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Circular Economy

Circular Economy Program Workshops

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The NIST Circular Economy Program leverages workshops to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, including government, industry, academia, and nonprofits to identify key challenges and opportunities in transitioning to a more circular economy.

Explore previous NIST workshops related to the circular economy by topic:

Circular Economy in Space  |  Construction Materials  |  Batteries, Electronics, & Solar Photovoltaics  |  Food Waste  |  Metals   |  Polymers / Plastics  |  System & Decision Science  |  Textiles

Circular Economy in Space

NIST co-hosted with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration Office of Space Commerce two Circular Economy in Space Seminars. 

First Seminar on Building an In-Space Circular Economy

Illustration shows a spacecraft orbiting the Moon with the Earth visible in the background over the lunar horizon.
Credit: NASA

This event explored the circular space economy. This innovative approach aims to utilize space-based resources sustainably by minimizing waste and maximizing the reuse and recycling of materials in space operations. As humanity expands its presence beyond Earth, this model becomes vital for reducing the need for costly resupply missions and mitigating the environmental impact of space activities.

Second Seminar on Building an In-Space Circular Economy

This event was the second seminar in a series of events on building the in-space circular economy.  The seminar was an opportunity to hear from leading experts, practitioners, and representatives from government and academic bodies to learn about the nature of technology applications to grow the in-space circular economy. Key topics included commercialization, investment and financing, and insurance for on-orbit servicing, in-situ resource utilization, advanced robotics for manufacturing and repair, and space situational awareness. In addition, technology-agnostic approaches for developing, testing, and deploying applications were discussed to better understand the future of space-based infrastructure and its interoperability needs.  

Construction Materials

Fostering a Circular Economy and Carbon Sequestration for Construction Materials

Image of building under construction
Credit: Absolics

Industry leaders are simultaneously under pressure to reduce/reuse construction waste and produce concrete with a lower embodied carbon. In this workshop, industry stakeholders discuss measurement science and standards needs to create a more circular economy for building materials, with a focus on concrete.

Batteries, Electronics, & Solar Photovoltaics

Electronic waste circle
Credit: andreahuyoff/Pixabay

Circular Economy in the High-Tech World

This workshop brought together stakeholders from the electronics, battery, and solar photovoltaics supply chain and recovery sectors to assess technical and economic barriers to reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. The event aimed to define NIST's role in facilitating a circular economy and identifying actionable steps. Attendees included representatives from industry, government, nonprofit organizations, and the research community.

NIST/UL Workshop on Photovoltaic Materials Durability

Photovoltaic roof_installation

Cost-competitiveness, economic circularity, environmental impact, and durability and reliability are among the challenges for photovoltaic (PV) components, modules and arrays. To promote advancement of effective solutions to these challenges, NIST and UL hosted a three-day virtual workshop. It was distinguished from other PV conferences by its focus on weathering, measurement, and modeling of durability and sustainability for materials used in solar photovoltaic applications.

Food Waste

NIST Food Waste Reduction and Recovery Workshop

NIST's Circular Economy Program hosted a workshop to determine how NIST can serve the food/organic waste community in their efforts to reduce and repurpose the waste. Specifically, the workshop aimed to understand the state of food waste recovery, including for energy and nutrient recovery. Ultimately, it sought to identify-industry wide challenges to overcoming barriers, particularly in the areas of data, measurement science, reference materials, and standards.

Metals

Material Challenges in Developing a Sustainable Metal Processing Infrastructure

Photograph of titanium metal crystal with cubic symmetry.
Credit: Lane Sander

This workshop aimed to foster collaboration and innovation in metals processing, focusing on critical materials challenges in three key areas: Sustainable Extractive Metallurgy, Innovative Metal Manufacturing Technologies, and Lifecycle Assessment and Recycling Innovations. The event explored topics such as novel processing methods, simulation tools, and recycling innovations, with discussions on sustainable hydrometallurgy, alloy optimization, and lifecycle assessment.  

Polymers / Plastics

Data and Harmonization for Plastics

This collaboration between NIST, EPA, USDA, NOAA, DoE, and others discusses the gaps in data across the polymers/plastics value chain, ways that plastics data are being collected and used, data evaluation methods, and what an infrastructure to support data-driven solutions to plastic management might look like.

Mass balance circle
Credit: Kelsea Schumacher

Assessment of Mass Balance Accounting Methods for Polymers

This workshop and resulting technical report assessed the existing mass balance accounting methodologies, standards, and certification systems that are applicable to the supply chain sustainability of polymers. Mass balance is vital for traceability in a circular economy and is especially relevant for plastics recycling.

System & Decision Science

Workshop on Decarbonization: A Gap Analysis of LCA Standards for Industry

NIST collaborated with ASTM International to discuss the current state of life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon standards. Objectives include identifying gaps in how LCA is used for carbon footprinting, how to better integrate "beyond the gate" (product use and post-use stages), and opportunities for making product category rules more consistent and comparable.

Fostering a Circular Economy for Manufacturing Materials

A man and woman work at a manufacturing dashboard.
Credit: Courtesy Manufacturing.gov

NIST collaborated with ASTM International on a workshop with stakeholders from the manufacturing industry, governments, and academia to identify standards needed to create a circular economy for the manufacturing industry. The resulting report includes a standards roadmap.

Textiles

Illustration with chasing arrows and clothing and textiles
Credit: Kelsea Schumacher

Identifying Standards Needs to Facilitate a Circular Economy for Textiles

The workshop brought together relevant stakeholders (e.g., textile industry professionals, sorters/graders, recyclers, sustainability professionals) to identify standards needed to facilitate circularity for textiles—like more harmonized input specifications for recycling processes, harmonized terminology, needs for textile sorting, digital identifiers, and circular design. This was a collaboration between NIST, ASTM International, and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC).

Facilitating a Circular Economy for Textiles

Textiles are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, but recovery rates for the material are low. In this workshop, stakeholders across the textiles industry discuss the needs and opportunities for creating a circular economy for textiles.

Manufacturing and Materials
Created March 16, 2023, Updated September 30, 2025
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