Guest: Matt Daniel, Sustainability Procurement Director at Honda
Host: Tim Ridderbos, VP at Shapiro

What happens when a global automotive manufacturer hands its procurement team a mandate to rethink “waste” as a resource?

In this episode of 5 for Five, Shapiro’s Tim Ridderbos talks with Honda’s Matt Daniel about how the company is redesigning resource circulation for indirect goods, utilizing everything that supports operations but doesn’t go directly into the vehicle. From proof-of-concept circularity centers to second-life supply chains, Matt shares how Honda is building the systems needed to hit its long-term sustainability goals.

“As a company we’re seeking to utilize 100 % sustainable materials by the year 2050…” — Matt Daniel, Honda

What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Time Stamps:

 00:10 – Who is Matt Daniel?
01:04 – What Honda is doing to achieve resource circularity
01:25 – Honda’s goal for 100% sustainable materials
02:28 – What is Honda’s new resource circularity center?
02:40 – How the center works and what it handles
04:29 – The biggest challenges in creating a circular economy model
04:39 – Why the hardest work is internal
06:25 – Looking ahead: the future of circularity in indirect goods
06:52 – Micro supply chains and making a new Honda out of an old Honda

8:25 - Bonus Henry Ford Story - Recirculating Wood Chips into Charcoal

From Procurement to Circularity

Matt’s journey started on the manufacturing floor before moving into procurement and, eventually, sustainability leadership. That broad operational view shapes how he approaches resource circulation today.

“I started out in this organization when I was 18 years old… ended up here at Honda and spent four years in manufacturing, learning how to make our products, decided I’d want a different career choice, moved into our procurement area… and that’s kind of where I’m at today.”

When asked for a roadmap on circularity for indirect goods, he had to quickly translate a procurement mindset into a systems-focused sustainability strategy:

“My first question was, OK, that sounds great. What is the circular economy? I’m a procurement guy. My life is spent buying stuff. But then I had to figure out pretty quickly what that meant, what our strategies were, and then align that to what we’re buying today.”

Inside Honda’s Resource Circularity Center

Honda’s new resource circularity center is where strategy meets execution, with a focus on indirect goods, spare parts, and general waste.

“Yes, our center has really two primary deliverables. One, it’s processing indirect goods such as our equipment, the MRL spare parts that maintain that equipment, and our service parts.”

“So when we no longer need those things within our operation, the first step is we’re trying to find a buyer for those to really extend its life in its current form.”

If resale isn’t possible, Honda shifts to material recovery:

“We’re… performing a mechanical disassembly of those items and recycling them into those critical raw materials such as steel, aluminum, and copper.”

The second deliverable is where innovation accelerates:

“The second deliverable we have is what we call our second life laboratory… and create new supply chains that divert those materials away from landfill and away from waste energy… giving it a second life. It’s really my favorite part of what we’re doing here and I kind of lovingly refer to it as Project Lazarus.”

Solving the Internal Challenge

For Honda, the toughest barriers to circularity aren’t external—they’re organizational.

“Man, honestly the biggest challenges are internal.”

Matt shares how decentralized decision-making led to three very different approaches to handling wood pallets within just a 15-mile radius—one group landfilling them, another repairing and chipping them, and a third buying new ones. The lesson: without alignment, value is lost.

“We’re trying to shift away from this decentralized approach to more unified so we can scale our efforts across the organization for that maximum benefit… Changing hearts and minds, you know, it can always be very difficult in a big organization, but that’s what I kind of see as our biggest challenge.”

Micro Supply Chains and Second-Life Materials

Honda’s proof-of-concept work is already informing its longer-term circularity vision.

“Right now we’re operating this from a proof of concept standpoint with really limited volumes. But based on our early results, we’re pretty optimistic and we’re sketching out some plans of what this will look like in the next one, three to five years.”

“I really envision smaller, similar centers such as this being located throughout North America, closest to our operations to minimize those logistical costs and to build those micro supply chains within those communities.”

Ultimately, Honda sees opportunity in aligning indirect goods with product-side circularity:

“If we can make a new Honda out of an old Honda and our industrial goods, that will really reduce our need to harvest raw material from the planet. And it has all sorts of downstream business impacts from both an environmental and from a financial standpoint.”

A Century-Old Blueprint: Henry Ford and the Origins of Industrial Circularity

After the episode wrapped, Matt shared a remarkable story that connects today’s circular economy principles to innovations dating back to 1919. During the height of Model T production, Ford faced an overwhelming amount of wood waste. Instead of discarding it, he collaborated with real estate agent Edward Kingsford, chemist Orin Stafford, and close friend Thomas Edison to turn those wood scraps into charcoal briquettes.

The venture became the Ford Charcoal Company, which later evolved into Kingsford Charcoal—now an iconic brand with a dominant share of the market. What started as a practical solution to manufacturing waste became one of America’s most recognizable grilling products, demonstrating that the idea of recirculating materials has been fueling innovation for over a century.

Why It Matters

From equipment and spare parts to pallets and packaging, Honda is demonstrating how indirect materials can become a powerful lever for circularity. By combining resale, material recovery, and second-life innovation with organizational change, the company is building the infrastructure needed to support its goal of 100% sustainable materials.

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