Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Materials Recovery Platform: A Geospatial Software Approach to the Circular Economy
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC23C0025Title: Materials Recovery Platform: A Geospatial Software Approach to the Circular Economy
Investigators: Shayne, Katherine
Small Business: Can I Recycle This, Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: December 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023
Project Amount: $100,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I (2023) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Water , SBIR - Homeland Security , SBIR - Sustainability , SBIR - Air and Climate
Description:
CIRT is the guide to materials recovery. There are over 9,000 recycling areas in the US alone with different rules and regulations in each. These areas change frequently due to legislation, end markets/buyers, infrastructure, new materials entering the waste stream, and more. This, coupled with archaic recycling communication leads to confusion about how to recover valuable materials. The CIRT Platform gets these materials back into the circular economy delivering cost savings, rebates and compliance to our customers and keeping these valuable materials out of landfills, the environment and our oceans.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
During Phase I of the SBIR Project CIRT continued research and develop CIRT recycling areas across the US creating the most comprehensive materials recovery data set available positioning CIRT as the market leader in materials recovery. US ‘Wastesheds’ (CIRT’s proprietary geospatial area with like recovery systems) mapping density increased from 126 million in population coverage to over 175 million, including 100% of coverage in California. A percentage of this increase focused on areas around the 72-mile stretch of the Mississippi River Corridor through the seven-county metropolitan areas to understand Environmental Justice opportunities as it relates to access to recycling and municipal solid waste.
Throughout Phase I of the SBIR Project the platform’s features and functionality were optimized internally for the CIRT staff to make data entry and processing times more efficient.
New product development and roadmapping played a big part of Phase I as we look toward commercialization. The roadmap includes utilizing ML and AI for research and mapping. A new product is in development: Product Circularity Report as an offering for commercialization.
Conclusions:
The Phase I project successfully demonstrated the viability of commercialization for the CIRT Platform. The platform delivers meaningful KPIs for corporations to reach sustainability goals while realizing cost savings and other ROI metrics. There is now data to support EPA efforts of Environmental Justice along the Mississippi River Corridor, among other opportunities across the US, to identify gaps in access causing leakage of valuable materials into the environment, rivers and ultimately our ocean. The CIRT Platform commercialization will accelerate the circular economy and divert valuable materials from landfills, the environment and our ocean.
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.