On Sept.19, 2017 the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) recognized outstanding individuals and businesses for their commitment and dedication to the growth and sustainability of the Canadian plastics industry at its annual Plastics Industry Leadership Awards Dinner.
“This year, we are delighted to celebrate fifteen individuals and companies who have demonstrated leadership and excellence, contributing immensely to the plastics industry in the areas of innovation, sustainability and more.” said Carol Hochu, President and CEO of CPIA.
The 2017 Leader of the Year Award recipient is Terry Elliott, President of Scepter Manufacturing, a Myers Industries Company.
Terry has spent his entire thirty-plus year career in the plastics industry beginning with Polysar’s polystyrene business unit. The acquisition of this business unit by Nova Corporation introduced him to the world of polyethylene, photo degradable and super absorbent polymers. Later, Terry moved on to become General Manager of Ampacet Canada.
Terry’s industry association service included participating on the Executive Committee of the Plastic Film Manufacturers Association of Canada from 2001 to 2014 including the PFMAC Chair’s position from 2012 to 2014, which included the opportunity to serve as a Director on the Canadian Plastic Industry Association’s Board of Directors. Terry served as the CPIA Vice Chairman from 2013 to 2015, Chair of the Board from 2015 to 2017 and is currently the Immediate Past Chair.
Additionally, Terry is a past recipient of the Canplast Award which he received in 2013.
Since May of 2016 Terry serves as President of Scepter Manufacturing, a Myers Industries Company. Scepter is the largest manufacturer of portable fuel containers in North America and the leader in portable OEM fuel containers for the marine industry.
Terry served for years on the board of his local church in Woodstock, has financially supported the organization for the past 30 years, and done some organ donation advocacy work, speaking at a number of events.
Two Young Leaders awards recognized the young up and coming leaders of the plastics industry.
Jocelyn Doucet of Pyrowave is a talented young entrepreneur, innovator in chemical engineering and adjunct professor at Polytechnique Montreal. His latest business venture, Pyrowave, is a fast-growing start-up and a completely new approach to waste conversion.
Amalia Gil, a Process Engineer at GreenMantra Technologies, was part of the core team that led the design, construction, and testing of the demonstration facility, which scaled GreenMantra’s proprietary plastic to wax technology four times from its pilot scale. Later, she co-led a team of engineers and contractors in the commissioning of the world’s first, waste-to-wax commercial scale plant. Amalia is the lead inventor on the patent-pending technology that improved manufacturing from a batch to a continuous process.
In the area of Sustainability, CPIA honoured three recipients for their environmental, economic and social contributions.
DOW Chemical Company was recognized for their RETAIN™, Polymer Modifier Technology. RETAIN is the first of its kind, enabling multi-material barrier films, such as stand-up pouches, to be recycled in a polyethylene recycling stream. Before this innovation, flexible barrier packaging products posed unique recycling challenges due to their multi-layer, multi-material structures.
Allen Langdon, Managing Director, Recycle BC, formerly known as Multi-Material BC, was also recognized in the Sustainability Category. As the Managing Director for Recycle BC, Allen oversees the first 100% Extended Producer Responsibility program in North America where industry has assumed full responsibility for the residential recycling system.
GreenMantra Technologies, another Sustainability award winner, was recognized for their unique technology that continuously converts waste plastics particularly those with low recycling rates such as polyolefin film and grocery bags, into high value specialty polymers and products such as its Ceranovus™ synthetic waxes which are designed for applications that require specific technical properties.
GreenMantra is the first manufacturer in the world to produce specialty polymers from a recycled plastic feedstock, all the while diverting waste plastics from landfill and helping to create a circular economy for plastics.
In the Innovator category, three recipients were recognized.
Two key personnel from NOVA Chemicals were awarded for their work on NOVA’s All PE Stand-up Pouch, an innovation in recyclable packaging.
Robert Clare, with a Mechanical Engineering background and 27 years’ experience in the packaging industry, works at NOVA Chemicals as an Application Development Specialist. His area of expertise is package development, where he supports internal and customer projects.
Alexei Kazakov works in in New Business Development and Marketing with NOVA Chemicals.
Alexei has extensive expertise in materials science and testing, business operations, market research, and innovation management and has been involved in the evaluation of new and emerging food processing and packaging technologies and their implications for packaging.
The final Innovator Award winner was Perry Rizzo for Smart Attend advanced monitoring technology where information is collected and sent from a Smart Device; then stored and organized into a user-friendly interface where it becomes remotely accessible. Perry is the president and CEO of Axiom Group Inc. a global automotive parts manufacturing firm.
CPIA’s Canplast award is designed to recognize individuals who contribute their time, energy and expertise to improving the competitive and environmental performance of the Canadian plastics industry.
The sole recipient in this awards category is Gerry Maldoff, President of Hymopack Ltd., Canada’s leading manufacturer of plastic shopping bags and can liners.
Gerry is recognized for his involvement in several areas including CPIA’s PFMAC group and its position on degradables, along with chairing the Toronto and Montreal Plastic Bag Ban Task Forces. Gerry is committed to promoting the positive aspects of plastics and pushing back against product deselection.
Five recipients of CPIA’s Lifetime Achievement were recognized for making outstanding achievements and contributing enduring legacies to the Canadian plastics industry and to the community at large.
Tim Bean, recently retired from the Chemical Division of Imperial Oil Limited, represented Imperial at the CPIA in a several capacities including serving as Chair of the Sustainability Committee, was a member of the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of the Board, and the Finance Committee.
Denis Cloutier, Poly Expert, for the past forty-plus years has been actively promoting the development and use of plastics.
An avid defender and promoter of Association work, Denis was a member of CPIA’s Board of Directors for several years, the Board of the National Dairy Council, president of CDFISA and chairman of Poly Expert’s Board of Directors.
Roy G. Ferguson of Chantler Packages started his career in the packaging business in 1970 with Consolidated Bathurst Packaging. He later took over the family business, Chantler and Chantler Inc, and turned it into a fully integrated manufacture of flexible packaging. In July of 2017 he launched a joint venture with Packages Limited of Pakistan.
John Pelliccione, of Gracious Living Corporation, has been working in the plastics industry for almost 50 years and has done it all from being a general labourer to running his own facility as a general manager.
John is a technical go to person and understands complex material compositions and processing. His vast contribution to the plastics industry is highlighted by success as a mentor, his enthusiasm for materials, and his dedication to customers.
Dwarka Paul Persaud, of Norwich Plastics, has a plastics career that spans more than 40 years. In 1987 Dwarka started Norwich Recycling in Woodstock, Ontario with Bill Gosse and other partners and helped to pioneer the city of Toronto’s first bottle recycling program through a second party. In 2017 Dwarka Paul Persaud and his family assumed 100% ownership of Norwich Plastic’s Canadian operations and 50% of its U.S. holdings.
CPIA would like to congratulate all the award winners and commend them for their contributions to the plastics industry.
The awards were presented at CPIA's Plastics Industry Leadership Awards Dinner Celebration on Sept. 19, 2017 at Paramount Eventspace in Vaughan, Ontario.
Click here for more award winner details. Click here for awards criteria.
ABOUT THE CANADIAN PLASTICS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION (CPIA)
Since 1943, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association has served as the national voice for and leader in plastics industry sustainability across Canada, representing the interests of plastics value chain including resin and raw material suppliers, processors/converters, equipment suppliers, recyclers and brand owners.
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