Market Trends in Organics, C&D, and Municipal Solid Waste Recycling

The recycling industry is constantly under pressure from state and local regulations, climate goals, technology, and consumer expectations. For companies in environmental processing, staying ahead of the trends in organics, construction & demolition (C&D) waste, and municipal solid waste (MSW) is critical to ensure your offerings align with market demands. Below, we explore current and emerging trends across these three segments, and what they mean for processors and facility operators.

Organics Recycling: Strong Tailwinds and Rising Capture Rates

The organics recycling sector is one of the fastest-growing segments in waste processing. Globally, the organic waste management market is forecasted to grow from about $19B USD in 2025 to nearly $37.7B by 2034, a CAGR of ~7.9%. In North America, rising regulatory pressure, demand for low-carbon solutions, and integration of technologies like anaerobic digestion and composting are major drivers.

Organics recyclers are riding momentum from policies such as California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which creates incentives for capturing food waste and generating biogas or other value-added products. Yet despite this, organics capture rates remain low in many regions, with some reporting around 5% annually, meaning 95% of this valuable product is ending up in a landfill or incinerator.

Key drivers and challenges:

• Regulation and mandates: Many states and municipalities are implementing or strengthening organics diversion mandates, requiring large generators to separate food waste, or incentivizing composting / anaerobic digestion.
• Technology integration: Systems combining sorting, pre-treatment, digestion, and composting are gaining traction. Automation is developing to help improve contamination detection and yield.
• Feedstock variability and contamination: Perhaps the biggest operational hurdle is dealing with mixed or “dirty” organics, where non-organics or high moisture contents reduce recovery yields and increase processing costs.
• Revenue models: Beyond tipping fees, operators are realizing revenues through biogas, compost, carbon credits, or animal feeds. The ability to monetize output is increasingly essential.

For processors, opportunities lie in scalable modular systems that can grow with demand, improved pre-treatment (screening, dewatering), and contamination control technologies.

C&D Waste Recycling: Growth and Material Recovery Focus

C&D waste is another continuing expansion industry globally, with the waste market projected to reach $293B by 2029 (from $218B in 2025), a compounded annual rate of ~7.7%.

Drivers behind this growth:

• Urbanization and redevelopment: More construction, demolition, renovation, and infrastructure upgrades inevitably generate more C&D waste.
• Circular construction principles: Governments, developers, and green building standards are increasingly valuing reuse, material recovery, and recycling of concrete, metals, wood, and aggregates.
• Regulatory pressure and landfill constraints: As landfill space becomes more limited and environmental regulations tighten, diverting C&D waste becomes more attractive.
• Innovation in sorting and refinement: Better machinery for shredding, screening, sorting, and contaminant removal allows higher recovery rates, making previously low-value fractions viable.

Challenges and considerations:

• Mix of materials: C&D streams in North America generally contain everything from the construction or demolition site with little or no pre-sorting.  Wood, concrete, metals, plastics, gypsum, etc., are all in there making separation challenging.
• Contamination and quality: The presence of paints, adhesives, mixed materials, or hazardous components can reduce reuse or resale value.
• Logistics and tipping: Transport costs, tipping fees, and local infrastructure (or lack thereof) can make or break profitability of material recovery.

For C&D processors, the opportunity is in robust, flexible systems that can handle mixed streams and produce clean recoverable fractions (e.g. sorted aggregate, reclaimed wood, metal extraction).

MSW Recycling: Growth, Smart Systems and Market Pressures

The MSW market remains the backbone of waste processing, and it’s expanding steadily. The global MSW management market was estimated at around $669B in 2025, with the U.S. waste management sector reaching $497B by 2034.

Drivers and trends include:

• Rising waste generation: Population growth, urbanization, and rising consumption are all pushing MSW volumes upward.
• Stronger recycling and diversion goals: Cities and states are tightening diversion goals and increasing expectations for material recovery from mixed waste streams.
• Compost, food waste, organics as components: As organics gain prominence, MSW systems must integrate organics diversion, either at source or through sorting.

Nevertheless, MSW processing faces headwinds: contamination levels, mixed materials (especially plastics), regulatory complexity across jurisdictions, and the need to upgrade sorting and recovery systems to remain cost-competitive.

Intersection and Synergies: Why These Waste Streams Matter Together

These three waste streams: organics, C&D, and MSW, aren’t operating in isolated silos. There are strategic synergies and interdependencies:

• Shared infrastructure: Many facilities may co-process organics or C&D fractions within larger MSW or recycling plants, especially for sorting and screening.
• Technology portability: Separation and screening equipment used in one stream can often be adapted or scaled for another.
• Regulatory alignment: As diversion mandates tighten across waste types, operators who can handle multiple streams reduce risk and open new revenue opportunities.
• Cross-feedstock investment logic: A processor with organics capability may better position itself in future integrated waste facilities where mixed waste is processed.

What This Means for Organics, C&D, and MSW Processors

Staying competitive means adapting systems and strategies to meet tighter quality standards, changing feedstocks, and rising operational expectations.

• Scalable, modular systems: Processors are moving away from rigid, one-size-fits-all installations. The priority now is equipment that can grow or adapt with evolving material streams and business goals, whether that means adding new sorting lines, upgrading screens, or integrating mechanical sorting ability.
• Higher purity and downstream value: End markets demand cleaner output. Systems must help processors hit those higher specs by delivering purer compost, aggregate, or recovered plastics that command better resale value and strengthen long-term profitability.
• Service, support, and optimization: Uptime is king. Training, preventive maintenance, and process optimization now rival the importance of the machine itself. Processors expect responsive support teams and data-driven service models that minimize downtime and extend equipment life.
• Data and remote connectivity: Telematics, diagnostics, and performance tracking are no longer “nice to have.” Smart systems that monitor load balance, wear rates, and material flow help operators boost recovery rates and ROI while anticipating maintenance needs.
• Region-specific adaptability: Every operation faces unique regional challenges like local regulations, tipping fees, contamination levels, or available labor. Flexible equipment options and tailored system layouts help processors stay compliant, efficient, and profitable wherever they operate.

Conclusion

Organics, C&D, and MSW recycling markets are all experiencing robust growth, driven by regulatory momentum, resource recovery aspirations, and evolving waste generation patterns. While each stream has its unique challenges such as contamination, waste type, capital constraints, they also offer strategic convergence opportunities for processors and equipment providers. For those in the environmental processing business, aligning with these trends means staying agile, investing in smart technology, and focusing on creating systems that deliver purity, efficiency, and return.

Whether you’re involved in organics, C&D, or MSW recycling (or all of them), Ecoverse can provide all the equipment you need, including single shaft shredders, dual shaft shredders, grinders, trommel screens, as well as self-propelled compost turners and tow-behind compost turners. Not sure what equipment you need? We can help!

Ecoverse provides the best environmental and aggregate processing machinery to the North American market, including a complete lineup of machinery to help you transform waste into revenue. We’ve been selling the best engineered and made trommel screens for two decades, and we can help you do something amazing: create something from nothing by converting waste products into sellable goods. Plus, do it more efficiently or faster. Simply put, Ecoverse helps you do more things, and do them better so your operation can achieve unprecedented levels of production and profitability.

Want to learn how we can help your organization do more, better? Contact us!