SPE Recycling Techinca Interest Group

WEBINAR: Less is More: How to Maximize Energy Savings in Plastics Processing - Part 1
2021-03-04 11:00 - 12:00 UTC
Josh Bachman is the Director of Customer Engagement at Cascade Energy, where he is responsible for business development and sales with Cascade’s demand side management and corporate customers. An engineer by training, Josh has over 20 years of experience in the energy efficiency industry, including leading Cascade’s engineering team and designing and launching Bonneville Power Administration’s award-winning Energy Smart Industrial program.

RACE - The Recycling and Circular Economy Conference Europe
2021-01-20

WEBINAR: Life Cycle Assessments: Why and How?
2020-11-18 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
Chris Koffler is the Technical Director for the Americas of Sphera’s Sustainability Consulting practice. In this role he is responsible for the quality of all sustainability consulting projects, methodological development, project oversight, and is the primary lead in key selected areas, such as the automotive sector.
Chris received his Doctorate in Engineering from the Darmstadt University of Technology in 2007. His PhD work was on Automotive Product Life Cycle Assessment. He has published numerous papers in the field of Life Cycle Assessment and frequently provides his expertise in peer and critical reviews.
Chris is the current Chair of the Joint SETAC/ACLCA LCA Interest Group Steering Committee and a member of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) Board of Directors. He has represented the U.S. in the development of various LCA-related ISO standards in the past and has taught Product Life Cycle Assessment at Yale’s School of the Environment and the Harvard Extension School.

WEBINAR: This is Not the Wild West: Sustainability Definitions, Standards, and Regulations
2020-10-13 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
With continued interest in and development of sustainable plastics, it is clear that not everyone is working with the same lexicon. Terms such as ‘degradable’, ‘bio-degradable’, ‘recyclable’, and ‘compostable’ are subject to misunderstandings, misinterpretations, or outright fraudulent claims. This webinar will address how ASTM standards are being used to create a common understanding based on science and testing. We will also address the commonalities and differences among standards, certifications, and regulations. This webinar is part of SPE’s ongoing “Sustainability & Plastics” series.
About the Speaker
Kelvin Okamoto is President of his own consulting firm, Green Bottom Line, that focuses on sustainable materials and packaging. Kelvin has over 30 years of experience in the plastics and packaging industries working on materials, equipment, process and packaging development and commercialization. Kelvin is also founder and CEO of Gen3Bio, a startup company focused on producing biobased chemicals and subsequent bioplastics from microalgae. Previously, Kelvin was Chief Technical Officer for bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast where his primary responsibilities included material formulation, technology strategy and evaluation, intellectual property coordination, quality control and regulatory certifications. Prior to that he managed materials and process development for Solo Cup (since acquired by Dart Container). He also worked for TaylorMade Golf, Trexel, Packaging Corporation of America (now Pactiv), Himont (now LyondellBasell) and GE Plastics (now SABIC).
Kelvin holds a Ph.D. Chemistry from Cornell University and a B.S. Chemistry from Stanford University. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, is an Honored Service Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers’ (SPE) and is the chair of the ASTM D20.96 subcommittee that deals with biodegradation and biobased standards for plastics. Kelvin is also on the USDA Biopreferred Program Technical Advisory Council and is a reviewer for DOE SBIR applications. Kelvin is a registered patent agent, holding 17 patents and nine additional patent applications. He is also a published author, having written a book on microcellular foam processing.
