Closed Loop Partners to support Resource Recycling Systems’ NextCycle initiative

New York City-based Closed Loop Partners, through its Closed Loop Infrastructure Group, has pledged support to Resource Recycling Systems’ (RRS’) NextCycle initiative, working collaboratively with Colorado, Michigan and Washington, the states that currently are participating in NextCycle, to identify opportunities to provide competitively priced and flexible financing of up to $5 million per project. NextCycle is a customizable accelerator-style program that facilitates the creation of circular economies.

Ann Arbor, Michigan-based RRS manages and facilitates NextCycle. Selected teams in the NextCycle initiative receive access to business, industry and investment experts to develop project plans, make connections with partners and funders and cultivate investment-ready and implementation-ready projects.

“For a circular economy to be robust and economically sustainable it needs a continuous flow of recycled materials, a viable recycling infrastructure, and accessible end markets,” says Jim Frey, RRS co-founder and CEO. “By leveraging state funds and accelerating the flow of private and nonprofit capital into projects focused on infrastructure, technology and supply chains, we can help mobilize recycling efforts in NextCycle states.”

Through NextCycle, Colorado, Michigan and Washington will identify projects that develop recovery infrastructure solutions for postconsumer recyclables with a focus on polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, and aluminum, optimize innovative collection systems for polyethylene and polypropylene and divert from landfill back into the supply chain. Over the next three years of partnership, Closed Loop Partners will collaborate with the various NextCycle initiatives, identifying investable opportunities that advance collective circularity goals, according to a news release issued by RRS.

Jennifer Louie, executive director at Closed Loop Partners, says, “Building a robust circular economy requires multiple stakeholders to be at the table. Closed Loop Partners is thrilled to collaborate with RRS and NextCycle to help identify and accelerate the most promising solutions. This partnership will continue to drive innovation and develop equitable local economies while keeping valuable materials in play and out of landfills.”

Closed Loop Partners has an existing portfolio of more than 50 investments that have collectively diverted more than 4,600 million pounds of material from landfills into manufacturing supply chains. The firm’s Closed Loop Infrastructure Group deploys capital across a range of circular economy projects, companies, infrastructure and enabling technologies.