Keynote Speaker

Antoinette Smith
Resource Recycling

Chemical recycling has been touted as the solution for managing our plastics problem, though we’ve heard this before with mechanical recycling claims and still have a long way to go. Join Antoinette Smith, Reporter for Plastics Recycling Update in the US, to learn about chemical recycling; how is it progressing in other jurisdictions around the world, and what lies ahead for expansion in North America?

Antoinette Smith started working as a reporter for Resource Recycling in June 2024 after spending several years covering commodity plastics and chemical value chains. In the role, she keeps abreast of industry trends, with a special focus on analyzing data. She recently relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after living in Houston, Texas, for more than a decade, where she was immersed in the chemical industry.

Innovation – The Trailblazers in Our Industry

In this session on innovation, we’ll hear from the trailblazers working on solutions for managing and manufacturing plastics: where PCR is king and old systems are revamped for in favour of new models that will shape how the industry grows in the next decade and beyond.

National and International Updates – Putting Alberta on the Map

In this session we turn our eyes outward. With the conclusion of INC-5, organizations across Canada are working toward a better future for plastic management. We’ll hear from their perspectives on where international and national policy is headed and get ready to adapt and adjust accordingly with Alberta’s future.

Producer Updates

With the shift to EPR across Canada, producers of packaging and brand owners have been making big commitments to sustainable initiatives including design for recycling and promises for incorporation of recycled content back into new materials. They must also keep up with regulation differences across jurisdictions and changing markets pressures. In this session we will hear from brand owners and industry members on how they are setting their PCR goals, what changes of course they have made in the past few years and where they see the future of recycled content in their products.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and Inter Pipeline Ltd. have initiated a $10 million, ten-year research collaboration to advance the reuse and recycling of plastic in Canada and around the world. This Plastics Research in Action (PRIA) initiative funds innovative applied research projects, much of which occurs within our 190,000 square feet Productivity and Innovation Centre (PIC) that is located on the north side of Main Campus.

As home to much of NAIT’s applied research, PIC features solutions for business innovation – much of which relates to productivity:

Product testing
Technology adoption
Training and certifications
Productivity and innovation
Applied research
Industry conferences and events

We have numerous flexible workspaces that are adaptable in size and functionality, which gives our industry partners and clients a place to expand ideas and explore solutions. The A-wing of PIC is a 40,000 square foot space that houses wet labs, the analytical core, two microgrid controllers, and an advanced manufacturing core.

The building is designed to LEED Building and Construction certification standards, recognizing sustainability in design and construction. Solar panels installed above the glass canopy in the main foyer will generate 58 kilowatts of electricity per hour and will be used in distributed energy research.

Please join us for a tour during the Alberta Circular Plastics Day 2023 hosted by the Alberta Plastics Recycling Association (APRA) at PIC on March 15, 2023

Links & Facts About Recycling

Plastics – A brief history

Plastic is essentially any material that can be heated and molded so that it retains the molded shape after it cools. (Animal horn and amber are examples of natural plastics.) The first man-made plastic, called Parkesine, was introduced by its inventor, Alexander Parkes, at the Great Exposition of 1862 in London. Already renowned for his work with rubber, Parkes’ new discovery was part of a scientific movement to find uses for “coal tar,” a by-product of natural gas production.

Modern Plastics

Today, a wide variety of plastic polymers, also called resins, are derived from natural gas, crude oil or other naturally occurring building blocks. Each polymer is a chain of carbon-based molecules called monomers bonded together through a chemical reaction. What these molecules are made of, their structure and the strength of the bonds between them will affect the plastic’s physical properties. For example, some plastics are flexible while others are rigid; some can be made into crystal-clear items, others into lightweight foam products.

From production through use to waste management, plastics help conserve resources. Their unique properties and characteristics – light weight, durability, formability, enable manufacturers to minimize the raw materials used, energy consumed and waste generated in the production of goods ranging from automobiles to coffee cups. It’s important to think about all those steps in a product’s life cycle, not just what happens when a product’s useful life is over, to get a true picture of its environmental performance.