Science Symposium: Plastic Recycling & Chemical Contaminants in Recycled Plastic
Greg Curtzwiler, Ph.D
Assistant Professor, Iowa State University
Talk title: Composition of Extractable Chemicals in Recycled Polyolefins
Greg Curtzwiler, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium at Iowa State University. His research is centered on developing safe and sustainable materials for adhesives, coatings, and polymers in the packaging and automotive industries including bio-based, compostable, and recycled polymers. His group is currently focused on understanding chemicals of concern in recycled plastics and mitigation strategies. Greg has 40+ publications and nine patents to his credit regarding food packaging, sustainable polymers, and nanotechnology.
Sean Fischer, Ph.D.
Regulatory Review Scientist, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Talk Title: Regulatory Considerations for the Use of Recycled Plastics in Food Packaging
Sean Fischer, Ph.D., is a Regulatory Review Scientist in FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, where he leads the scientific team that reviews requests for FDA’s opinion on recycling processes that produce recycled plastics for food contact applications. He also coordinates the review of submissions for the premarket authorization of new food contact substances and provides guidance on the regulatory aspects of food contact substances. He was previously a research chemist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Washington.
Anne Germain, M.S.
Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the National Waste & Recycling Association
Talk Title: Recycling and contamination
Anne Germain, M.S., is the Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) responsible for establishing and implementing strategies for recycling, landfilling, and sustainability. She has over 30 years in the industry that includes extensive background in analysis of industry trends, contracting, engineering, operations and compliance.
Prior to joining NWRA, Anne was Chief Engineer with the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA). Anne is a Past President of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) and is a trustee-at-large for the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES). She is a professional engineer and a Board Certified Environmental Engineer with a Master in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. In 2020, she was recognized by MSW Management with their legacy award and in 2023, she was named to the inaugural class of Waste360’s 2023 Women Who Inspire.
Jennifer L. Port
Chief – Process Sustainability, ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company
Talk Title: Advanced Recycling – Innovating to Support Plastics Circularity
Ms. Port is currently the Chief Engineer of Process Sustainability at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, supporting ExxonMobil’s ambitions to lead in sustainability and the energy transition. Her current focus areas include GHG abatement, life cycle assessment, and circular and renewable feedstocks including advanced recycling of plastic.
Ms. Port started with ExxonMobil in the olefins technology area in 1995 and has held a broad range of technology and management roles within ExxonMobil. Her career has spanned multiple areas in process technology, including new technology deployment, pyrolysis furnace design, major project development, and site energy systems analysis. Recent roles have included Chief Engineer supporting ExxonMobil Chemical Company Major Growth Ventures, and Technology and Planning Manager for the Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project, a mega-polyethylene and ethylene glycol joint venture with SABIC near Corpus Christi, TX. Jennifer is a co-inventor on 10 patents and holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas.
Reid Van Lehn, Ph.D.
Hunt-Hougen Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Talk Title: Polymer Recycling and Contaminant Removal from Multilayer Plastic Packaging by Solvent-Targeted Recovery and Precipitation
Reid Van Lehn, Ph.D., is the Hunt-Hougen Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT then performed research as a NIH Ruth-Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow at Caltech. He joined UW-Madison in May 2016, where his research group uses molecular simulations and data-centric methods to characterize, predict, and engineer the behavior of synthetic and biological soft materials for applications relevant to human health, sustainability, and energy. He is also a Topic Area Leader for the Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics (CUWP) and a Co-Investigator of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC).