Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative & Sustainability Officer, O-i Glass
Search every verified Randolph Burns interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a September 2021 talk, Randolph Burns, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer of O-I Glass, argued that "nudge blindness"—an unconscious bias toward ignoring the subtle cues that shape behavior—is a key obstacle to advancing a circular economy. He stated that existing nudges in recycling systems, such as single-stream household recycling, often prioritize convenience over value preservation, contributing to a U.S. national recycling rate that has "hovered around the mid-30 percent for years." Burns advocated for identifying and modifying these nudges, citing deposit return systems like Michigan's as effective examples that achieve recovery rates "more than double the national average." Burns also emphasized that glass is "infinitely recyclable" and that recycled glass is a domestic resource used close to where it is collected. He criticized landfill fees that are "an order of magnitude lower" than the cost of separating recyclables, arguing that such pricing nudges the waste industry away from recovery. To create a circular economy, Burns recommended finding existing nudges, understanding their effects, eliminating linear ones, and replacing them with circular alternatives across the entire value chain.
“Glass is also infinitely recyclable; the same bottle can be remade into itself indefinitely without a loss of material or quality, and even if it's not recycled it won't hurt the environment—mother nature will eventually recycle it.”
“Recycled glass is not sent overseas and never has been; it is a domestic resource used for domestic uses, and it's also used close to where it's recycled to make new containers, including right here in the Great Lakes region.”
“Our national recycling rate in the US has hovered around the mid-30 percent for years, including glass, because single-stream recycling nudges for convenience, co-mingling, and contamination rather than source separation or value preservation.”
“Deposit return systems, like in Michigan where you pay 10 cents and get it back when you return the container, result in recovery rates more than double the national average and are undeniably effective nudges for circularity.”
“Charging landfill fees that are an order of magnitude lower than the cost of uncommingling recyclables nudges the waste industry away from recovery and circularity, making it hard to create a circular economy.”
“If we want circularity in anything—from plastic containers to batteries or tires—the fundamental starting point is to look for existing nudges and make sure they are not working against our desired outcome.”
“Glass is being removed from single-stream recycling all over the place and replaced with drop-offs, which are great, but without nudges to leave the house to reclaim a deposit, it's a nudge the wrong way—far more participation happens when people are opted in.”
“Dual-stream recycling nudges for separation and treatment of different materials as if they're valued, which is why we have different streams for tire recovery, batteries, and other things that harm the environment or are more valuable when recycled.”
“If you want a circular economy in this region, you need to find nudges, understand their effect, change or eliminate the linear ones, and ideally replace them with circular ones, doing this for the whole value chain, not just in one place.”
“Nudges are powerful shapers of our behavior; to ignore them is to ignore the starting point of any analysis when trying to create circularity.”
Randy Burns, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer of O-I Glass, describes ways in which communities and states can ...
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