AAEES Webinar Plastics: Hero or Villain When We Manage Their Afterlife?
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
12:00 PM Eastern | 9:00 am Pacific
1 hour and 30 minutes (approximate)
$40 for non-members | FREE for all AAEES Members
American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists (AAEES) presents an interactive session with “live chat” capability. The session is open to environmental engineering and science professionals across all sectors and career stages. Our objective is to offer special insights on leading-edge solutions for graduate and undergraduate students and early to mid-career environmental professionals considering specialty certification.
AAEES Board Certified Individuals: Attend this event and earn 1.5 PDHs towards your PDH requirements for maintaining your specialty certification.
Webinar Summary
Plastics have always had a rocky reputation. Fifty years ago, the Kinks sang “Plastic Man” as a paean to their superficiality. Now they are blamed for a wide array of problems ranging from marine debris, environmental injustice, negative health impacts, and fraudulent recycling. Yet their use has transformed the products we use in our daily life and what we do with those products when we are through with them. In 1960, plastics were less than half of a percent of America’s trash. Today, they are one-eighth of the garbage we generate. Their impact is significant.
This webinar will look at the rise of plastics in our waste. It will examine the collection, disposal (whether energy recovery or landfill), and recycling along with the extent to which plastics have led to less waste to manage. This webinar will teach you more about plastics’ pervasiveness in our society and how we can best manage their afterlife.
About the Presenters
Bob Gardner holds B.S. and M.E. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Virginia. He is a Senior Vice President of SCS Engineers and has been with the firm since 1980. He serves on the firm’s Board of Directors and oversees SCS’s nationwide solid waste management practice. His expertise is in solid waste management and environmental engineering. He provides consulting and engineering services to municipal and private clients throughout the United States and abroad. Bob is involved with the Environmental Research and Education Foundation Research Council. He is a past Director of the Solid Waste Association of North Americas Landfill Management.
Chaz Miller is a fifty-year veteran of the waste and recycling industry. He was part of EPA’s original Resource Recovery program, is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Recycling Coalition, chaired the Aiming for Zero Waste Task Force in his home county in Maryland and writes an award-winning column for Waste360 magazine.
