This past February, our very own Zero Waste Coordinator, Sherry Gong, attended the 2026 Resource Recycling Conference to learn about materials recovery and the latest programs on source reduction and reuse.
One of the interesting aspects of this conference is that it jointly occurred alongside the Plastics Recycling Conference and the Textile Recovery Summit, which allowed her to mix and match the talks she went to.
Here were some interesting highlights from the talks:
Repair, Reuse, Borrowing, and Renting
Reuse activities—from resale and repair to repurposing and refilling—were shown to create 30 times more jobs than recycling and to strengthen community resilience.
Practical examples shared by the City of Austin and the Solana Center included fix-it clinics, lending libraries, university move-out reuse programs, and zero waste party kits you could rent for events.
Reusing Textiles & Pick-Up Pilots
According to the EPA, the average American discards around 80 pounds of textiles per year, and while most of it is technically reusable or recyclable, 85% is being landfilled, per CalRecycle. [EPA puts the landfill rate at 66% in 2018. 85% was either landfilled or incinerated.]
Reuse must come first—thrift, repair, and upcycling—before recycling the rest. The Solana Center hosts textile workshops that dye, repair, and creatively reuse clothing.
To explore ways to make textile recycling easier, Goodwill of Arizona partnered with Waste Management to pilot quarterly clothing collection in Oregon. In this pilot, Goodwill would do the first sort to pull out reusable clothing and then Waste Management would separate the remaining materials to be sold to domestic fiber recyclers and downcyclers. A similar pilot is being run in Albany, CA and more programs are being mapped out.
Author's note: It is important to remember that the most sustainable option when it comes to clothing is to buy less, thrift, and make the clothing you already own last as long as possible.
Packaging Trends
Companies are still pursuing sustainable packaging even though they don’t publicize their efforts. Some packaging changes include replacing plastic rings, replacing plastic or other materials with paper (“paperization”), and using more post-consumer recycled content.
What’s key is that the packaging is engineered properly and fit for their function as well as circular with minimal material used.
[Editor's note: The most sustainable packaging would be a return and refill system. "Reusable packaging is refilled or used for the same purpose for which it was conceived, in its original form, with no additional reprocessing needed except for cleaning." -Refill.org.UK]
Source Reduction
Source reduction—reducing the total amount of packaging placed on the market—was positioned as the foundation of any circular system. California is currently the only state requiring it explicitly through SB 54.
Strategies discussed to achieve these requirements included light-weighting, right-sizing, providing concentration of a product, bulk-buying, material substitutions, using recycled content, and reuse systems where the consumer washes their container or the producer/third-party washes the container.
The Big Takeaway
The emerging theme of the conference was that we need to employ various strategies, especially source reduction and reuse, while focusing on collaboration and flexibility to achieve our zero waste goals.
The Link to Zero Waste
Within a zero waste system, we recognize that our resources are precious and finite. It is imperative to keep them cycling through a continuous circular economy--meaning that the things that we make are able to used for generations and when their life comes to an end, they can be either disassembled and their parts repurposed or they can go back to the earth in an inert state.
Learn more about how zero waste applies across sectors at the Zero Waste Forum.
Summary written by Sherry Gong after attending the Resource Recycling Conference February 23-25, 2026. Edited and posted by Hayden Sloan.
