Webinar: Navigating Paper Recyclability Testing: Behind the Scenes on the Different Protocols by Sustainable Packaging Coalition

SPC Winter Series 2022

About This Webinar

In this session we will explore various paper recycling testing lab protocols and strategies from around the world. We will include the perspective from labs in North America and Europe to better understand how these labs operate, potential synergies, and future needs as the role of innovation in paper packaging, testing requirements, and sustainability goals evolves at a rapid pace.

Presenters

Tom Pollock

Associate Director Forest Products, GreenBlue

Tom Pollock is a Senior Manager at GreenBlue who works across supply chains and industries from global brands to family forest owners. Tom believes that affecting meaningful change comes through the power of collaboration, cultivating communities of leadership thinking, and creative problem-solving. Tom leads SPC Forest Products, a coalition of companies across industry sectors that are working together to support thriving forests. He serves as GreenBlues lead on Forests in Focus; a next-generation sourcing platform that brings data and visibility to forest products supply chains in order to support forests and the benefits they provide including clean air and water, wildlife, and combating climate change. Tom regularly speaks at industry events and also provides advisory services on topics related to sustainable supply chains, corporate environmental strategy, and measuring sustainable performance. Tom holds an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a BA in English from the University of Iowa.

Ulrich Leberle

Raw Materials Director, CEPI

Ulrich Leberle was born in 1975 in Nördlingen, Germany. He holds Master degrees in history from the Universities of Tübingen (Germany) and Aix-en-Provence (France).

After professional experiences in the European Commission, the European Parliament and as a Public Affairs Consultant, he joined the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) in November 2005.

Having held several positions in the area of raw materials at CEPI, his responsibilities in his current role of Raw Materials Director include the availability of raw material both from sustainable forest management and the separate collection of paper for recycling as well as the impacting policies.
He is secretary of the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC) since 2014.

Lon Pschigoda

General Manager, Pilot Plants, Western Michigan University

As the current General Manager of Western Michigan’s prestigious Paper Pilot Plants, Lon has the lead role in marketing, business development, strategy, and P/L management. His background in specialty papers (Crown Vantage), coated recycled board (Graphic Packaging), integrated packaging (Sonoco), and natural binders (Tate & Lyle) prepared him well to tackle the wide variety of projects that come through the door at WMU. Lon is an active leader in the industry as part of the Tappi Coating & Graphic Arts Technical Committee, the Tappi Recycled Fiber Technical Committee, and represents WMU as a subject matter expert on the ISO TC6 (Paper, board, and pulps) working group and NextGen Cup Challenge (McDonalds, Starbucks, Pepsi). He held roles as a process engineer, senior product specialist, product manager, and director of pricing and marketing prior to coming back to his alma mater (BS Paper Science & Engineering 1998).

WMU’s Paper Pilot Plant offer a truly unique blend of equipment, expertise, and opportunity. The plant is home to North America’s only dual-fourdrinier paper machine (22” wide, installed 2019), a high speed pilot coater (40” wide, 3800 fpm top speed), and a full pilot scale stock preparation area (beating, refining, pulping, deinking, recyclability); all at a 3rd party research facility. Papermakers, researchers, chemists, brand owners, machinery manufacturers, and formulators come from around the world to complete work here with an independent entity that holds confidentiality in the highest regard. Our WMU Recyclability Protocols, in conjunction with the FBA and How2Recycle, have been used by brands and manufacturers to guide product development and certify hundreds of fiber based products as recyclable. Pilot plant research is just one of the ways that WMU is tied in closely with industry; we hold several professional course each year ( https://wmupilotplant.com/coating-course, https://wmupilotplant.com/fiber-course) and are a part of WMU’s Paper Technology Foundation. The PTF currently has 28 member companies for the paper and allied industries that donate to a scholarship fund, guide the paper engineering program here at WMU, and mentor/hire our students. WMU is proud to be constantly preparing the next generation of paper engineers! Many of these students get their start in the pilot plants, helping to prepare them to make an instant and lasting impact on the industry.

Dr. Paul Fowler

Executive Director, Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology

Prior to his appointment as WIST executive director, Paul Fowler was director of the Welsh Institute for Natural Resources, a financially self-supporting unit at Bangor University in the UK. He has more thana dozen years experience in contract research and development of new products and opportunities from bio-based materials. Paul is networking with public- and private-sector organizations and companies to develop new sustainable technologies with commercial applications to benefit the economy and the environment. Paul has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and extensive knowledge of bio-based, renewable materials and applications.

Alain Cochaux

R&D Manager, Centre Technique du Papier

Alain Cochaux is working at CTP since 1995. He has acquired 25 years of expertise in recycling of packaging (including collection system and dry sorting) through leading various research projects as well as confidential private works and running more than 700 tests of recyclability. He is also member of AFNOR and CEN.

He has authored many papers and publications, including a book of the COST Action „Limits of paper recycling“ and is graduated from the French School of Engineering in Paper (PAGORA) in Grenoble.