What Circular Services does

Circular Services (legal entity CLP Circular Services, Inc.) is a U.S. privately-held recycling and circular economy infrastructure platform headquartered in New York City. Formed in November 2022 through a partnership between Closed Loop Partners (majority owner) and Brookfield Asset Management (up to $700 million committed), the company was assembled via merger of five Closed Loop Partners portfolio companies and has since grown to 35+ recycling and organics processing facilities across 12 states, serving 10 of the 10 largest U.S. cities. The company self-describes as the largest privately-held recycling company in the United States.

The platform operates Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) equipped with optical sorters, AI-powered robotics, magnets, screens, and glass cleanup systems that process single-stream residential and commercial recyclables (paper, cardboard, PET, HDPE, polypropylene, aluminum, tin, glass). Beyond commingled MRF operations, Circular Services runs organics processing (composting, anaerobic digestion, and de-packaging), NAID AAA-certified secure shredding for documents and media, and a nationwide materials trading network for recycled commodities. Acquired subsidiaries include Atlas Organics (composting), Quantum Organics (longest continuously operating digestor in North America, 100K tons/year food waste), Blue Earth, Midwest Fiber Recycling, and Waste Recycling. Notable facilities include the Brooklyn Sunset Park MRF (the largest and most sophisticated plant for commingled residential recyclables in North America), the fully-automated San Antonio container line, Florida's first AI-powered Sarasota MRF (50 tons/hour), and the Frisco, Texas $61M greenfield MRF opened April 2026.

Revenue is generated through a diversified mix of streams: processing fees and commodity sales from MRF operations, managed services contracts for organics processing, service fees for secure shredding, transaction fees from a nationwide materials trading platform, hardware/product sales of bagged compost and soils via retail, and professional services for zero-waste advisory and APR-standard material testing. The go-to-market is sales-led and enterprise-focused, combining long-term municipal contracts (typically 5 years with extensions, secured through competitive bidding) with direct commercial field sales to enterprise customers across airline, retail, financial services, manufacturing, hospitality, and property management verticals. Leadership includes CEO Ron Gonen, COO/CSO Jessica Long, CFO Amy Wagner, CTO Jason Bennett, CLO Catherine Finley, CPO Raquel Hoffstot, plus regional Presidents for East, West, and Central MRF Operations and Commodities & Brokerage.

Name

Circular Services

Legal name

CLP Circular Services, Inc.

Website

https://circularservices.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Circular Services is the largest privately-held U.S. recycling and circular economy infrastructure operator, running 35+ MRFs, organics processing, secure shredding, and materials trading facilities across 12 states for municipalities and commercial customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Recycling and Materials Management Services

NAICS

Materials Recovery Facilities (562920), Materials Recovery Facilities (56292), Waste Collection (5621)

SIC

Refuse Systems (4953), Sanitary Services (4950)

akta.pro primary industry

Single-Stream MRFs (Residential Curbside) (EUAIADAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Post-Consumer Plastic Collection & Sorting (MRF/PRF, Bale Supply) (EUAIAKAA), Asset Recovery, Surplus & Decommissioning Services (EUAIANAD)

Keywords

• Recycling infrastructure services
• Materials recovery facilities
• Organic waste processing
• Secure document destruction
• Recycled commodities trading

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices32 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Recycling Processing Services: Collection, sortation, and processing of recyclable materials (paper, plastics, metals, glass) from municipalities and commercial customers. Revenue generated through processing fees and commodity sales from baled materials.
2. Organics Processing: Collection and processing of food waste and green waste into compost, renewable energy, and soil products. Includes de-packaging services for damaged or out-of-date packaged products.
3. Secure Shredding Services: NAID AAA Certified document and media destruction services for organizations of all sizes. Includes scheduled on-site and off-site shredding, drop-off services, and purge events.
4. Materials Trading: Buy and sell recycled commodities including cardboard, paper, PET, HDPE, polypropylene, aluminum, tin, and glass through nationwide network of suppliers and buyers.
5. Compost and Soil Products: Sale of bagged compost, soils, and mulches through local grocery stores and garden centers, and bulk commercial orders.
6. Advisory Services: Zero-waste planning, waste assessments, material audits, and material testing services for brands and manufacturers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Circular Services operates Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), organics processing sites, and secure shredding operations across the U.S., providing collection, sortation, and processing of recyclable materials (paper, plastics, metals, glass) for municipalities and commercial customers. It also processes organic waste into certified compost and renewable energy, offers NAID AAA Certified document and media destruction, trades recycled commodities nationwide, and provides zero-waste advisory services including APR-standard material testing. The company is supported by proprietary AI-powered sorting and de-packaging technology deployed across 35+ facilities.

Product overview

Circular Services is a recycling and circular economy services provider offering a comprehensive portfolio of waste-to-value solutions. The company operates as a platform of interconnected services centered around Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), Secure Shredding, Organics Processing, Materials Trading, and Advisory Services. Core offerings include commercial and municipal recycling through MRFs, NAID AAA Certified document and media destruction, food and green waste composting and de-packaging, and recycled commodity trading. The portfolio includes acquired brands such as Quantum Organics and Atlas Organics for organics processing, alongside company-operated facilities across 12 states. Services are designed to help businesses and municipalities eliminate landfill disposal costs while recovering materials for supply chain reuse.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Balcones Recycling: Subsidiary brand operating in Texas markets including Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Taylor
• Midwest Fiber
• Circular Soils

Products and services

• Recycling Services End-to-end recycling services including collection, sortation, and processing of recyclable materials (paper, metals, glass, plastics, organics, textiles, electronics) for municipalities and commercial businesses through Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs).
• Commercial and Industrial Recycling Scalable recycling solutions for businesses including containers and collection services (carts, dumpsters, compactors, trailers), secondary processing of industrial plastics and metals, zero-waste events, and reuse/resale of gaylord boxes and wood pallets.
• Municipal Recycling Services Partnership with municipalities for recycling programs spanning MRF operations, organics processing, education and community outreach, and specialized recycling solutions including infrastructure development.
• Secure Shredding NAID AAA Certified secure document destruction services including scheduled on-site and off-site shredding, drop-off shredding, and purge events with certified destruction and tracking for organizations of all sizes.
• Media Destruction Certified destruction of hard drives, solid state drives, backup tapes, CDs, DVDs, and other storage media with serialized tracking and certificates of destruction for full audit compliance.
• Organics Processing Comprehensive organic waste solutions including de-packaging, large-scale anaerobic digestion, and composting to transform food scraps, yard waste, and green waste into nutrient-rich compost and renewable energy.
• Food and Beverage De-Packaging De-packaging technology that separates organic content from packaging, enabling recovery of both packaging material for recycling and organic contents for composting or anaerobic digestion. Florida's first permitted commercial-scale facility processes 600+ tons per week.
• Organic Products (Compost, Soil, Mulch) Premium OMRI-listed compost, custom soil blends, and mulch products made from recycled food and green waste, available in bulk and retail packaging for landscaping, gardens, and agricultural use.
• Materials Trading Buy and sell recycled commodities including cardboard (OCC), various paper grades, PET (#1), HDPE (#2), polypropylene (#5), aluminum (UBC), and tin and glass through a nationwide network of suppliers and buyers.
• Advisory Services Zero-waste advisory including material testing to APR test standards, waste assessments and audits, custom reporting, zero-waste planning, and educational programs for municipalities, schools, and brands/manufacturers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Diverting over 75,000 tons of material annually in San Antonio alone
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered regional and core.

• Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA)regionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 March 2026Regional partnership in Connecticut to address food waste through HRRA's 'Don't Throw It, Grow It!' campaign. HRRA selected Quantum Organics, part of Circular Services, as organic waste solution provider through competitive bidding.
• Salinas Valley Solid Waste AuthorityregionalStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing partnership at Johnson Canyon Landfill in Gonzales, California for organics processing including green waste, food waste, and wood waste.
• City of San AntoniocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-term partnership for MRF and organics processing operations. City awarded residential recycling contract and organics processing partnership.
• Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of Palm Beach CountyregionalStrategic or Co-development PartnerCircular Services has operated the Palm Beach County MRF since 2019. SWA owns the facility and Circular Services provides processing and marketing services.
• Mecklenburg County, North CarolinacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSelected as recycling processing and operations partner for County's two Material Recovery Facilities under five-year agreements with two one-year extensions. Partnership includes 48,510 sq. ft. MRF at Pence Road and Metrolina MRF after retrofit.
• City of Durham, North CarolinaregionalStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-term partnership for advanced composting facility transforming yard waste and biosolids into STA-Certified compost.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Waste Management: Largest publicly traded waste and environmental services company in North America, operating landfills, hauling fleets, and large MRFs. Directly comparable to Circular Services in single-stream MRF operations and recycling commodity sales, but with a far broader hauling and disposal footprint.
• Republic Services: Second-largest US waste and recycling company with national MRF operations, organics processing (through its RecycleBC and Blue Planet acquisitions), and recycling commodity trading. Closest publicly listed peer to Circular Services' integrated platform strategy.
• GFL Environmental: Canadian-headquartered environmental services company with significant US MRF and organics infrastructure following acquisitions of Waste Industries and others. Comparable as a fast-consolidating North American recycling platform.

Direct peers

• Casella Waste Systems: Regional Northeast US solid waste, recycling, and organics hauler/processor with significant MRF operations. Operates a comparable single-stream MRF network and organics platform, making it the closest pure-play recycling peer.
• Recology: Privately held employee-owned West Coast waste and recycling company operating MRFs, organics composting, and materials trading. Comparable business model focused on municipal collection and MRF operations, and similarly employee/owner-aligned rather than publicly traded.

Emerging players

• Stericycle: National regulated waste and secure information destruction operator, directly comparable to Circular Services' NAID AAA-certified secure shredding and media destruction line. Different core waste streams but overlapping compliance-driven shredding customers.
• Reworld (formerly Covanta): Waste-to-energy operator that processes residual and organic waste streams to generate power. Comparable to Circular Services' Quantum Organics anaerobic digestion platform and complementary to its MRF residuals strategy.
• CarbonLite: PET bottle-to-bottle recycling operator focused on post-consumer plastic. Comparable to the plastic sortation and bale supply activities at Circular Services' MRFs and Decatur, IL plastics hub.

Others

• Atlas Organics (pre-acquisition profile, see also notes): Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Circular Services, but historically a comparable regional organics composting operator. Useful as a benchmark for what the Circular Services organics platform integrated into its scale.
• Closed Loop Partners: Circular Services' parent company and core investor, focused on building circular economy infrastructure. Not a direct operational peer, but comparable as an investor/builder of recycling and circular economy platforms.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/circular-services

Compliance9 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Subsidiaries5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A5 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Circular Services