supply chains.
Together they unpack why a single company cannot resolve the reverse supply chain on its own (the cost and impact of individual reverse logistics footprints negate the benefit), why everything after point of sale is "the dark side of the moon" with zero data visibility, why the CSCC frames circular economy as security economy rather than sustainability, and why 70 to 80 percent of the world already lives on reuse behavior. They close with a lightning round where Anita names the biggest misconception about circular economy (it is recycling) and John names the one thing companies should stop doing when they talk about circularity (lying).
Chapter Markers:
0:00 Introduction: five-part series overview
0:31 Meet Anita Schwartz and John Holm: co-founders, CSCC
1:02 Anita's origin: Waste Management, WSP, and the reverse supply chain gap
2:35 John's origin: Central and Eastern Europe to Pyxera Global
4:01 Enabling environment: policy, subsidies, communities, and systems change
5:44 What was broken: why operators need shared infrastructure
7:50 The dark side of the moon: zero data after point of sale
8:46 The CSCC blueprint: coalition building at scale
12:45 What happens when companies try to build reverse supply chains alone
15:21 Competitors collaborating: specialty chemicals and cross-sector parallels
16:41 Aligning organizations with different incentives and timelines
17:46 What to expect from the full five-episode arc
20:00 Lightning round: biggest misconception, what to stop doing, optimism
21:01 How to engage with the CSCC
Connect and Learn More:
Circular Supply Chain Coalition: circularsupplychain.org
Pyxera Global: pyxeraglobal.org
John Holm: jholm@pyxeraglobal.org | LinkedIn
Anita Schwartz: LinkedIn
Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com
Subscribe to Supply Chain Revolution on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen.
Key Topics:
Circular supply chain, reverse supply chain, coalition building, circular economy, waste as resource, security economy, critical minerals, reuse, urban mining, local procurement, systems change, data visibility, post-consumer waste, infrastructure, CSCC, Pyxera Global
