Editor’s note: Join the free Women in Circularity Roundtable Breakfast at our 2026 E-Scrap Conference, Oct. 26-28 in New Orleans. Register now!
A warm welcome back to “Women in Circularity,” where we shine a light on women moving us toward a circular economy. This month, I was pleased to connect with an industry-shaping recycling leader: Maite Quinn is president of Resource Recycling Inc. and executive director of the US Film and Flexibles Initiative (USFFI). She is advancing resource diversion by strengthening the connective tissue between policy, markets and on‑the‑ground recycling infrastructure.
Through her work, Maite helps bridge industry insights with actionable strategies to accelerate circularity across municipalities, MRFs and brands, ensuring that information flows in ways that support smarter infrastructure decisions, stronger market alignment and more coordinated system‑wide progress.
How has working across operations, market development and industry communications shaped the way you understand circularity and informed your belief that progress depends on bridging silos and making information accessible?
It all started when I began working on a documentary about recycling in the early 2000s, because I felt it was a story that needed to be told. I never finished it. I dug in instead, and never really left. Since then I’ve worked in operations, commodity sales and private equity before landing where I am today, and every one of those roles showed me how interconnected this system is, and how circularity depends on policy, infrastructure and market demand all moving together.
That’s why I believe progress happens when we bridge silos and make information accessible. At Resource Recycling, that shows up in how we cover the industry and bring it together. At USFFI, it shows up in the work we’re doing to demonstrate that flexible packaging can actually be recycled, and to build the subsidy structures that make that recovery pathway viable at scale. That’s a category where the biggest barrier isn’t whether the material can be recycled, it’s whether anyone can afford to handle it. Bridging that gap, between what’s technically achievable and what’s economically viable, is exactly the kind of silo bridging I care most about.
How is the growing alignment between policy signals and market demand shaping your outlook on durable progress in recycling systems and long term infrastructure investment?
One of the most essential skills in this space is translating complexity into clarity. The circular economy has technical, economic and policy layers all happening at once, and communicating those dynamics so they resonate with different audiences is critical, whether I’m talking to a MRF operator, a policymaker or a brand sustainability team.
I built that skill over years of working directly with all of those groups, from operations and commodity sales, to structuring deals in private equity, to now working at Resource Recycling and USFFI. Making the case that flexible packaging can be recycled, and that subsidies can make the economics work, means translating technical recyclability data into something policymakers and funders can act on. It’s a real test of whether you can turn complexity into clarity.
Is there an initiative you’ve led that is especially meaningful and what impact did it have on strengthening material recovery?
The initiative that stands out most is the work we’ve done at Resource Recycling to strengthen market pathways for recovered materials by giving municipalities and MRFs clearer, actionable market intelligence. We report on shifting commodity markets and translate them into insights local programs can actually use: consistent reporting frameworks, tracking pricing trends in the marketplace, and buyer specifications, so program managers understand how quality, bale composition and regional demand are evolving.
At USFFI, we’re doing similarly meaningful work to strengthen material recovery for flexible plastic film. We’re demonstrating, with real data, that residential flexible packaging can be recovered and recycled at scale through partnerships with MRFs and reclaimers, and working to establish subsidies that make that pathway financially sustainable. Flexible packaging has been treated as unrecyclable at curbside because it’s a difficult commodity to handle, and MRFs and reclaimers don’t want to take it on unless they’re getting paid to do it. That’s exactly why it needs subsidies to be recycled at scale. Showing it can work, and building the funding to support it, opens up a recovery pathway that really didn’t exist before. I’ve watched municipalities adjust collection practices based on pricing signals, MRFs refine outbound quality to meet buyer expectations, and brands gain confidence sourcing recycled feedstock.
What trend across recycling markets or circular systems feels most indicative of real durable progress right now?
The trend that feels most indicative of durable progress to me is the growing alignment between policy and market signals. For years those forces moved somewhat independently, with policy setting aspirations while markets responded to short term volatility. Now I’m seeing extended producer responsibility, recycled content standards and brand commitments reinforce one another in ways that create more stable, predictable demand. I saw this firsthand in private equity, where acquiring and scaling recycling companies depended on policy and market signals pointing the same direction. I see it playing out in traditional recycling streams through Resource Recycling, and it’s exactly what we’re trying to accelerate for flexible packaging at USFFI. Demonstrating recyclability is only half the equation. You also need policy and subsidy structures that make recovery pencil out economically.
What stands out is how that alignment shows up in day to day decisions. Brands are making longer term procurement commitments because policy direction is clearer. MRFs are investing in sorting upgrades because end market specifications are more consistent. Municipalities are revisiting contracts and contamination strategies. Even ITAD operators are responding to stronger signals around reuse and responsible recovery. When all of those actors move in the same direction, that’s real system level momentum, not just isolated progress.
What encourages me most is that this convergence de-risks infrastructure and technology investments. When policy and markets align, operators can plan with more confidence, municipalities can innovate with fewer unknowns, and brands can scale circular commitments with clearer pathways. That coherence, whether it’s happening in the material streams we cover at Resource Recycling or in the flexible packaging pathway we’re building at USFFI, is one of the strongest signs we’re moving toward a more resilient, genuinely circular system.
How has having a direct line of sight to the dynamics of the recycling industry influenced the resources you recommend for people who want to better understand circularity, including platforms that convene operators, municipalities, brands and ITAD professionals to share insights and discuss emerging trends?
At Resource Recycling, we get a front row seat every day to how systems evolve when information, infrastructure and market signals come together, because our job is to sit at the center of that information flow. Working across operations, commodity sales, private equity and now industry communications showed me just how important it is to connect stakeholders who don’t often sit at the same table.
That perspective shapes how we think about our own platforms. Resource Recycling’s core value has always been our news coverage, giving the industry a shared, reliable source of truth on markets, policy and technology. Our conferences, including the upcoming E Scrap Conference, take that further by physically bringing operators, municipalities, brands and ITAD professionals into the same room. We’re excited to be partnering to bring a Women in Circularity session to E Scrap, a great example of how these convenings spotlight diverse expertise and expand the dialogue around system level change.
More recently, we’ve expanded into webinars and podcasts, which let us convene people more often and informally than a once a year conference allows. That cadence matters: when operators, policymakers and brands talk regularly, trends surface faster. Someone in one region mentions a shift in buyer specs or a new contamination issue, and someone else recognizes it as the early edge of something bigger. Our job is to catch that, track it across our reporting and events, and share it back out so the whole industry benefits. Circularity advances when insights are accessible and actionable, and convening people, whether in print, on a call, or on a conference floor, is how those insights get found in the first place.
