The 2026 E-Scrap Conference closed Wednesday by honoring some of the industry’s most influential players.
An awards ceremony wrapped up the three-day event in New Orleans, which covered topics of interest across the e-scrap industry. The winners are listed below.
Billy Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring long-term leadership: Joseph Clayton, vice president of business development, Arcoa Group.
Clayton’s interest in environmental matters began in college in the 1980s, where he earned a Ph.D. in environmental economics and environmental policy while also teaching economics and policy and analysis. His work over the years has him convinced the industry is going in the right direction.
After a few years, he transitioned from academia to the recycling industry — although he never stopped educating himself on modern industry practices. He had stints running municipal recycling in West Virginia and launching early composting and e-scrap recycling programs in North Carolina. He moved on to buy an e-scrap company before joining Arcoa in 2018.
“Our industry is great,” he said. “We solve problems.”
Clayton has been involved in many aspects across the industry. He was an original member of International Association of Electronics Recyclers (IAER) and created the electronics and plastic division of ISRI (now the Recycled Materials Association, or ReMA), where he led the creation and funding of R2 Solutions, which evolved into SERI. He also helped write the original Responsible Recycling Standard and serves on several recycling and ITAD company boards, mentoring younger employees. He’s shared his industry knowledge in several trade journals and books.
His education efforts seem to be paying off. Getting hold of employees when they’re young — “before they’re 30, so they don’t have all the bad habits” — is setting up a solid future across e-scrap, he said.
“We can look around and see the quality of the folks coming in now,” he said. “These folks, they know how to take a computer apart. They can put it back together. They know where the value is.”
Women’s RISE Award (Recognition for Inspiring Service and Empowerment), honoring women who have provided guidance and mentorship: Shannon Fertitta, executive director, Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS).
Fertitta has spent the last two years leading RIOS, the primary integrated certifying body for the scrap and recycling industry. She spent five years on the RIOS board before taking over the agency’s top job.
Over those two years, she expanded the agency’s reach and helped companies understand the environmental and business implications of complying with RIOS standards. She’s also launched education initiatives for the public while pushing RIOS to update its standards to address battery hazards, solar panels and export updates.
Prior to RIOS, Fertitta spent 22 years with the Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council in Louisiana, serving as executive director for her final three years there. She helped shape that agency’s mission to improve e-scrap recycling rates while redirecting technology to people in need, part of what she called her mission to strengthen communities.
“My hope is that, with my experience operating a facility, understanding a lot of the challenges that I’ve experienced and I’ve had to work through, I think that if I can channel some of that into how I impact these other disciples that I’m working with every day — I think that that’s the best thing that we can do is to just take our experiences and our challenges and just turn those into progress,” she said.
Across this industry, Fertitta feels helping others is the proverbial rising tide to raise all boats.
“This is even more motivation for me to be inspiring to people if I can,” she said. “I want to be a light to people.”
Electronic Circular Innovation Award, honoring those who drive reuse and responsible recycling: Adam Shine, president of Sunnking/Manitoba Corp.
Shine grew up around the recycling industry. He’s part of the fourth generation of ownership at Manitoba Corp., a metal recycling facility in Buffalo, New York. He also leads Manitoba’s sister company, Sunnking Sustainable Solutions, an ITAD and e-recycling firm in upstate New York.
Shine has made recycling awareness a focus of his company’s work, using Sunnking’s collection event structure as a model for sites in less-regulated states. He’s equally worked to modernize the industry’s practices, trying to incorporate advanced research into practical operations.
Shine won this award for leading Sunnking/Manitoba’s research partnerships with Idaho National Laboratory and the REMADE Institute. Those projects are aimed at raising awareness of e-scrap recycling, focusing on battery-containing devices and improving recycling rates. The work also involves using computer vision and AI to improve the recycling process.
He said the work is worth the effort, as not enough is done to advance the industry from an operational standpoint. He furthers that effort through his work with RIOS and ReMA.
“Sometimes it’s incredibly stressful, but I really believe in the industry,” he said. “Using technology as an advantage — recycling has been slow to adopt.”
Doing that, in turn, would create better outcomes for companies and the public alike. Shine gave credit to the other nominees and companies across the industry working to improve how things are done.
“There are some great people doing great things in our industry,” he said. “We should reduce the burden of people getting it imperfect.
“We work very hard to move this industry forward every day.”
