Insights from Industry Experts

The first three presentations introduced fundamental concepts in sustainability and waste management:

Daniel Shoemaker, a professor at the University of Illinois, defined sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This definition is clear and insightful.

Rodney Jamison, head of Charlotte's Solid Waste Services, detailed the complexities of waste collection in a large urban area. He considered what would be needed to increase plastic collection capacity, which would include acquiring new trucks or converting old ones.

Jeff Smithberger, Director of Waste for Mecklenburg County, described the massive scale of operations that includes handling hundreds of thousands of tons of trash at the county’s Materials Recycling Facilities (MRFs). At these facilities, plastics are sorted and bundled - a challenging task due to the variety of material types, colors, and additives found in plastic waste.

Innovative Recycling Technologies

Several equipment manufacturers presented solutions designed to overcome challenges in plastic recycling:

Matthew Everhart of Stadler discussed their technologies for materials separation.

Tobias Eder of Sesotec offered insight into their sorting, separation, and purification equipment.

Andy Johnson of KW Plastics presented processes for mechanical recycling.

Tamsin Ettefagh of PureCycle introduced ‘dissolution’, a physical process which removes contaminants from plastics, leaving a pure, clean material.

Dana Darley of NGR highlighted material recovery - from size reduction of the plastic waste to contamination removal, densification, and then finally extrusion.

Darley also emphasized that producer responsibility should extend beyond the final product to include the waste generated during the manufacturing process.