Rochester is emerging as a central hub for the circular economy in the United States, creating a new chapter in the city’s history of innovation.
The recent announcement of French company Reju’s $390 million facility at Eastman Business Park is the most high-profile example, but it’s far from the only one in a city known for its industrial past. Remember Kodak’s efforts to recycle single-use camera components? Or Xerox’s efforts to recycle used cartridges?
“When we think about our region, or Rochester specifically, innovation has always been something that has taken root here,” said Jennifer Lake, CEO of Goodwill of the Finger Lakes.
It’s not just the industrial giants involved in the circular economy, either. The REMADE Institute calls Rochester home – a federally-funded institute that partners with industry, academia, trade organizations and national labs to support and conduct research in remanufacturing and materials recovery. It is one of 18 institutes for advanced manufacturing research and development in the nation.
REMADE’s CEO, Nabil Nasr, is also the founder director of the Golisano Institute of Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology.
“Rochester has been a pioneer in this area for years — for years and years — with the work that Xerox has done, the work of Kodak and even companies like Gleason have done a lot working remanufacturing with their machines,” Nasr said. “At our end, we were the first in the world to actually establish a center for remanufacturing and resource recovery in 1990.”
Nasr and Lake will be among the dignitaries and panelists at the 2026 REMADE Circular Economy Tech Summit and Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 11-12. Research and technology in the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling of critical minerals, rare earth elements and other materials will be the focus.
Efforts to move on from the modern linear economy are leading to an unprecedented surge in technology, and textile recycling will be the subject of a panel discussion.
“There is a lot to be developed, a lot to be discovered in this area now because for the first time we’re thinking about the entire life cycle in terms of what happens to a product at the end of use,” Nasr said.
There is a huge amount of critical minerals and rare earth metals contained within the e-waste produced every year — in every iPhone upgrade or cracked television screen. Being able to effectively recycle that material is a priority for the REMADE Institute.
Many of the strategic materials used in defense applications come from overseas, which can be a vulnerability. An industrialized country can reach a level of saturation where there are enough materials used to make products that, if the material can be recovered and recycled effectively, rely less on outside materials.
“A lot of work that the REMADE Institute is doing is really looking to improve the design side to the manufacturing side,” Nasr said. “There are a lot of issues in manufacturing. We waste a lot of material when we make products. There’s a lot of room for improvement there.”
Outside of the geopolitical sphere, textile manufacturing is having its own moment, worthy of a panel discussion at the conference. Locally, Goodwill of the Finger Lakes has partnered with research being done at RIT and will provide material for Reju. The donations that aren’t sold by Goodwill are still typically in better condition than most streams of material.
“We often have a better …. grade of materials because we don’t have a lot of the contamination that you will see in other streams,” Lake said. “And so it really makes us a natural partner.”
Goodwill has the public trust as a location for reuse and recycling due to its mission, Lake said. But the public remains skeptical about textile recycling and partners like Reju — which plans to offer tours of its facility — could help dispel that.
“We know the largest reason why people still trash their textiles is because they don’t actually believe something good will happen to them,” she said.
— Steve Howe reports on suburban growth, development and environment for the Democrat and Chronicle. An RIT graduate, he has covered myriad topics over the years, including public safety, local government, national politics and economic development in New York and Utah.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester’s next industrial chapter is the circular economy
Reporting by Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
