Roxanne Spiekerman of PreZero US

Roxanne Spiekerman of PreZero US was elected APR board chair for the upcoming year. | Plastics Recycling Conference/Brian Adams Photo

The Association of Plastic Recyclers has chosen its executive committee and board of directors for the coming year.

Roxanne Spiekerman of PreZero US was elected chair for the upcoming year. Greg Janson of Granite Peak Plastics and Eric Targgart of Custom Polymers will serve as vice chair and treasurer in 2022, respectively.

Spiekerman said in a press release that the challenges facing the industry today “require rapid mobilization, and this team is aligned and ready to act.”

“It’s time to make a meaningful and verifiable impact on the plastics pollution problem,” she said. “This includes a collective effort from consumers, brands, the recycling industry, as well as the local, state and federal governments.”

Spiekerman, who is the vice president of business development at PreZero US, added that success should be measured through “material demand growth, virgin material disruption and verifiable metrics associated with recyclability, recycling and recycled content.”

“This also includes rethinking our overall narrative on plastics and incorporating all methods of waste-diversion, including reuse,” she said. “We must be focused on making the greatest and most immediate impact on plastic waste.”

Three new members were elected to the board for three-year terms: Nicole Janssen, president Denton Plastics; Maite Quinn-Richards, managing director at Closed Loop Partners; and Tom Frantz, director of materials development at Technimark.

Janssen, Quinn-Richards and Frantz join the Association of Plastic Recyclers’ (APR) existing board, which includes John Caturano of Nestlé, Dawn Gaines of Mohawk Industries, Tony Moucachen of Merlin Plastics, Scott Saunders of KW Plastics and Julie Zaniewski of Dow.

The board’s priorities for the coming year include ensuring the needs of the plastics recycling industry are considered in legislation; working with the Federal Trade Commission on updates to the Green Guides; maintaining APR’s role as a global leader in design, testing and recyclability requirements; and expanding the APR Design Guide for Plastics Recyclability and Training Programs, according to the press release.

(APR owns Resource Recycling, Inc., publisher of Plastics Recycling Update.)

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