2026 Title Sponsor
Two days of plenaries, concurrent breakouts, and an optional circular economy tour — covering textiles, batteries, paper, packaging, organics, reuse, and producer responsibility policy in Illinois.
Where a session has slides, you’ll find a view or download button on the session itself — or see everything in one place in the slides index at the bottom of this page.
Wednesday
Opening day: federal and state EPA leadership, the statewide needs assessment findings, three concurrent breakout slots covering textiles, batteries, paper, packaging, reuse, and organics — followed by an afternoon plenary on producer responsibility in Illinois.
Pick up your sticker card and start making the rounds. Visit every exhibitor and collect a sticker from each one to qualify.
Anne Vogel, Regional Administrator
U.S. EPA Region 5
Bio
Anne M. Vogel is the Regional Administrator for U.S. EPA Region 5, overseeing environmental protection for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and 37 Tribal nations. Appointed in 2025, she also leads the Great Lakes National Program Office.
Vogel previously served as Director of the Ohio EPA and Policy Director for Governor Mike DeWine, where she was a primary architect of the H2Ohio water quality initiative. Her background includes over a decade in leadership at American Electric Power and a career in law. She holds a J.D. from Capital University, an MBA from The Ohio State University, and a B.A. from Bob Jones University.
James Jennings, Director
Illinois EPA
Bio
James Jennings is the Director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, leading an agency of 800 professionals dedicated to protecting Illinois' air, land, and water. Appointed by Governor JB Pritzker in 2024, he oversees major initiatives in infrastructure investment, climate and energy programs, and operational modernization across the state.
Jennings has served the Illinois EPA for over a decade in various leadership capacities, including Deputy Director, Materials Management and Compliance Section Manager, and Assistant Legal Counsel. He currently represents Illinois on several national bodies, including the Environmental Council of States and the Great Lakes Commission. He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky and an undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati.
Findings from the statewide recycling needs assessment — packaging and paper analysis, waste characterization, and the data shaping Illinois' next decade of recycling education and infrastructure.
Use this break to fill the gaps on your card. You need a sticker from every exhibitor to qualify — and this is prime booth-visiting time.
Three Illinois case studies in circular solutions for food and organic waste — community-scale source-separated collection, waste reduction at public institutions, and industrial-scale processing into digestate and renewable natural gas.
Susannah Sun, Business Operations Manager
Green Era · Chicago, IL
Bio
Susannah manages business operations for Green Era, focusing on urban farming and anaerobic digestion models in Chicago.
Tommy Vaughan, Growth & Municipal Manager
WasteNot · Chicago, IL
Bio
Tommy leads growth efforts for WasteNot, focusing on high-impact organics collection in municipal sectors.
Zach Samaras, Zero Waste Program Manager
ISTC · with Cook County Health
Bio
Zach Samaras is the Zero Waste Program Manager within ISTC's Center for Economic Impacts & Societal Benefits.
He specializes in guiding municipalities and organizations toward sustainable materials management and increased waste diversion, leading comprehensive waste audits and characterization studies, facilitating stakeholder education, and providing specialized technical assistance for hard-to-divert materials.
Amy O'Rourke, MPH, Director, Chronic Disease Prevention and Control
Cook County Department of Public Health
Bio
Amy O'Rourke, MPH, is the Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control at the Cook County Department of Public Health, where she leads initiatives promoting healthy eating, active living, tobacco-free communities, and chronic disease prevention through policy and systems change.
She also oversees implementation of the Cook County Good Food Purchasing Program and previously led community health equity and chronic lung disease initiatives. Amy holds a B.S. in Molecular Biology and a Master of Public Health.
Follow textiles from Illinois collection points through sorting, grading, domestic resale, export and fiber markets — then connect those downstream realities back to local education and diversion. The session explains how clothing quality, market conditions, public communication, and program design influence whether clothing is reused, recycled, or discarded.
Justin Woycke, Vice President
Chicago Textile Recycling · Carol Stream, IL
Bio
Justin oversees global market strategy for recycled textiles at Chicago Textile Recycling.
Merleanne Hiett Rampale
SWALCO · Solid Waste Agency of Lake County
Bio
Merleanne coordinates textile diversion programs and community outreach for SWALCO.
Paige Wilkins, Chief Executive Officer
Re-Tex
Bio
A smarter end for every thread. Paige Wilkins is the CEO of Re-Tex, which helps brands and communities build responsible systems for end-of-life clothing, shoes, and accessories through recycling, reuse, and secure destruction.
Re-Tex closes the loop with care, transparency, and measurable impact, including a school-partner program that keeps clothing in circulation and out of landfills.
Coordinated regional campaigns and real-time digital tools are changing how Illinois communities reach residents. This session pairs the grant-funded Feed the Cart initiative with Chicago's Recycle Coach rollout across 625,000 households — outreach design, baseline data, partner coordination, behavior change, and measurable improvements in diversion.
Juliet Mathey, Recycling Education & Outreach Specialist
Metropolitan Mayors Caucus
Bio
Juliet Mathey is a Recycling Education & Outreach Specialist with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, where she coordinates the regional Feed the Cart campaign and its partner organizations. She develops programs that help communities improve recycling practices and advance circular economy initiatives.
Carter O'Brien, Assistant Commissioner
Recycling and Materials Management · City of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation
Bio
Carter O'Brien leads sustainability initiatives for the City of Chicago, focusing on digital tools and community engagement to improve residential recycling rates and waste diversion.
Residents, recyclers, public works departments, haulers, and local governments are all being asked to manage more batteries — from household cells to lithium-ion batteries embedded in electronics, tools, toys, and e-bikes. This session explains how The Battery Network's Illinois program works, why local government participation matters, how collected batteries are sorted and processed, what downstream markets exist for different chemistries, and how communities can address safety concerns including damaged or defective batteries.
Marta Keane, Regional State Stewardship Manager
The Battery Network
Bio
Marta's environmental career began in Chicago with a greeting card company that made cards from recycled paper. She went on to work for St. Charles and Geneva expanding curbside services, offering special drop-off collections, and addressing multi-family recycling while expanding business and school recovery efforts.
She joined the City of Naperville in 1995, where she added management of a household hazardous waste site to her resume. She later served as Will County Recycling Program Specialist for 20 years and as Chair of the Illinois Product Stewardship Council for 10, passing several statewide laws to improve services. She was honored with the Steve Apotheker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025 and the Paul Butler Award in 2026. She began working to expand battery recycling with The Battery Network in January, adding over a hundred sites to Illinois' growing network.
Stephanie Weeks, Senior Product Portfolio Manager
The Battery Network
Bio
Stephanie Weeks is the Senior Product Portfolio Manager at The Battery Network, where she supports battery stewardship, recycling, and sustainable materials management initiatives. She focuses on product development, product fulfillment, and a partnership with PHMSA on Special Permits that enable easy and safe collection and transportation of batteries for recycling.
Practical strategies to reduce packaging waste, expand reuse systems, and move food businesses toward safer compostable foodware. Presenters share real-world examples, funding and policy context, and implementation lessons for circular, cost-conscious systems.
Aleksandra Plewa, CEO
EcoShip NFP · Chicago, IL
Bio
As CEO of EcoShip NFP, Aleksandra leads efforts to reduce shipping waste by providing a circular network for packaging materials across Chicago.
Cassie Carroll, Assistant Director / Founder
EnergySense Resilience Center · Illinois Green Business Program
Bio
Cassie is a sustainability leader dedicated to helping food businesses transition to PFAS-free and compostable alternatives through the Illinois Green Business Program.
Paper markets and resource-recovery systems are evolving. George Ward Jr. examines changes in paper generation, recovered-fiber markets, contamination, pricing, processing impacts, and end-market acceptance. Carolee Kokola shares practical, low-cost approaches to capturing and reusing materials through hands-on circular strategies. Together, the presentations connect changing market conditions with real-world opportunities for resource recovery and reuse.
George Ward Jr., Waste Diversion Director
Midwest Paper Retriever · Joliet, IL
Bio
George manages waste diversion and recycling market fluctuations at Midwest Paper Retriever, specializing in paper supply chain logistics.
Carolee Kokola, Director of Enterprise Operations
Bubbly Dynamics LLC / The Plant · Chicago, IL
Bio
Carolee oversees operations at Bubbly Dynamics and The Plant, a collaborative community of food businesses practicing closed-loop resource management in Chicago.
Take another lap of the exhibit hall now. To qualify, your card needs a sticker from each exhibitor — don’t leave a booth unchecked.
All attendees reconvene for a plenary on the future of producer responsibility in Illinois. Illinois is entering a new phase of materials management as producer-funded recovery and recycling programs expand across batteries, electronics, packaging, and other material streams. This plenary brings together leaders working across product stewardship and extended producer responsibility to examine how existing programs intersect, where implementation challenges remain, and what may come next for Illinois.
Roxane Peggs
The Battery Network
Bio
Roxane Peggs is a battery stewardship and recycling policy professional with The Battery Network. She works with industry and government partners to advance sustainable battery management, Extended Producer Responsibility initiatives, and battery recycling programs across North America.
Jacki Cooperider
Illinois EPA
Bio
Jacki Cooperider serves in leadership within the Illinois EPA Bureau of Land, bringing extensive experience in environmental engineering, waste permitting, compliance, and materials management.
Christina Seibert
SWANCC · Illinois Product Stewardship Council
Bio
Christina Seibert brings electronics, recycling, and product stewardship experience to the panel through her work with SWANCC and the Illinois Product Stewardship Council.
Jason Linnell
National Center for Electronics Recycling
Bio
Jason Linnell leads the National Center for Electronics Recycling, bringing a national perspective on electronics recycling, producer responsibility programs, and state policy implementation.
Before you settle into the evening, make sure you have visited all exhibitors and collected every sticker required to qualify.
Thursday
Closing day: specialty diversion case studies, large-scale organics, and the SWANA Young Professionals plenary — followed by closing remarks and an optional afternoon tour of three Chicagoland circular economy sites.
Practical approaches to keeping valuable materials out of landfills while providing people with access to affordable necessities — through specialty recycling, reuse, and donation. Learn how organizations turn unwanted but reusable goods into resources while creating environmental and community benefits.
Nathan Montgomery, Executive Director
Salt & Light · Urbana, IL
Bio
Nathan leads Salt & Light in Urbana, developing retail-based circularity models that bridge social services with sustainable waste management.
Betsy Ruckman, Sustainability Technician
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Bio
Betsy provides technical assistance for sustainability projects at ISTC, specializing in diversion metrics and specialty recycling streams.
Mary Novak, Chief Revenue Officer & Sustainability Leader
Chicago Furniture Bank · Chicago, IL
Bio
Mary drives sustainability and growth at the Chicago Furniture Bank, diverting tons of furniture from landfills to provide for neighbors in need.
A closer look at the potential for large-scale organics diversion in Illinois — the history and current state of practice, and what future policy to improve food waste diversion might look like. Hear a practitioner's view of how large-scale organics diversion has worked in other areas of the country, including hauling logistics, processing capacity, and markets for the resulting compost, digestate, and renewable natural gas.
Walter S. Willis, Executive Director
Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO)
Bio
Walter S. Willis is the Executive Director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, where he leads regional solid waste planning, recycling, and food scrap diversion programs serving Lake County communities.
John O'Halloran, Organics Market Manager (IL, MO)
Vanguard Renewables
Bio
John O'Halloran is the Organics Market Manager for Illinois and Missouri at Vanguard Renewables, working to advance large-scale organics recycling, anaerobic digestion, renewable energy production, and practical diversion solutions for food and beverage generators.
Voices from the next generation of solid waste and circular economy practitioners in Illinois — pathways into the field, current projects, barriers encountered, and priorities shaping the work ahead. Co-organized by the SWANA Illinois Young Professionals network.
A guided afternoon tour of three Chicagoland circular economy sites — hard-to-recycle materials, organics-to-energy, and electronics refurbishment — showing how the topics covered in the program operate at street level.
Separate tour registration is required.The Center for Hard to Recycle Materials at South Suburban College — a permanent drop-off facility diverting millions of pounds of difficult-to-recycle materials from landfills and waterways. Programs include a recycling warehouse, composting, and mobile event services.
A first-of-its-kind community-owned circular economy campus on Chicago's South Side that converts food waste into renewable energy, usable digestate, and good local jobs.
An electronics recycler and Battery Network program participant — see how donated electronics are refurbished and redistributed to low-income households and nonprofits, closing the loop on e-waste while bridging the digital divide.
Every presentation we’ve received, in one place. Slides are posted as PDF or PowerPoint files depending on the format provided by the presenter. More are added as speakers send them in.
Register to secure your spot at the 2026 Illinois Circularity Conference, or build your personal schedule before you arrive.