Sheri Hinish, Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Queen® and host of the Supply Chain Revolution® podcast, sits down with New Mexico Secretary of Environment James Kenney, EU Delegation Deputy Head Manuel Carmona Yebra, and Pyxera Global SVP John Holm to examine how state-level policy and transatlantic alignment are turning circular economy from aspiration into operational infrastructure. This is episode four of a five-part series produced in partnership with Pyxera Global and the Circular Supply Chain Coalition.
Why Policy Is Infrastructure for Circular Supply Chains
This episode arrives at a pivotal juncture in the five-part Circular Supply Chain Coalition series. Episodes one through three built the coalition, the trusted networks, and the buyer-operator matchmaking that make reverse supply chains operationally possible. Episode four asks a fundamentally different question: what does the enabling environment look like when policy stops being an aspiration and becomes the infrastructure on which circular supply chains actually scale?
The distinction matters for every supply chain and procurement leader listening. Regulation constrains. Infrastructure enables. The most effective state-level circular economy strategies do both simultaneously, creating guardrails that protect communities and the environment while building the economic conditions that attract capital, talent, and industrial demand to circular business models. New Mexico, under Governor Lujan Grisham's administration, has become the clearest state-level case study of this approach in the United States. The EU Circular Economy Act, expected later this year, is building the transatlantic pull signal that makes state-level action globally consequential.
How Reframing Circular Economy as Security Economy Changes the Business Case
John Holm, representing the CSCC for this episode, opened with a reframe that should change how every supply chain leader positions circular economy internally. Stop framing it as decarbonization, greenhouse gas reduction, or environmental compliance. Frame it as security economy: how are you securing the finite materials your supply chain depends on? How are you competing for materials that have already been extracted? How are you mitigating supply chain risk through domestic critical mineral procurement?
We are currently subsidizing the throwaway model. We subsidize the disposable coffee cup. We do not incentivize the reuse of that cup. The materials we have already extracted and paid for can be reused profitably. The question is who will build the enabling environment first.
John Holm, SVP Partnership Development, Pyxera Global / CSCC
John described the opportunity as a triple win: economic stewardship through profitable reuse of materials already paid for, environmental protection through reduced extraction and waste, and workforce unlock by engaging communities in value-added jobs around reuse-based business models. His characterization of the thesis as "profitable industrial decarbonization, which is not an oxymoron" captures why the CSCC focuses on governor-level engagement rather than waiting for federal solutions. Governors are stewards of their economies, they understand their local conditions, and the most forward-looking among them recognize security economy as simultaneously an economic development opportunity, an environmental opportunity, and a workforce strategy.
What New Mexico's Circular Economy Model Looks Like When a State Aligns Everything
Secretary James Kenney leads the New Mexico Environment Department, and his description of the state's approach represents the most comprehensive integration of circular economy principles into state governance that I have encountered. The model is not a single program or initiative. It is a system where economic development, environmental regulation, workforce strategy, community benefit, and circular infrastructure are designed to reinforce each other.
The Foundation Is Human Capital
New Mexico now offers free education from pre-K through university and trade school. Universal child care removes one of the most significant barriers to workforce participation, particularly for women and single-parent households. The result is that anyone from 18 to 58 can access the training required to transition into value-added roles in emerging circular economy industries without the financial burden that would otherwise make that transition impossible. Secretary Kenney framed this as foundational: you have to lift up the family unit before you can build the industrial infrastructure on top of it.
Water Security as Economic Prerequisite
New Mexico's 50-year water action plan, backed by approximately $400 million in annual investment, addresses the reality of aridification in the American Southwest by investing in new water sources, water reuse, and long-term water security. This is not an environmental initiative in isolation. It is an economic prerequisite. Industries, communities, and circular infrastructure all require reliable water access, and a state that cannot guarantee it cannot attract the investment that circular supply chains demand.
Moving Waste from the Expense Column to Profitability
Secretary Kenney described how New Mexico is converting surface waste into critical minerals for EV batteries, solar panels, and advanced technology. Lithium and other materials sitting in surface waste are being moved from the expense column to the profitability side of the accounting ledger. The state is investing in the infrastructure and jobs required to move those materials from waste to marketplace, creating a domestic supply chain for materials that would otherwise be sourced through extraction or imported from concentrated global suppliers. The Environment Department has created dedicated economic development positions whose only performance metric is jobs created and net income generated for the state.
How New Mexico's PFAS Legislation Embeds Circularity into Policy Architecture
New Mexico's PFAS legislation deserves detailed attention because it illustrates how policy can be designed with circularity embedded in its architecture. The state listed discarded PFAS as hazardous waste, creating a cradle-to-grave regulatory approach: identify it, contain it, clean it up, prevent re-entry into the environment.
The consumer-facing dimension is equally significant. The state created a label featuring an Erlenmeyer flask with the letters PFAS, designed to be recognizable to any consumer regardless of education level. Secretary Kenney noted that New Mexico has both the highest concentration of PhDs per capita and communities with limited formal education. The label was designed to serve both populations equally.
Corporate America is making educated choices about what products have PFAS in them. Why can't consumers have that same access to information? What we are doing here is regulating transparency and honesty.
Secretary James Kenney, New Mexico Environment Department
The approach is not a ban. It is a transparency mechanism that gives consumers the same data that corporate procurement teams already use when making sourcing decisions. When trade associations challenged the label through litigation, Secretary Kenney's response carried the full weight of elected accountability: if you are not going to drink our water, pay our taxes, and vote here, you should not have any say about whether our people have access to education about what they are bringing into their homes. That statement reflects the place-based authority that state officials carry, an authority rooted in direct accountability to the communities they serve.
Why the EU Delegation Is Engaging US Governors Directly on Circular Economy
Manuel Carmona Yebra, Deputy Head for Global Issues and Innovation at the EU Delegation to the United States, brought the international policy dimension. The EU Circular Economy Act, part of a broader competitiveness agenda, is expected to require that 25% of EU critical minerals supply come from recycling. The Act extends beyond recycling targets to give a competitive edge to durable, repairable, and recyclable products across the full value chain.
Manuel's explanation of why the EU Delegation is engaging US states directly is instructive for anyone working at the intersection of trade, sustainability, and economic development. The Delegation recognized that state-level action is where circular economy momentum is concentrated in the United States, with a dozen states now implementing EPR legislation and new initiatives emerging regularly. Over the past two years, the Delegation convened circular economy forums bringing together European and American stakeholders across policy, financing, innovation, and business models. The engagement has included governors such as Governor Moore of Maryland, Governor Hobbs of Arizona, and Governor Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, with direct commitment from the EU Ambassador to the United States.
His assessment that circular economy is genuinely bipartisan reflects what the forums have revealed: the combination of economic development, environmental protection, job creation, and supply chain security concerns cuts across ideological boundaries in ways that narrower sustainability framings do not. This is consistent with the security economy reframe that John Holm and the CSCC have been advancing throughout the series.
How States Serve as Laboratories for Circular Economy Policy That Scales
Secretary Kenney addressed the replicability question with a perspective grounded in decades of state-level problem solving. States are laboratories for incubating policy that scales. What works in a rural town in New Mexico can create connective tissue for the European Union. The replicability is not in copying the exact model. It is in the approach: align economy, environment, workforce, and community benefit around a shared circular vision, then let the place-based conditions shape the specifics.
He pushed the conversation further by asking why circularity is applied selectively. Why do we think about circular economy only around the physical product? Why do carbon emissions get a different treatment than physical materials? Why does the producer responsibility for a polyester textile stop at the garment rather than extending back to the oil and gas well that produced the feedstock? These questions signal where New Mexico's policy thinking is heading: toward a more expansive definition of circularity that encompasses emissions, textiles, and the full petrochemical value chain.
The future is not what you put inside the borders of one state and guard. It is what you build with your neighbors for mutual benefit.
Secretary James Kenney, New Mexico Environment Department
The sovereign supply chain vision is the long-term frame. New Mexico shares a border with Mexico and has decades of cross-border economic integration. Secretary Kenney envisions regionalized circular supply chains with hub-and-spoke models between neighboring states and across the border, where materials, skills, and economic benefits flow in both directions. The future of circular economy is not isolation behind state borders. It is deliberate regional integration for mutual benefit.
What Supply Chain Leaders Should Take from This Episode
Sheri Hinish, who previously served as EY's Global Consulting Leader for Sustainability, Technology, and Ecosystems and as a Senior Executive at IBM, has spent years connecting sustainability strategy to supply chain operations for Fortune 500 companies and governments. She holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and Rutgers University and is recognized as the #1 Global Supply Chain Influencer. This episode reinforced a thesis she has been building across the entire CSCC series: circular supply chains do not scale on corporate pilots alone. They require an enabling environment where policy, capital, workforce, economic development, and regulatory signals connect to industrial demand and operator capacity.
New Mexico's model demonstrates that the enabling environment is achievable when leadership aligns every lever of state governance around a coherent circular vision. The EU's state-level engagement proves that transatlantic alignment is not only possible but already underway. For supply chain and procurement leaders evaluating site selection, critical mineral sourcing strategies, or regulatory exposure, the states that build this infrastructure first will capture the investment, the talent, and the competitive advantage.
Episode five, the series finale, addresses community ownership: who benefits when circular supply chains scale, and how do communities retain agency over the transition. Subscribe to the Supply Chain Revolution podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Connect and Learn More: Circular Supply Chain Coalition • New Mexico Environment Department • EU Delegation to the United States • Pyxera Global • John Holm: jh***@**********al.org
This conversation is a case study in what first-mover advantage looks like at the state level. The states, the regions, and the transatlantic partnerships that build the enabling environment now will define how circular supply chains operate for the next decade. The question for every leader listening is not whether this transition is coming. It is whether you will be positioned to lead it or positioned to catch up.
Sheri Hinish is the Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Revolution Global LLC (d/b/a Supply Chain Queen®), a supply chain thought leadership, advisory, media, and community platform. Previously she served as EY's Global Consulting Leader for Sustainability, Technology, and Ecosystems and as a Senior Executive at IBM, advising Fortune 500 companies and governments on supply chain transformation, AI-enabled operations, sustainability, circular economy, and just-transition strategy. She holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and Rutgers University and is recognized as the #1 Global Supply Chain Influencer, a Top 250 Global Leader in Sustainability, Top 100 Women in Supply Chain and Technology, and Top 100 B2B Influencer in North America. She hosts the Supply Chain Revolution® podcast and speaks globally at COP, NY Climate Week, CES, and major industry events.