The “circular economy” is coming to Pennsylvania. And if recent polling data are correct, it cannot come a moment too soon—and Pennsylvania attorneys and advisers would be well-advised to become acquainted with the coalescing legal and market forces that are driving the transition. In the circular economy, resources are extracted, made into products and then repeatedly remade into new products, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and maximizing value. Whether by transforming waste into energy or new products, employing modular production techniques that facilitate re-use, tightening supply chains, or finding alternatives for toxic chemicals, companies are increasingly heeding customer, shareholder and investor demand to utilize circular economy principles in their operations.

I discuss this approach in my column for the Legal Intelligencer supplement, Pa. Law Weekly titled “The Pennsylvania and the Circular Economy: Turning Waste Into Something New,” 43 Pa. L. Weekly 11 (Mar. 17, 2020). Read the full column. Read the full column here.