Recycling Market Development Center
Our work promotes the use of recycled feedstocks, supports the development of recycled-content products, and advances the circular use of materials across the state. Through collaboration with businesses, public agencies, and other partners, the RMDC drives market development efforts—from reclaiming and remanufacturing materials to solving challenges around hard-to-recycle waste.
Background
The RMDC’s efforts support the development of a circular economy in Washington. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a circular economy is “a systemic approach to maintain a circular flow of resources by recovering, retaining, or adding to their value while contributing to sustainable development.” In practice, this means extending the life and value of materials through strategies such as reuse, repair, remanufacturing, recycling, and composting—while also supporting environmental and economic resilience.
Our mission
Advancing markets to prevent and reduce waste.
Equity
The RMDC is helping shape a circular economy that is not just sustainable—but equitable and community-powered.
Guided by recent policy shifts like the 2025 Recycling Reform Act and the Climate Commitment Act, the RMDC works to ensure that historically underserved communities—including low-income, Indigenous, immigrant, and communities of color—are not only protected from environmental harm but included in economic opportunity, infrastructure access, and decision-making.
These efforts reflect a broader commitment to equity across the state (or agency); however, at the RMDC, we integrate an equity lens into every aspect of our work. We remain steadfast advocates for equity through our foundational pillars and are committed to designing market development strategies that avoid placing disproportionate burdens on any community.
- Elevating diverse voices and lived experiences to shape the future of recycling in Washington.
- Investing in local, community-led solutions that strengthen economic resilience and environmental well-being.
Convene
Bring partners together to facilitate conversations, identify challenges, and collaborate on solutions
A 14-member advisory board comprised of a diverse demographic from public, private, academic, and nonprofit entities provides guidance for the RMDC’s work. They advise Ecology and Commerce as we explore changes to state policies and improvements to recycling markets.
The RMDC hosts quarterly advisory board meetings, where we facilitate speakers who present on target material topics and/or provide program updates. This opportunity convenes expertise, knowledge sharing, and introduces points of entry into the market. These meetings are hosted virtually and are open to the public.
Learn more about the RMDC advisory board.
RMDC focus on textiles
The RMDC reached out to the textile sector to learn about challenges and solutions. In 2024, California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act set a national precedent for producer responsibility.
The RMDC conducted textile-focused outreach, and cross-sector collaboration. As part of that effort, we partnered with ten local textile leaders to co-design a four-part webinar series: Unraveling the Textile Industry for a Regenerative Washington.
Missed a session or want to revisit the conversation? You can now access presentation slides, contacts, key takeaways, and the meeting recordings here.
Learn more about textiles in Washington here.
Other Convening work
Collaboration is key to achieving a circular economy. The RMDC helps unite businesses, agencies, and communities working at every stage of the recycling process. Our sphere of influence provides a process and framework to bring any interested party looking to make connections, identify barriers and illuminate creative solutions through partner engagement.
We’ll continue hosting meetings and events—whenever possible—to connect with interested partners and advance the circular economy in Washington. If you have questions or want to get connected, we’re here to help.
Links to the resources from our May 2024 Washington Glass Packaging Summit:
Links to the resources from our May 2023 Eastern Washington Glass Summit:
Innovate
Invest in waste prevention, reuse, repair, and recycling initiatives to support community resilience.
The RMDC joined with King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle Public Utilities, and Commerce to develop NextCycle Washington. Washington is one of only three states to use the groundbreaking NextCycle platform to invest in market development and boost the circular economy. Michigan and Colorado are the other two states using the platform.
NextCycle WA connects entrepreneurs, companies, and communities to technical support, financial resources, and capacity-building for projects focused on waste prevention and material recycling, recovery, and reuse. NextCycle WA offers accelerator support customized to the RMDC’s goals and resources (startups receive mentorship and technical support, culminating in a polished pitch). After our six-month mentorship program, the pitches will be presented at a Pitch Showcase where teams get valuable feedback and can win awards with cash prizes.
Reuse Impact Calculator
Developed in collaboration with Repair x Reuse Washington, Hylo, and the NextCycle Washington team the Reuse Impact Calculator (RIC) is a tool that combines a comprehensive set of product weights and material compositions developed by Hyloh with the WARM Model (version 15). The RIC allows the user to easily determine the energy savings of a variety of products. The overall goal of the tool is to help provide a universal language for products that are being reported from different sources and appropriately compare them, to ultimately determine what the environmental impacts are of diverting those products from landfills.
The Washington State RIC will integrate extensive data on product categorizations, weights, and material families, alongside environmental emissions factors and key economic and social data points. Users will be able to efficiently assess the environmental, economic, and social impacts associated with reusing, repairing, and sharing a wide range of products. The primary objective of the RIC is to establish a standardized framework that enables consistent measurement, meaningful comparisons, and a deeper evaluation of the benefits of reuse, repair, and sharing over conventional replacement.
This tool is designed to serve a wide range of users — including government agencies, small businesses, community groups, and nonprofit organizations—by equipping them with clear, accessible, and credible impact data. It will support local organizations in improving their internal reporting, grant writing, and storytelling efforts, while also aggregating this information to generate cumulative, statewide data. This will enable a broader understanding and quantification of the full scope and value of reuse, repair, and sharing activities across Washington.
Research
Collect and analyze data to assess market trends and inform better decision-making.
The RMDC researches key recyclable materials—like paper, glass, and plastic—and partners with universities to fund and publish studies on Washington’s recycling and reuse economy. By gathering and analyzing market data, we can spot trends, uncover opportunities, and help shape practical solutions that strengthen the circular economy.
Check out these resources to learn more:
- Recyclable material papers on: paper, glass, and plastic.
- University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
- 2019 report, Developing Secondary Markets for Recycled Materials in the Pacific Northwest
- 2023 report, Developing Priorities in Recycling Markets
- Western Washington University Center for Economic and Business Research
- 2021 RDC one-time grant project list
- 2022 RDC report to the legislature
- 2020 RDC report to the legislature
- Work Plan for 2022-2023
- Work Plan for 2024
Assistance
Provide data and connections to incentivize business development to promote the circular economy.
The Washington State Department of Commerce recognizes eight key sectors—including Aerospace, Agriculture & Food Manufacturing, Clean Technology, Forest Products, ICT (Information & Communication Technology), Life Sciences, Maritime, and Military, which serve as economic anchors and innovation hubs across the state.
Across these sectors, Commerce supports the circular economy by funding and facilitating industrial symbiosis programs, NextCycle initiatives, and grant opportunities designed to repurpose industrial or agricultural waste into useful inputs—turning material “end of life” into new resources and reducing landfill reliance.
By leveraging its sector expertise, Commerce helps companies navigate permitting, access grants, and connect with networks—cultivating cross sector collaboration and scaling circular practices through public private partnerships and targeted technical assistance.
Visit the Choose Washington website to see the services offered by Commerce.
Examples services include:
- Property search
- Industry/business data
- Permitting & regulations
- Utilities
- Incentives
- Transportation
- Innovation partnership zones
- Foreign trade zones
- Workspaces, incubators, accelerators
- Focus on key sectors
You can reach out to Commerce for more information by emailing info@choosewashington.com or calling 206-256-6100. Or email Kyle Gitchell (he/him) - Sustainable Business Development Director at Kyle.Gitchell@ecy.wa.gov.
Circular Procurement
The RMDC’s work to grow recycling markets doesn’t stop at processing materials—it also includes driving demand for the products made from them. Environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP), also called green purchasing or circular procurement, is a powerful way to close the loop in the circular economy. By choosing goods and services that are safer, more durable, repairable, recyclable, or made from recycled and renewable materials, EPP helps ensure that the materials we recover have strong, stable markets.
In Washington, EPP builds on decades of state laws and executive orders that direct agencies to prioritize environmentally preferred products. This approach uses the state’s significant purchasing power to create and sustain demand for circular, low-impact products—reinforcing the RMDC’s mission to keep materials in use and add value across the economy.
Our team
Related links
Contact information
RMDC email
RecDevCenter@ecy.wa.gov