Most of you know that I’m an unabashed fan-boy of the work that the Phoenix Public Works Department does to create a Circular Economy through its Reimagine Phoenix Program.

A circular economy is one in which products are specifically designed to more easily be re-purposed or recycled so that they can be re-used, rather than just being thrown in to a landfill. The old model, a linear economy, is wasteful, expensive and unsustainable –especially in the desert southwest.

Have a look at this video for more. It’s pretty exciting that Phoenix is taking a lead on this.

Here are a few of the things that Public Works has done:

• They created the Resource Innovation Campus, that is designed as a kind of business incubator for companies that will specialize in turning more of your garbage and recycled items in to profitable products. This will create jobs, innovation and will save taxpayers money.
• They partnered with Goodwill of Arizona to re-direct mattresses away from the landfill by breaking the component parts of the mattresses (metal, fabric and wood) in to re-usable products.
• They have partnered with a private company to re-direct the roughly 34,000 tons of un-compostable and bulky palm fronds to feed for animals. This saves us all money and creates a more sustainable feed source for animals.
• They have issued RFPs in search of companies that can convert waste gases to fuels for trash trucks, that can divert textiles for better use and that can divert paint products for better uses, among others.

So, why is this realtor so gooey-eyed about this stuff? Simple. My business partner and I help our clients purchase homes that may take 30 years to pay off. How much will that home be worth if we here in Phoenix do not pay more attention to sustainability?

We feel a responsibility to our clients that far out-lasts the purchase of the home.

I love living in Phoenix and I don’t want to wake up one day to find that we have lost the battle to balance our desire to live in the desert with the desert’s ability to sustain life here.

Oh, and I really love the idea of supporting locally-owned innovation here.

So, watch for more articles like this in future issues of the Clark Report and consider signing up for the Reimagine Recycling Program, so you can divert more waste to support a sustainable economy.