About Circle by OPLN
Circle provides a non-partisan, neutral space where policymakers, business leaders, scientists, and advocates can learn, compare, and understand emerging packaging and recycling systems without advocacy, pressure, or predetermined outcomes.
This core commitment guides everything we do—and ensures our work remains trusted, balanced, and future-ready.
How Circle came to be
Circle began with a simple problem. The voices shaping circular policy were scattered across government offices, corporate headquarters, and nonprofit organizations. We built this platform to bring them together.
2023
The U.S. Circular Policy Leadership Network (Circle) is born, bringing legislators, the full packaging value chain, experts and NGOs to tour circular systems.
2024
Circle expands its technical summits and virtual plenaries to audiences across North America and Europe—bringing together more than 75 legislators, policymakers, bill writers, and legislative staff with experts from across the packaging value chain and leading NGOs.
2025
Circle leads the Circular Policy Educational Summit at the See Change Conference, bringing together legislators and experts to deepen understanding of circular policy. This exchange highlighted a clear need for a unified, accessible resource to educate policymakers nationwide.
2025
Circle now serves as the definitive platform for understanding EPR policy conversations.
2025
We continue updating stakeholder perspectives to make EPR and circular policy more accessible as learning evolves.
Active across the nation
States participating in Circle
Legislators & Advisors Participating
In Circle events since 2023
States Represented at Circle events
In Circle events since 2023
The Legislator Guide: Built on trust and collaboration
In September 2025, Circle by OPLN hosted an educational Circular Policy Summit at the See Change conference, bringing together 25+ legislators and advisors and over 50 NGOs, experts & business leaders from across the packaging value chain. The Summit helped policymakers build a shared understanding of emerging EPR and circular packaging policy elements, as well as key stakeholder viewpoints.
The Summit revealed a clear need:
legislators asked for a centralized, accessible repository of stakeholder perspectives and recommendations.
This shaped the creation of the Legislator Guide.
Our Approach
Circle's work is built on three pillars that shape every program, convening, and resource we offer:
Decisions are only as good as the information behind them.
The Guide breaks down complex systems into clear, foundational knowledge so policymakers can avoid unintended consequences and cut through noise, hype, and spin.
Everyone sees the same facts at the same table.
We are not industry. We are not an NGO. We are not partisan. The Guide reflects the full value chain—producers, recyclers, scientists, advocates, regulators—ensuring shared understanding without campaigns or agendas.
Policy moves smoother when people aren’t flying blind.
By surfacing implementation lessons, comparative models, and real-world system insights, we educate policymakers and reduce confusion, patchwork, and misinformation.
Letters From Our Founders & Partners
Forwards from the founders & partners who helped create the Legislator Guide
Explore Circular Policy today
Dive into the latest insights or connect with us about partnership opportunities.
FAQ
Common questions about the Legislator Guide and how to use this resource
The Legislator Guide is a practical, educational, neutral resource designed to help legislators, bill writers, and staff understand the landscape of circular policy in the United States. It consolidates state-level insights, stakeholder perspectives, and practical lessons learned so you can quickly orient to past practices, recommendations, and the stakeholder landscape. You can use it as a starting point when exploring circular policy, drafting legislation, preparing hearings, or comparing approaches across states.
The Guide includes firsthand recommendations from the lead authors, sponsors, and legislative leaders of existing EPR laws, summarizing what they would advise other states to consider. These insights range from coalition-building in Colorado, to stakeholder negotiation in California, to municipal engagement in Maine, to sequencing and needs assessment in Maryland, to legislative tenacity in Washington. Each blurb distills complex experience into practical guidance you can apply immediately.
The resource includes submissions from state legislators, policymakers, technical experts, NGOs, waste management professionals, packaging converters, plastic, glass, & aluminum producers, and Consumer Packaged Goods companies. It also draws from CIRCLE’s experiential summits across North America and Europe, where over 75+ legislators and policy staff have engaged directly with experts across the value chain. This diversity ensures the Guide reflects a neutral, holistic, system-level view of packaging policy and circularity.
The Guide helps you by providing tested frameworks, legislative lessons, and real-world implementation considerations from states that have already navigated complex negotiations and stakeholder landscapes. It highlights where states aligned, where their approaches diverged, and what they wish they had known earlier. Whether you’re developing a new bill or refining an existing proposal, the Guide helps you anticipate challenges, engage partners, and design policies that are workable, scalable, and informed by the best available expertise.