Recycled Content Panel — GreenCircle Certified

PANEL DISCUSSION:

The Demands of Recycled Plastic Throughout the Value Chain and Its Impact

Panel Recording

Recorded

October 3rd, 2024

Recycled content—both pre-consumer and post-consumer—will remain central to the advancement of sustainable packaging. However, it is post-consumer recycled content that plays a pivotal role in advancing the circular economy. Integrating Post-Consumer Resin (PCR) into packaging is crucial for lowering embodied carbon and minimizing environmental impact. In this live discussion, we engaged with experts across various sectors to explore how PCR has influenced their businesses and operations.

Topics discussed:

How the demand for PCR has changed in the past 5 years
The motivation for beginning/increasing usage of PCR
Insight into collaboration efforts between upstream and downstream partners
Recommendations on how to shift to using PCR
The benefits of using PCR
The biggest challenges with PCR by role
The part each company is playing to educate end users/consumers on the benefits of PCR

About the Panelists

Tara Helms

Director of Sustainability, Electrolux Group

Tara Helms serves as Director of Sustainability for Electrolux Group, an organization committed to shaping living for the better through its product innovation and design that help consumers make more sustainable choices in the home. Each day, Tara ambitiously drives sustainable actions across the North American business region, home to 10,000 employees. Her work elevates Electrolux Group as an industry leader in sustainability and has contributed to the organization being named a 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and a seven-time CPD Climate Action A-List Company, a recognition only reserved for companies demonstrating excellence in environmental transparency and sustainability.

John Avolio

Value Chain Manager, NOVA Chemicals

John Avolio is the Value Chain Manager for NOVA Chemicals’ polyethylene business. In his role, he works closely with brands and retailers to help them meet their 2025 / 2030 sustainability commitments through collaborations with plastics converters and NOVA Chemicals’ deep applications development expertise. John’s technical expertise ranges across markets including food and beverage packaging, heavy duty sacks, and e-commerce and other secondary packaging. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Plastics Engineering from Penn State (The Pennsylvania State University).

Scott Hammer

Director of Corporate Sustainability, Charter Next Generation

Scott Hammer is the Director of Corporate Sustainability at Charter Next Generation (CNG). His focus is on leading the company’s sustainability initiatives, including supporting CNG's GreenArrow™ family of films, the zero waste to landfill objective for all of CNG’s manufacturing sites, and CNG’s climate strategy and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Curt Cozart

Chief Operating Officer, The Association of Plastic Recyclers

Curt Cozart has worked in the plastics recycling industry since 1991 where, as a project manager for Mobil Chemical Company he built the first North American film recycling plant dedicated to LLDPE stretch film. Now as Chief Operating Officer for the Association of Plastics Recyclers, he has led the 2014 development of the new APR Design™ Guide for Plastics Recyclability, the premier American authority on the recyclability of plastics, now adopted into law in California and continues to oversee the improvement and administration of that document. He developed APR’s “sorting potential protocols,” the world’s first pilot/lab scale simulation of the industrial recycle sorting process. He created and manages the “Design Guide Training Program” used by global brands and package designers to help facilitate the creation of recyclable packaging.