Exclusive Insight From a Variety of Voices
Speakers
Lesly Baesens
Lesly Baesens, Food Waste Program Administrator, City and County of Denver
Lesly Baesens is the food waste program administrator for Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment. She works with residents, city staff, food banks and pantries to ensure that food never ends up in landfills but is instead eaten, redistributed or composted. Lesly holds an MA in global environmental policy from American University, where she wrote her capstone project on food waste reduction in Washington, D.C. Lesly’s work with the city was featured on PBS, as well as local media and a podcast. Lesly was also a speaker at TEDx Cherry Creek.
Becky Goyton
Becky Goyton, Circular Economy Specialist, City and County of Denver, Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency
Becky Goyton brings 20 years of experience in project management and environmental education to the Zero Waste and Circular Economy team within Denver’s Office of Climate Action. She works on policy and program development to minimize waste and pollution and build an economy that benefits all of Denver’s communities through sharing, repairing, reusing and recycling. Becky has previously worked for various government entities, including San Francisco’s Department of the Environment and Denver’s Solid Waste Management Division.
Katrina Knauer
Katrina Knauer, Chief Technology Officer, BOTTLE
Dr. Katrina (Kat) Knauer is a polymer scientist who is driven by a steadfast commitment to addressing the pressing issue of plastic waste. She earned her BS degree in chemical engineering from Florida State University and a Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering from the University of Southern Mississippi.
In 2021, Katrina joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a senior researcher in polymer science and engineering and the chief technology officer of the Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics Out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE) Consortium. Concurrently, she serves as an assistant adjoint professor and RASEI fellow in chemical and biological engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Katrina’s research endeavors revolve around the development of innovative recycling technologies for existing plastics, as well as the design of intrinsically recyclable-by-design materials for the future.
Stacy Lambright
Stacy Lambright, Energy and Sustainability ManagerAdams 12 Five Star Schools
Known for her vibrant energy, drive to make a difference and collaborative nature, Stacy Lambright has led many award-winning energy and sustainability programs, saving costs and resources, throughout her 20+ year career.
At the root of all her projects is her passion to inspire others to make behavioral changes (may it be small or big, they all add up) that contribute to positive climate action.
In her current role as a school district energy and sustainability manager, she is turning classrooms into eco-friendly powerhouses, battling waste and slashing utility bills. From boosting recycling efforts to sneaking solar panels onto rooftops, the goal is to help schools shrink their carbon footprint and grow greener habits.
Jonathan Levy
Jonathan Levy, Manager of Public Policy and Sustainability, PakTech
Jonathan Levy is the manager of public policy and sustainability for PakTech. PakTech’s facilities are located in Eugene, Oregon, and is a manufacturer of plastic carrier handles made from recycled HDPE.
As the manager of public policy for PakTech, Jonathan oversees the company’s state and federal government relations portfolio, working on issues primarily related to recycling such as EPR, truth-in-labeling, recycled content, PFAS and many others.
In his last role, he worked for AMP Robotics as their director of government relations, informing legislators and regulators on both the state and federal levels how artificial intelligence and robotics have the power to transform the recycling industry.
Prior to working with AMP, he spent 15 years at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries where he served as the liaison to ISRI’s Plastic, Tire, MRF and Education and Training Committees, helping members translate their ideas into tangible deliverables.
Jill Martin
Jill Martin, Director of Community Recycling Programs, The Recycling Partnership
Jill Martin, director of community programs at The Recycling Partnership, brings more than 25 years of recycling industry knowledge, including all aspects of the recycling system. Jill works across the nation to optimize the recycling system, providing consulting and technical assistance to various communities, including guidance on strategies to decrease recycling contamination, and increase recycling participation and capture. She came to The Recycling Partnership with an operations background overseeing a large public sector MRF in northeast Wisconsin and has conducted many workshops and presentations on system optimization and behavior change topics with hundreds of participants. Most recently, Jill has spent more than five years focused on improving the recycling system in Michigan, overseeing more than 30 grant projects, many with behavior change aspects that have proven to have impactful results that can—and have—been replicated.
Craig McAndrews
Craig McAndrews, President and CEO, RTCM USA, Inc.
Craig McAndrews is president and CEO of RTCM USA, Inc., a portfolio of brands committed to diverting millions of pounds of textiles from landfills through product repurposing and industrial cleaning supply packaging. Before entering the textile recycling industry, Craig held senior leadership roles at Houston-based Mattress Firm, including chief strategy officer and chief merchandising officer. His 25-year career in the home furnishings industry also includes sales and executive positions at Stearns & Foster, Sealy and Simmons. Craig and his wife, April, live in Dallas, Texas, and enjoy spending time with their two sons, Ben and Nate.
Bill Moore
Bill Moore, President, Moore & Associates
Bill Moore is president of Moore & Associates, an international consulting firm providing a range of strategic services and research to the paper recycling industry.
Prior to initiating Moore & Associates, Bill held a series of positions in the solid waste, paper and recycling industries. These include founder and vice president of Paper Recycling International and the first director of recycling for Waste Management, Inc.
At Moore & Associates, Bill has served over 550 clients on more than 800 projects. His knowledge base includes all aspects of the worldwide supply and demand of recovered paper. Having been in the sustainability field for 50 years, he has worked in all aspects of the business.
Randy Moorman
Randy Moorman, Director of Policy and Community Campaigns, Eco-Cycle
Randy Moorman is the director of policy and community campaigns for Eco-Cycle. At Eco-Cycle, he has successfully spearheaded public outreach and advocacy campaigns in Colorado for the past 13 years. He leads the technical assistance team helping communities through the Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise to reach their zero waste, waste diversion, reduction and circularity goals. He has also coordinated efforts to pass significant state legislation, including, most recently, the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act and the Producer Responsibility Act. He is currently the mayor pro tem of the City of Arvada, where he, his husband, Scott, and poodle, Oliver, reside. He has a Bachelor of Science in biology from Purdue University and a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University.
Charlotte Pitt
Charlotte Pitt, Vice President of Community Development, The Recycling Partnership
Charlotte Pitt is the vice president of community development for The Recycling Partnership, where she works closely with communities to develop and fund projects that help them improve their public recycling systems. She has been working to grow and improve public recycling for almost three decades, with experience at both the state and municipal level. Prior to joining The Recycling Partnership, she spent more than two decades with the City and County of Denver, leading the implementation and improvements to their waste diversion services and policies. She is credited with standardizing and automating the residential waste collection services, including universal cart-based recycling, implementing single-stream recycling, prioritizing community outreach and education, developing a robust suite of organics diversion services, and advocating for pay-as-you-throw policy.
Raymond Randall
Raymond Randall, Senior Manager of Textile Recycling, WM
Raymond Randall is senior manager of textile recycling at WM and is responsible for strategy, integration and supply chain engagements that will ultimately help shift the textile industry toward greater circularity. With over 25 years of solid waste and recycling experience, he has provided a wide range of services to a diverse set of clients, including Fortune 100 companies, NGOs and nonprofit organizations, and city, county and state government agencies. Raymond graduated from Geneva College with a BS in business administration and a BS in management science. He earned an MBA from the University of Florida.
Phoebe Schenker
Phoebe Schenker, Executive Director, Reuse Alliance
Phoebe Schenker is a generalist in a specialized world. She excels at visualizing and solving complex problems. For the first half of her career (as an architect), those problems were usually buildings; now they are more often large environmental or social challenges. Currently, as the executive director of Reuse Alliance, she is tackling one of the most complex social and environmental problems confronting the world—how to transition from a throwaway economy to a reuse economy. Since coming on board to lead the nonprofit in 2023, she has greatly expanded the organization's capacity to practice, advocate for and support reuse.
She received her bachelor’s at the University of California, Berkeley, and her master’s in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, where she did her thesis on the reuse of big-box stores.
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