Guest blog: Advancing circularity – insights from the Canadian Circular Economy Summit

May 21, 2025

Guest post by Kate Mullock

On April 15-16, I had the opportunity to attend the 2^nd Canadian Circular Economy Summit in Montreal. Organized by Circular Economy Leadership Canada in partnership with the Circular Innovation Council, the conference convened 900+ thought leaders and change-makers from industry and the public sector with the aim of advancing circular economy (CE) initiatives and policies across Canada.

Panelists discussed topics ranging from how the CE is linked to climate change, to optimizing the supply of critical minerals and metals via circular strategies and enhancing productivity and competitiveness through circularity.

Circular economy to enhance productivity and competitiveness

A unifying theme throughout the conference was that the CE is not only about environmental stewardship – it is a business opportunity to cut waste, boost efficiency, and enhance economic resilience. There were countless inspiring examples. Jay Hussey spoke about how KSM Fertilizers in Quebec is using recovered magnesium from an abandoned mine as an input to fertilizer. Louis Desourdy from Ecotri – Groupe Desourdy shared how his company introduced sorting containers directly on construction sites, facilitating reuse and recycling of construction waste. Jonathan Devoy, the CEO of FoodHero, described how his online platform is addressing food waste by rescuing surplus grocery stock and items nearing their best-before dates and selling them at discounted prices.

While the business opportunity is clear, entrepreneurs were also vocal about the challenges they face. Regulatory hurdles prevent use of secondary materials in some contexts. Too often, economic incentives favour virgin materials over secondary ones. Developing circular value chains that establish both forward and reverse logistics requires collaboration across sectors and along supply chains. Obtaining necessary finance is tricky given that circular business models can be complex and the opportunity to scale not obvious. Clearly scoping these barriers can help to determine where policy can be most effective at addressing market failures.

A full house at the 2025 Canadian Circular Economy Summit in Montreal. Image courtesy Circular Economy Leadership Canada.

We can’t rely on recycling alone

During a panel on applying CE strategies to optimize the supply of critical minerals and metals, Geoff McCarney from the Smart Prosperity Institute presented sobering evidence about the growing demand for these materials as Canada transitions to a low-carbon economy. The current rate of recycling is not enough to meet this demand, especially as most renewable energy technologies in use are not yet ready to be recycled and other industries also use the same materials. He shared that Canada would benefit from improving its capacity for critical mineral recycling while ensuring strategic sustainable mining practices are used to meet the gap in demand. Bryony Clear Hill from ICMM shared examples of how mining firms are employing circular approaches across the value chain. Boliden in Scandinavia mobilizes excess heat from extraction to heat houses and a local industrial park, and Teck in British Columbia has developed an industry around the recycling of lead batteries.

The importance of data

Digital product passports – which store data about a product’s material content – came up frequently during discussions. Though they come with higher energy costs, such digital passports could facilitate recycling and recovery of material, particularly across borders, and are becoming trade requirements for European partners. Peter Chauvet from Google X emphasized the importance of collecting better data about the waste sector to pinpoint sources of waste and track materials. Collecting this data would make it possible to train AI to design optimized waste reduction strategies.

SPI's Geoff McCarney speaks at the Canadian Circular Economy Summit. Image courtesy Circular Economy Leadership Canada.

Climate ≠ Circular

Can applying CE strategies support pathways to net-zero? Tom Rommens from VITO in Belgium shared results from modelling scenarios to capture the climate change impacts of CE measures. They find that certain CE strategies are more effective than others at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: increasing the recycling rate from 40% to 70% reduces emissions by only 1%; while cinching material use (particularly non-metallic minerals and biomass) by 12% reduces climate emissions by 25%. Alasdair Hedger from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation called for fixing broken GHG accounting protocols that don’t give credit to circular solutions that avoid emissions, such as repair and reuse. Doing so is important for demonstrating the business case and attracting investors.

Social impact?

One important topic that I would have liked to see explored more during the conference was the social implications of expanding the CE. During the panel on “achieving a just, equitable and sustainable CE,” panelists diverged among those holding faith that technology will let us keep producing and consuming at our current rate, and those skeptical that technology is the savior, who instead call for a fundamental shift in the way we produce and consume. The sustainability discussion touched only lightly on social impacts like inequality, labour and health outcomes. To fully evaluate the merits of the CE, more research is needed about these social impacts.

I am grateful to Circular Economy Leadership Canada and the Smart Prosperity Institute for making my attendance at this conference possible.

Kate Mullock is an economist with 10+ years' experience advising governments on skill and labour policy in Canada and internationally. She is currently pursuing PhD research at the University of Ottawa to understand the labour and skill implications of adopting circular approaches in a resource-rich country. 

For more key takeaways from the 2025 Canadian Circular Economy Summit, check out Afolasade Nubi’s blog post for the Centre for Sustainable Impact.