Recycling Market Development Webinar Series
Thank you for making our first quarterly webinar a success!
If you missed the November 5, 2019 webinar, please click HERE to see the slide deck. The webinar focused on Colorado's NextCycle program and steps that our neighbors to the north are taking to build recycling markets. Let's learn from others as a first step to bring similar programs to New Mexico and to help develop and utilize regional recycling markets.
Juri Freeman discussed Colorado's NextCycle program, a state-run business incubator designed to improve the end markets for recovered commodities and organic materials in Colorado. Teams accepted into NextCycle are provided with hands-on technical and business planning assistance, attend a business development boot camp, and are invited to pitch their ideas to potential investors. NextCycle also helps teams prepare their business concepts for the state's larger grant application/award cycles. Attendees learned about the innovative startups the program funded with its inaugural round of assistance in 2019 and its plans to continue with 2020 applications.
Juri Freeman is a senior consultant at RRS and is the NextCycle Project Manager. NextCycle is funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Juri utilizes over 13 years of solid waste and recycling experience to provide technical, strategic, and communications client support. Past consulting projects put Juri at the forefront of zero waste planning, forecasting and modeling, outreach campaigns, sustainability program evaluation, and stakeholder and public process engagement. Juri has previously served as the president for the Colorado Association for Recycling and the chairman of the National Recycling Coalition.
Chris Conway, CEO of Springback Mattress based in Colorado and recipient of 2019 NextCycle business development grant, discussed Springback's triple bottom line (people, planet, profit). Chris outlined Springback's work to recycle post-consumer mattresses, support redemptive employment opportunities for people in the community, and create new products out of discarded material (refurbished mattresses and dog beds). Attendees learned why Springback is able to operate in the state of Colorado and the incentives the state provided to bring this valuable service to area residents.