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.”
Randy Burns, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer of O-I Glass, describes ways in which communities and states can ...
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