CRRA2020

West Coast Program Manager

Jeremy Jones is West Coast Program Manager for PaintCare. In a previous role, he recruited and set up more than 100 retail paint collection sites to coincide with the launch of Minnesota program in 2014. Prior to joining PaintCare, Jeremy worked at Hennepin County in Minneapolis, with a focus on environmental programs and legislation to address carbon emissions reduction, material management and recycling. He holds a Bachelor's degree in political science from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Master's of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota.

Paint Stewardship - Successes and Challenges

Jeremy Jones will present highlights about PaintCare’s California program to date. He will cover successes, significant challenges, and lessons learned in developing a statewide paint stewardship program that now offers over 750 year-round drop-off sites, has processed over 19 million gallons of architectural coatings, has performed more than 550 large volume pick-ups (200 gallons or more), and exceeds convenience goals with 98.5% of residents living within 15 miles of a drop-off site.

Executive Director

Robert Peoples, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Carpet American Recovery Effort (CARE). Prior to joining CARE, he was Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C. Dr. Peoples spent 23 years with Monsanto and its spinoff Solutia as Director of Nylon Technology. Dr. Peoples has over seen the growth of the CARE organization from its beginning in January 2002 to what is today a $35M operational enterprise. Dr. Peoples holds a PhD in physical organic chemistry from Purdue University. He has served on numerous Boards including on California’s Green Ribbon Science Panel.

Carpet Stewardship - Successes and Challenges

Bob Peoples will talk about the progress and challenges associated with implementing recycling initiative for hard to recycle materials, with a focus on carpet. Bob will specifically discuss what it takes to build a collection infrastructure to support processing and conversion into new products. He will also discuss residual materials with little or no value in the recycle stream and touch on the development of sophisticated models to aid establishing appropriate subsidies

Managing Director

Mike has over 25 years’ experience managing recycling programs for a variety of product categories including household hazardous waste, paint, electronics, mercury containing lights and mattresses. As Managing Director for the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC), he is responsible for legislatively mandated statewide mattress collection programs in Connecticut, Rhode Island and California. MRC launched the California program in  2015 and has since recycled over 5 million mattresses. The program has demonstrated success through convenient access to mattress recycling, a comprehensive education and outreach strategy and high landfill diversion rate.

Mattress Stewardship - Successes and Challenges

Mike O’Donnell will provide a 4-year historical overview of the Mattress Recycling Council’s California program focused on key metrics including convenience, recycling rate, education and outreach and the programs landfill diversion rate. He will also discuss challenges with secondary markets for mattress commodities and MRC’s Research Program which is key to sustaining growth.

Executive Director

Ralph serves as Thermostat Recycling Corporation’s executive director.  He has a broad background in engineering, business management, operations, finance, strategic planning, and law. He started his career at Fiberlux, an independent producer of compounds and extrusions for the construction market. While there, he eventually ran the day-to-day operations and rose to the position of President. He has served as chairman of the Vinyl Window & Door Institute. Ralph received a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University and a law degree from Pace University.

Thermostat Stewardship - Successes and Challenges

Ralph Vasami will present a brief history and current state of Thermostat Recycling Corporation’s program in California. He will discuss successes, as well as challenges, in operating a robust mercury thermostat takeback program that utilizes a collection network of wholesale, retail, HHW and contractor drop-off locations.

Managing Director Services & Solutions

Shane Thompson serves as Managing Director of Services and Solutions for Call2Recycle^®where he leads the team responsible for optimizing battery collections and delivering personalized collection and recycling solutions to program participants across the U.S. 

With more than 20 years’ battery recycling experience, Shane has held leadership roles in the battery recycling industry - ranging from household batteries to advanced batteries used to power electric vehicles. 

Batteries Stewardship - Successes and Challenges

Shane Thompson will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of “voluntary product stewardship” for batteries, highlighting Call2Recycle’s experience in operating in over 60 jurisdictions throughout North America. Specifically, he will discuss how its approach varies and how certain attributes of program design can yield a more favorable outcome for policymakers and consumers.

President