Committee Members

Recycling Week Committee Members​ brought together global leaders, each a beacon of hope. In a bustling auditorium, diverse voices merged, weaving a tapestry of ideas. Energy pulsed through the air as they shared innovative solutions and bold commitments. With eloquence and passion, they painted a picture of harmony between nature and humanity. The audience, inspired and determined, left with a renewed mission to forge a greener future. The panel had ignited a fire, illuminating the path to a sustainable tomorrow.

Paolo Trucco

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Paolo Trucco is Full Professor of Industrial Risk Management with the School of Management, Politecnico di Milano (Italy), where he is also Director of the Centre for Risk and Resilience Management of Complex Systems, and member of the Scientific Board of the Centre for Technology Foresight. His research and professional activities range from Supply Chain Risk Management and Resilience, Circular Economy and sustainability transitions in capital intensive industries, to capital project risks in the context of Climate Change and Energy Transition. He is advisor of DG Home Affairs (EC) on Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource Supply Chain Resilience, and member of the Observatory for Circular Economy and Energy Transition of the Lombardy Region Government. He is Polimi representative at ERMA (European Raw Materials Alliance – EIT RawMaterials). He is member of the board of ANIMP (The Italian Association of Industrial Plant Engineering). He is author of more than 290 scientific publications and is hosted as commentator on TV and journals on industrial strategy and management topics.

Joe Dos Santos

Founder and President of Dos Santos International, USA

Joe Dos Santos is the founder and President of Dos Santos International. Joe has a B.S. and Masters of Civil Engineering from Cornell University and continued post graduated study in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a registered professional engineer and holds licenses in several states. Joe has worked in the field of bulk materials for over 40 years. He has published several major study reports on high angle conveyors and has written numerous technical articles on modern continuous haulage systems and equipment. He is the inventor of 3 US and foreign patents covering the HAC® High Angle Conveyor. He is the inventor of the DSI Sandwich belt high angle conveyor system. Joe is the President and Founder of Dos Santos International.

Denis Rodrigue

Université Laval, Canada

Denis Rodrigue obtained a B.Sc. (1991) and a Ph.D. (1996) in chemical engineering from Université de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, Canada) with a specialization in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics. In 1996 he moved to Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada) where he is now full professor. Since then, he has been an invited professor at the University of Guadalajara (Mexico), the Technical Institute of Karlsruhe (Germany), the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the University of Arts and Sciences of Hunan (China), the Technical University of Lodz (Poland) and Polytech Tours (France). His main research areas are in the characterization and the modelling of the morphological / mechanical / thermal / rheological properties of polymer foams and composites based on thermoplastics and elastomers. His main focus is related to polymer recycling and rheology.

Marc Marin-Genesca

Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain

Marc Marin-Genesca has achieved the PhD in September 2011 in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in a thesis based on waste composite materials, analyzing materials characteristics, from that date, his research works has been analyzed some aspects mainly focused on polymeric composites, analyzing mechanical, thermal, structure and dielectrics properties, among the possible applications for those composites. From 2015 is researcher and professor in Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Tarragona (Catalonia).

Elza Bontempi

University of Brescia, Italy

Elza Bontempi has a permanent position at the University of Brescia where she is currently a Full Professor teaching courses in Fundamentals of Chemistry for the Technologies. She is responsible for the research line concerning eco-materials at the Chemistry for Technologies Laboratory. She has been responsible for several national and international research projects, developing new technologies and new sustainable materials, coming from waste and by-products. In recent years, his scientific activity has focused on the recovery of critical raw materials in the field of circular economy, such as lithium and cobalt, from exhausted batteries. She is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and several patents in the field of material recovery. She is included in the list of Unstoppable Women (the 1000 women that are changing Italy) and the Top Italian Scientists (https://topitalianscientists.org/) in the field of natural and environmental sciences (https://elza-bontempi.unibs.it) and in the 100 experts list (https://100esperte.it/).

Julia Margarete Puaschunder

Columbia University, USA

Julia Margarete Puaschunder is a highly accomplished scholar with a diverse academic background, holding degrees in Philosophy/Psychology, Business, Public Administration, Social and Economic Sciences, Natural Sciences, Global Political Economy and Finance, Law, and Economics. With over 20 years of experience in applied social sciences empirical research on an international scale, she has undertaken projects and contributed to various entities globally. Julia’s extensive list of affiliations includes advisory roles, board memberships, evaluations, and contributions to prestigious organizations such as the European Commission, World Economic Forum, Harvard University, and many more. She has actively participated in conferences, served as a speaker, and advised on topics related to Artificial Intelligence, robotics, big data, and environmental justice.

Mentore Vaccari

University of Brescia, Italy

Mentore Vaccari – MSc in Civil Engineering at the University of Brescia (Italy) in 1999, he got a PhD in Sanitary Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan in 2003. He is currently Associate Professor of Sanitary-Environmental Engineering at the University of Brescia. He is Director of CeRAR – Research Center on “Remediation and recovery of contaminated ites and brownfields”. He is Vice Director of CeTAmb – Research Center on “Appropriate technologies for environmental management in resource-limited Countries”. His main research interests are solid waste management (i.e. collection, treatment, material and/or energy recovery, disposal), contaminated site remediation, health risk assessment, wastewater treatment and reuse, circular economy and industrial symbiosis, appropriate technologies for developing Countries. He has coordinated numerous national and international research projects. He is author of around 300 scientific publications. He has been a speaker at over 120 conferences.

Patrick Martin

University of Artois, France

Patrick Martin, Professor at the University of Artois (Béthune, France) and Director of the Artois site of the Unit Transformations et Agroressources (ULR 7519) is expert in bio-based chemistry (extraction, characterization, formulation/modification). He is specialized in the conception of bio-based products starting from biomolecules and biopolymers as raw material by chemical or chemio-enzymatic pathways. His current research interests are in the field; glycochemistry, lipochemistry, secondary metabolites.

Gordon Huang

University of Regina, Canada.

Gordon Huang is currently working as a professor in Environmental systems engineering at University of Regina, Canada. He is also a Canada Research Chair and Fellow at Canadian Academy of Engineering. He completed his Ph.D. at McMaster University, Canada.

Daniele Pace

CEO at Frieden & Partners SRL, Italy

Daniele Pace is CEO at Frieden & Partners SRL, an international business advisor located in Italy. He was previously partner at EPT Engineering SPA until 2010, a company involved in EPC projects in the field of separate waste collection integrated systems for public authorities and private large communities. By 2009, Frieden & Partners foundation year, he has collaborated with several Italian companies to start business abroad, with particular reference to the GCC area, India, Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the main European countries. The most projects was developed in GCC area thanks to his personal long time relationships with all the four strategic contact typologies: industrial, political, financial, social. His first priority is the business development of those projects that can give to a country a significant boost to reducing its economy dependency from hydrocarbon and reducing CO2 impact. He is currently committed in developing Waste to Energy and Green Ammonia projects.

Javier Fiz Perez

European University of Rome, Italy

Prof. Javier Fiz Perez, an esteemed scholar with extensive expertise in real economy, sustainable and circular economy, and European ecological ESG principles based on the 17 UN goals, holds a distinguished academic background. He earned his degree in Philosophy with honors from the PUG University and specialized in Ethics and Behavioral Sciences and Philosophical Anthropology at the Pontifical Athenaeum APRA. He has also been an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Ph.D. in Bioethics and an EMBA from LUISS Guido Carli-Roma. Prof. Perez has held significant roles, including CO-President of Emerging Markets Sme Connect Europe being also President of the IC-IF organization specializing in business training and consulting. He is also Vice-president of CORE VALUES contributing to various international academic and research initiatives with.

Henning Gramann

GSR Services GmbH, Germany

Henning holds a degree as Environmental Engineer (Diplomingenieur, Dipl.-Ing.) and is actively involved in maritime environmental protection since more than 20 years. Since 2005 he´s working in the field of ship recycling and has become a leading expert for all aspects of green ship recycling and compliance data management. In 2011 he has established GSR Services GmbH for supporting all stakeholders for cost-effective compliance with Hong Kong Convention and EURegulation on Ship Recycling from cradle to grave. . In addition, he´s guest professor at the World Maritime University (WMU).

Mr Jose Ramon Carbajosa

The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Mr Jose Ramon Carbajosa has extended knowledge of EU legislation on Extended Producer Responsibility Systems (EPR) and more than a decade of executive experience managing Spain’s largest Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) for WEEE and Batteries. At present, he is a consultant working in international waste, environment, climate change and circular economy projects in Africa (Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal) and the Middle East (Jordan) General professional experience Over 6 years of experience of an actively practising consultant with a focus on EU compliance with the European Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive – Spain. 

Jan-Olof Drangert

Linköping University, Sweden

Dr. Jan-Olof Drangert is em. Assoc. professor at Linköping University. His area of studies started with water issues in rural areas, thereafter urban sanitation challenges, and presently global environmental impacts of food systems. He has published more than 50 articles in reputed journals and has been serving as Guest Editor to several publications.

Xukai Fu

Beijing Jinkai New Energy Environmental Technology Co., Ltd, Australia

Xukai Fu currently serves as the director of Beijing Jinkai New Energy Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. As a serial entrepreneur, he entered the circular economy industry in 2009, becoming one of the early pioneers in China’s research and application of new energy sanitation vehicles, thus emerging as a leading figure within the industry.

He is dedicated to the field of sanitation informatization, driving urban sanitation management towards precision, digitization, and intelligence. By employing AI artificial intelligence and digital technology, integrating IoT big data, and assembling intelligent terminal modules with a smart sanitation informatization cloud management platform, he has realized a “closed-loop” sanitation service system of “service, management, and disposal,” leveraging years of commercialization experience within the industry to promote a comprehensive upgrade of the sanitation industry.

Alireza Heidari

California South University, USA

Prof. Dr. Alireza Heidari, Ph.D., D.Sc. is a Full Distinguished Professor and Academic Tenure of Chemistry and also Enrico Fermi Distinguished Chair in Molecular Spectroscopy at California South University (CSU), Irvine, California, USA. He has participated at more than eight hundred reputed international conferences, seminars, webinars, congresses, summits, meetings, symposiums and forums around the world as yet. Also, he possesses many published articles in Web of Science, Scopus, SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, ESCI, HEC, PMDC, PubMed, Medline and NLM. He has a history of several years of teaching for college students and various disciplines and trends in different universities. Moreover, he has been a senior advisor in various industries and factories. He is expert in many computer programs and programming languages. Hitherto, he has authored more than twenty books and book chapters in different fields of Chemistry.