Gordon Downes

written by Deborah Dull, on site at GreenBiz 2026   One of the most repeated excuses in the circular economy space is that American consumers just do not care enough. They will not sort their waste. They will not pay a premium for sustainable products. They will not participate in take-back programs. Europe is different, the story goes. Americans are a lost cause. Today I sat through a panel where that story got taken apart, piece by piece, with actual data. On this panel were Tom Szaky the CEO at TerraCycle and Loop, Gary Lewis the CEO at Resourcify, Rob Whitter the Head of Climate and Sustainability at Visa, and Casper Venbjerg Hansen the Senior Director of Sustainability Risk & Compliance for Ambu A/S; all facilitated by Lauren Phipps of MOLG. A company that runs in-store recycling programs across more than a million locations in 20 countries looked at their numbers. Whether someone was bringing back a wetsuit in Japan, cosmetics in France, or gear in the United States, the behavior was statistically identical. You could not tell the countries apart. American consumers who chose to participate were participating at the exact same rate as everyone else. Then there was…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now! On Monday, we started the week off with a special episode of our #SupplyChainCity series Supply Chain Now with Scott Luton and special host Ben Harris. These two chat with Stacey Key, President and CEO of the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, and George Richter, SVP of Supply Chain Management at Cox. On This Week In Business History, Kelly covers the stories of three unsung heroes who have contributed their knowledge and talents to a few surprising industries. On Tuesday, we released a classic TEKTOK episode with host Karin Bursa, and featuring Craig Ablin, a supply chain management expert who has spent over 25 years in the industry. On Wednesday’s episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott welcomes back special guest host Ward Richmond and professional OTR driver and training engineer for Schneider, Kellylynn McLaughlin. On Thursday, Scott and guest host Tony Sciarotta welcomed Executive Chairman of G2 Reverse Logistics, Herb Shear, in another episode of our Reverse Logistics Series. On Friday, we published Monday’s Supply Chain Buzz livestream. Scott and Greg welcomed James Malley, the Co-Founder and CEO of…