On June 8-9, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) hosted a workshop titled, Transitioning to a Sustainable, Circular Economy for Plastics. Below are the speaker bios for this workshop.
David Allaway, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
David Allaway is a senior policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). He has pioneered several applications of life cycle assessment in program and policy development, including the first subnational (state-level) estimate of consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and a groundbreaking meta-analysis that compared popular packaging attributes (recyclable, compostable, recycled content and biobased) against environmental outcomes. David served as invited science advisor to the Wal-Mart Packaging Sustainable Value Network and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. In 2019-2020 David co-chaired and led the staff team that supported Oregon’s Recycling Steering Committee, then played a key role in the development, negotiation, and early implementation of Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act, including leading the project to identify initial recycling acceptance lists for the state. A recipient of awards from the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment and US EPA, David has a B.A. (physics, with honors) and a concentration in science, technology, and public policy from Carleton College.
Gregg Beckham, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Gregg Beckham is a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Gregg works with and leads an interdisciplinary research group focused on biomass conversion and plastics recycling. He also leads the DOE-funded BOTTLE Consortium, which is a 10-institution research consortium focused on developing new approaches for plastics recycling and redesign.
Nina Bellucci Butler, Stina Inc
Nina Bellucci Butler, CEO of Stina Inc, believes in delivering unbiased guidance in navigating the role plastics play in sustainability. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, served as a subject matter expert for XPrize, and presented to the OPEC Secretariat and other global events such as the World Bank and United Nations events. Her team conducts critical research such as the Annual Plastic Recycling Study, develops online resources such as the Drop-Off Directory on bagandfilmrecycling.org, and leads multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Plastic Squeeze Tube Recycling Project, working to navigate the journey to recyclability. Nina has volunteered on several expeditions, including the Ocean Plastic Recovery Project: Katmai Clean Up.
Bridget Croke, Closed Loop Partners
Bridget Croke is a managing director at Closed Loop Partners, an investment and innovation firm working to accelerate a more circular economy. Bridget has spent the last 20 years building movements to help drive a more sustainable economy – from the local food movement to the circular economy. This work has included a national campaign to improve quality of life with less consumption; building and executing campaign tools to move consumers to Buy Fresh, Buy Local; a start-up turned growth company incentivizing consumers to recycle right and Purpose, a consultancy and incubator leveraging the tools of movement building to solve global challenges.
Erica Nuñez, The Ocean Foundation
Erica Nuñez is the Program Officer for The Ocean Foundation's Plastics Initiative, where she leads the management and strategic development of the organization's scientific and policy activities related to combating plastic pollution. She leads the organization’s engagement within the UN Environment Assembly and UN Environment Programme, including the current negotiations for an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, the development of a Science-Policy Panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals, waste and pollution, and the Basel Convention, among other international. Erica has nearly twenty years of experience working to protect and conserve the environment and served fourteen of those years with the U.S. federal government before moving on to the NGO sector.
Dr. Vicki Thompson, Idaho National Laboratory
Dr. Vicki Thompson is the Bioenergy Feedstock Technologies department manager and a Distinguished Staff Engineer at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). She is also the Node Lead for Recycling and Recovery within the DOE's Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office-funded REMADE Institute. Dr. Thompson joined INL in 1996 after receiving her B.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Iowa and Michigan State University. Her research currently focuses on applying chemical engineering principles to biological problems. She is currently working to identify and characterize low-cost waste feedstocks, develop feedstock/waste blends that meet DOE targets, and develop decontamination methods for waste materials. She participates in research projects in the Critical Materials Institute on recovery of critical metals and development of TEA/LCA of these processes; in REMADE, providing expertise on processes for sorting waste as well as models of these processes and in BETO, developing methods to process and decontaminate waste streams. She was also part of the team that redesigned INL's Biomass Feedstock National User Facility for processing a variety of waste streams. Upgrades include artificial intelligence sorting systems, enhanced waste characterization, and size reduction and decontamination systems. Other interests include rapid, sensitive biological detection methods of environmental contaminants and toxins, emphasizing antibody- and enzyme-based assays, isolation and characterization of extremophilic microorganisms for waste treatment, and purification and characterization of novel proteins and enzymes. Interests include applications in forensics, food quality control, environmental evaluation, agriculture, medical diagnostics, and biological warfare agents.
Nicholas Vijverman, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Nicholas Vijverman is a Program Manager in the Plastics Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, closely working with the network to achieve their ambitious goals towards 2025 and beyond. Before arriving at the Foundation, Nicholas worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and as a researcher at Vlerick Business School. With a background in business engineering, he firmly believes that the circular economy holds the key to addressing the pressing environmental challenges of our generation.