Christine Hughes
Resource Recovery and Recycling Lead
“Recycling is crucial, not just for customers, but our society’s wellbeing.”
Since her early days building electric motorcycles, Christine has been passionate about lower carbon forms of energy and recycling. Based in Vancouver, Christine joined our materials handling group seven years ago to make a difference on a global scale.
Now, as the Resource Recovery and Recycling Lead, she has dedicated herself to creating circular solutions for plastic recycling. She also lends her expertise to helping companies develop effective waste management strategies.
“I guide companies to develop strategies to recycle more materials and reduce waste,” she says. “On the technical side, I design material recovery facilities (MRFs) that sort and clean plastics, turning them into feedstock for biofuels or new plastics.”
Driving recycling efforts that impact everyone
Christine says people are becoming more aware of the lifecycle of plastics. As a result, she has noticed that a growing number of companies are taking an interest in more sustainable solutions.
“Less than 10 percent of plastics worldwide are currently recycled. In North America, the rate is even lower at around seven percent,” she explains.
Christine remains hopeful that the use of recycling services will increase. She’s observed a shift towards managing recycling domestically, especially since China enacted its SWORD policy in 2017. This sparked a boom in recycling projects across North America.
“There’s an interesting split between companies aiming for localized recycling to reduce transportation costs and those building mega-MRFs with significantly higher capacities. I’m curious to see how these strategies play out,” she says.
Managing customer expectations around recycled plastics
Plastic feedstock refers to the raw materials, such as recycled resin pellets, used to create plastic products.
Christine notes that the volume and composition of plastic feedstocks can be less precise or controlled than our customers might expect.
“Feedstock variability is inevitable,” she says. “During COVID, for example, when everyone was ordering take-out, the composition of plastics in recycling changed overnight. My background in oil and gas engineering and resource recovery has equipped me to bridge this gap.”
While the initial uptake of plastic recycling services has been slower than she would like to see, Christine is confident the industry will make significant progress over the next 10 years. And she is invigorated by the challenge.
“Since recycling impacts everyone, it’s given me the opportunity to work with a vast range of people. It really feels like a global community,” she says.
