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Sustainability office pitches Richmond as Mid-Atlantic hub for circular-economy innovation

Governmental Operations Standing Committee · July 23, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The city's Office of Sustainability proposed exploring a circular-economy innovation center modeled on Charlotte's "Innovation Barn," citing local strengths including VCU partnerships, manufacturing heritage and emerging textile and plastics reuse projects; staff are conducting a materials-flow analysis to identify priority waste streams.

Tara Warden, sustainability manager, told the committee the Office of Sustainability is exploring a circular-economy innovation center for Richmond to convert local waste streams into economic opportunity.

Warden described the model used in Charlotte's Innovation Barn, where the city owns a facility that a nonprofit manages under a nominal lease and operates a mixture of business incubation labs (plastics reuse, glass crushing into construction sand, urban lumber),…

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