Materials Marketplace receives international recognition

Congratulations are in order for Austin’s Materials Marketplace, which was recently selected to receive the prestigious international “Circulars” Award for its innovative software platform at this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The Materials Marketplace, which was founded in August 2014 with support from Austin Resource Recovery, strives to help the city move closer to Zero Waste by providing participants with an online database so they can find ways to exchange and reuse unwanted materials. Since its inception, the program has helped local businesses divert more than 16,700 cubic feet of hard-to-recycle material from landfills, avoid 313 metric tons of greenhouse gas and generate more than $75,000 in value. Said Director of Austin Resource Recovery Bob Gedert, “Businesses and the environment both benefit when we shift from treating used materials as waste to treating them as resources.” The Materials Marketplace’s accomplishments and this most recent award will be celebrated during this year’s National Zero Waste Business Conference, which is being hosted in Austin and begins tomorrow.