Community Ownership in Circular Supply Chains: The Cooperative Model | CSCC Series Finale (5/5)

This is the series finale. Across five episodes, the Circular Supply Chain Coalition series has built the system around circular supply chains: coalition architecture, trusted networks, buyer-operator alignment, enabling policy. Episode 5 asks who owns the infrastructure, who has agency, and who benefits when reverse supply chains are built. Deirdre White is CEO of Pyxera Global with nearly 40 years in supply chain development and social impact, from oil and gas localization on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East to the Jiva program, a 10-year partnership with the John Deere Foundation in rural Rajasthan that transformed agricultural livelihoods, girls' education, and community governance. Deirdre frames community ownership as the opposite of extraction: local people building and retaining the assets that should be theirs. Nancy Charaya leads circular economy work at Pyxera Global India, with a decade of experience across tire, textile, plastics, and critical minerals value chains. Nancy built the Pride Cooperative in Guwahati, Assam, a female-led waste worker collective organizing 160 informal workers into a cooperative with collective bargaining power and shared governance. India has 4 to 5 million waste workers, up to 80 percent women working informally with zero agency. The cooperative model gives them a seat at the table. John Holm, SVP of Partnership Development at Pyxera Global, moderates and connects the five-episode arc, framing community ownership as the "Trojan horse" for circular supply chains at scale. Chapter Markers: 0:00 Introduction: from enabling policy to community ownership 1:05 John Holm: community benefit as the missing layer in circular supply chains 2:03 Deirdre White: 40 years of supply chain localization, from Sakhalin to CSCC 5:41 Jiva: 10 years with John Deere in rural Rajasthan 7:08 Why the changes held two years after the program ended 7:54 "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution" 8:25 India's waste sector: 4-5 million workers, 90% informal, 60-80% women 9:27 Pride Cooperative: 160 waste workers, collective bargaining, government access 10:26 The smart dustbin story: waste worker knowledge vs. high-tech design 11:21 Cooperatives in the global north: Land O'Lakes and hidden scale 12:37 Community-owned business: keeping equity local in reverse supply chains 14:44 Building trust: 36 person-weeks of listening in three villages 16:11 Pride as a female-led cooperative: agency and collective voice 17:15 Lightning round: misconceptions, capabilities, optimism 19:34 Series close: the complete blueprint for a circular economy Key Topics: Community ownership, cooperatives, circular supply chains, reverse logistics, waste workers, informal economy, critical minerals, cooperative governance, Pyxera Global, CSCC, Pride Cooperative, Guwahati, MSMEs, female-led enterprise, global south innovation Connect and Learn More: Circular Supply Chain Coalition: circularsupplychain.org Pyxera Global: pyxeraglobal.org John Holm: [email protected] Deirdre White: linkedin.com/in/deirdre-white Nancy Charaya: linkedin.com/in/nancycharaya Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com Please subscribe and follow