Where Kansas City’s Resources Come Full Circle
Circular KC is a growing network of businesses, organizations, and changemakers committed to building a more resilient and prosperous Kansas City region, where resources are valued, waste becomes opportunity, and economic growth works for everyone.
Our Purpose: We exist to promote, educate, and equitably grow the circular economy across the Kansas City region. We believe that how we use resources shapes the kind of economy and community we become.
Our Mission & Vision: We drive regional prosperity through collaboration and by creating value from recovered resources. Our vision is a Kansas City that turns resource efficiency into a genuine competitive advantage, a resilient region where circular thinking fuels innovation, job creation, and long-term economic health.
Why It Matters: An economy that prioritizes resource efficiency isn't just better for the environment; it's better for business. Circular KC members are proving that reducing waste, recovering materials, and rethinking how resources flow through our region leads to real results: cost savings, new business opportunities, stronger communities, and meaningful environmental impact.
How We Work: Circular KC is a membership network open to anyone who wants to learn about or help grow the circular economy in Kansas City. Whether you're just getting started or already leading the way, there's a place for you here. Members come together to:
Connect with others who share a commitment to doing things differently
Share insights, best practices, and lessons learned
Form and join project teams working on initiatives that advance our shared mission
We are an unincorporated association by design, lean, collaborative, and built on the belief that the right network of people, working together, can reshape how our region thinks about resources, growth, and opportunity.
Circular KC grew out of a simple but urgent observation: too many valuable resources were ending up in Kansas City's landfills, and too few people were connected around doing something about it. Beginning in 2023, Dianna Bryant, Solid Waste Management Program Manager at Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), along with Darren Beck, founder of Ingenuity, began informally hosting roundtables to bring together businesses, organizations, and community members curious about the circular economy and what it could mean for the Kansas City region. Those early conversations were scrappy and unscripted, but the energy in the room was undeniable. People were hungry for a place to connect, collaborate, and turn good ideas into real action. It became clear that what Kansas City needed wasn't just a conversation; it was a network. From those roundtables, Circular KC was born, a community-driven effort to make sure that the shift toward a more resource-efficient, equitable economy wouldn't happen by accident, but by design, and that everyone who wanted a seat at the table could have one.
Our Story
Meet the Steering Committee
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Olivia English
Chair
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Dianna Bryant
Vice-Chair
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Amy Cox
Treasurer
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Hannah Zimmerman
Secretary
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Kristan Chamberlain
Member at Large
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Rody Taylor
Member at Large
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Leslie Scott
Member at Large
What is the Circular Economy
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines the circular economy as a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. In practice, that means moving away from the traditional "take, make, dispose" model and toward one where two cycles work together: a technical cycle, where products and materials are kept in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling, and a biological cycle, where organic materials like food and natural fibers are returned to the earth to regenerate natural systems. Together, these cycles create an economy that works in harmony with nature rather than against it, one that generates cost savings, new business opportunities, job creation, and stronger, more resilient communities.