EPA Environmental Specialist to speak at Government Relations Committee

2007-02-12 | 08:14

Sara Willis Hartwell, an environmental specialist with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), will discuss “EPA Perspectives on Sustainability in Packaging for the Personal Care Products Industry” at the Government Relations Committee meeting on Friday, March 2 from 12:45 - 1:45 pm. Discarded packaging comprises nearly 30% of the municipal solid waste stream, and represents billions of dollars in wasted resources, trillions of BTUs of wasted energy, and greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to millions of metric tons of carbon. Consumers are asking for “greener” choices, and retailers and consumer packaged goods companies are considering ways to provide packaging for their products that meets those demands. Ms. Hartwell will talk about EPA’s collaborations with the supply chain to design packages with a reduced environmental footprint, and to quantify the energy and climate benefits of packaging choices. Hartwell works in the Innovation, Partnership and Communications Office, focusing on reducing the amount of packaging that ends up in municipal solid waste. She is an analytical chemist that has worked as a packaging R chemist, as well as in hazardous waste. Her recent focus on packaging in the waste stream has led her to collaborations with consumer packaged goods companies, retailers, converters, and raw materials producers.