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Agenda

The 2023 Advanced Recycling Summit agenda has been released! 

Meet the expert presenters from Closed Loop Partners, Sphere Solutions, Inc., Alterra Energy, RRS, Berry Global, Enval, Stanley Black & Decker, New Energy Risk, Neste, AMP Robotics, Ameripen, and many more. Speaking on industry-leading topics, such as an industy overview, the future market outlook, recycling goals, use cases, technologies, EPR, and more.  

 

                                         
 

Please click on the dates below to see each day's program!


Registration Open
Registration Opens & Continental Breakfast
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Ashli Speed, Manager of Production - Americas, Smithers
Session I: Industry Overview and Future Market Outlook
The Future of Mechanical v Chemical Recycling to 2027
The accumulation of waste materials, particularly household waste and plastics, is a matter of serious concern to our planet. While a percentage of waste is incinerated or recycled, most of it ends up in landfill or, even worse, in our oceans. Several solutions are being attempted, but few will bring immediate results. However, recycling could potentially deal with the growing mountains of waste, so discussion about it is growing both for traditional mechanical means as well as advanced or chemical recycling. This presentation will provide insights on the industry, factors impacting progress, and a high-level overview of:
•     The current state of recycling
•     An assessment of chemical and mechanical recycling
•     Packaging recycling trends
•     Recycling technology evaluation
•     Regional differences
•     Future expectations
Benjamin Trent | Managing Consultant, Smithers
Molecular Recycling 101: 10 Graphs and Charts that Explain the Technologies, Opportunities, and Considerations for a Circular Plastics Economy
Closed Loop Partner’s leading expert on molecular recycling will provide a high-level summary of the key findings in their report, Transitioning to a Circular System for Plastics: Assessing Molecular Recycling Technologies in the United States and Canada. This presentation will highlight the economic, environmental and human health impacts of diverse molecular recycling technologies, assessing where they fit in a circular plastics economy.
Paula Luu | Senior Product Director, Closed Loop Partners
Life Cycle Assessment of Chemical Recycling: Methodology and Case Study
Networking Break
PANEL: Benefits of Chemical Recycling – How can the benefits change the future of recycling?
Panelists:
  • Carlos Ludlow-Palafox, CEO, Enval
  • Jeremy DeBenedictis, President, Alterra Energy
  • Anne Johnson,  Principal and Vice President of Global Corporate Sustainability, RRS
  • Diane Marret, Sustainability Director, Consumer Packaging NA, Berry Global
How do we communicate the benefits of chemical recycling? Where are the gaps in knowledge? How do we get others in the industry to “buy in”?
Networking Lunch (Included)
Session II: Achieving Recycling Goals
< Session Description >
Ongoing push by brand owners to reach plastics recycling goals.
Presentation to be Announced
Industry Collaboration: Challenges and Use Cases 
Networking Break
Advanced Recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility: Challenge or Opportunity?
Join AMERIPEN Executive Director Dan Felton for a rundown on the current status of packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the U.S., with four states now having full program laws enacted and being implemented and other states looking to enact their own related laws. The discussion about whether or not advanced recycling should be allowed within packaging EPR programs, and other packaging policies, in the U.S. is heated and ongoing, so you won't want to miss this lively and timely session. 
Dan Fitzgerald | Sr. Director Product Sustainability, Stanley Black & Decker
Brand Owner Insights
Speaker and abstract coming soon!
PANEL: Building Supply Chains for Advanced Recycling
Panelists:
  • Brad Price, Managing Director Technical Due Diligence,  New Energy Risk
  • Fred Schmuck,CEO, Alterra Energy
  • Bob Render,CEO, Lakeside 360 Partners
Infrastructure, collection, securing capital
  • Improve collection and access
  • Improve consumer education
  • Improve accuracy of data and reporting
  • Standardize policy for collection and sorting
End of Day One
Networking Reception (with Drinks)
Registration Open
Registration Opens & Continental Breakfast
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Session III: Advanced Recycling Use Cases and Technologies
PANEL: Progress, Challenges, Needs
Information and panelists coming soon.
Collaboration to maximize plastic recycling
Additional Presenter: Jeremy DeBenedictis, President, Alterra Energy
  • Collaboration along the value chain is needed to enable a true circular economy of plastics through advanced recycling.
  • Liquefaction combined with intermediate refining can turn hard-to-recycle plastics into drop-in petrochemical feeds for material applications
  • Examples of collaboration include joint development, deployment and commercialization of technology

Outi Teras | Head of Technology Commercialization Chemical Recycling, Neste
Advanced Recycling Methods and Use Cases
Networking Break
Advanced Recycling Methods
Speaker and abstract coming soon.
Smarter Systems, Superior Sorting – Feedstock Sources for Advanced Recycling
The waste and recycling industry is quickly adopting advanced technologies, including robotics systems guided by artificial intelligence (AI), to automate the identification and sorting of recyclables from mixed material streams. AI-driven solutions are enabling economic improvements via retrofits within today’s waste management infrastructure. And advancements in AI are facilitating the expansion of new infrastructure, helping to maximize the volume and quality of recycled feedstock by turning what was previously considered contamination into valuable material streams ready for mechanical or advanced recycling. Explore how AI-driven sortation is enabling precise material separation, higher commodity values, and end markets; the latest advancements in recovery of film and flexible packaging; and more.
Chris Wirth | Vice President of Corporate Affairs, AMP Robotics
Networking Lunch (Included)
Session IV: Advanced Recycling Beyond packaging
Opening Keynote
Abstract and speaker to be confirmed.
Towards textile to textile recycling: Is there a sustainable solution?
Polyester is one of the most widely used polymers all around the world, with applications that span from packaging to textiles. Depending on the application the material composition can be quite different, with a polyester amount ranging from more than 99% for PET bottles to 25% for some particular textile applications. The most common method for recycling plastic waste is mechanical recycling. This process typically includes collection, sorting, washing, and grinding of the material, but a breakdown of polymer chains occurs when the resin goes through multiple cycles, degrading its intrinsic viscosity and limiting the number of times the process can be repeated. The larger amount of polyester is then landfilled or incinerated, and this is particularly true for textiles, where colorants and dyes can play a pivotal role. Is there a sustainable solution? Polyester wastes that are not mechanically reused can be depolymerized via MADE, a Microwave Assisted DEpolymerization, able to recover terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (MEG) that can be used to produce new virgin PET and then more sustainable fibers, avoiding nonrenewable sources. With MADE it will be no anymore recycled PET but brand-new PET from recycled monomers.
Dr. Fabio Silvestri | Head of Marketing and Business Development, Gr3n SA
Presentation to be Announced
Session V: How EPR will Affect Advanced Recycling
< Session Description >
Will EPR disrupt current industry partnerships? Can innovation survive and thrive as EPR progresses across the US? How will packaging design and collection change over time? How can stakeholders work together to standardize EPR?
Advanced Recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility: Challenge or Opportunity?
Join AMERIPEN Executive Director Dan Felton for a rundown on the current status of packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the U.S., with four states now having full program laws enacted and being implemented and other states looking to enact their own related laws. The discussion about whether or not advanced recycling should be allowed within packaging EPR programs, and other packaging policies, in the U.S. is heated and ongoing, so you won't want to miss this lively and timely session
Dan Felton | Executive Director, Ameripen
Across State Cooperation for Collection
Speaker and Abstract coming soon!
PANEL: Why can’t we standardize recycling requirements?
Panelists coming soon!

Key Challenges for CPG Companies
End of Day Two