***PSI Chapter President's Message*** | | |
A Look Back at
PSI's 2025 Highlights
Tamara Mayberry
PSI Chapter President
Pioneer Industries International
As 2025 winds down, it's a great time to look back and reflect on the ReMA PSI Chapter's highlights from this year. Here's a summary of the chapter's "greatest hits" in 2025:
| | ■ PSI's current membership stands at 75 member companies, including eight new members and one rejoined member in 2025. | | |
■ PSI awarded $55,000 to 21 students in its annual scholarship program, setting records yet again for the total funds awarded and the number of student recipients. This year’s scholarship total included one $5,000 grand-prize scholarship and 20 $2,500 merit scholarships. Special thanks to the many donors who made PSI's scholarship success possible. (Click HERE to view a list of the 2025 recipients or to learn more about the PSI scholarship program.)
| | ■ As usual, PSI had a high-profile presence at the Paper and Plastics Recycling Conference (PPRC), held in October in Chicago, beginning with a PSI reception, where we socialized and celebrated the great success of the PSI scholarship program in 2025. | |
At PPRC, PSI also had a joint membership-promo booth with ReMA national and sponsored a panel session titled “PSI Specifications: Past, Present, and Future." Past PSI Chapter President Leonard Zeid of Midland Davis Trading moderated that informative session, which examined how PSI specifications have changed over time to keep pace with the ever-evolving recovered paper industry. Special thanks to our panel speakers: PSI Chapter Secretary/Treasurer Ed Tucciarone of Graphic Packaging International, Krystina Smith of Smurfit WestRock, and Justin Jungman of PADNOS. (Above photo shows, left to right, Zeid, Tucciarone, Smith, and Jungman.)
As part of the PSI fun at the PPRC event, we raffled off an iPad Mini A17 Pro. Michael Cheesebro of Graphic Packaging International was the lucky winner!
| | ■ PSI's officers and members represented the chapter's interests at several association and industry events throughout 2025, including the following gatherings: | | |
—At the ReMA annual convention, held in San Diego in May, PSI held a member dinner at Lou & Mickey’s in the Gaslamp Quarter, attended the ReMA Women in Recycling Council reception, and held a Spotlight on Paper session. GiGi Gebhardt of Synergy Waste Management Group moderated that session, which featured Past PSI Chapter President Leonard Zeid of Midland Davis Trading, Jeff Ryalls of International Forest Products, and Terry Webber of the American Forest & Paper Association. (Above photo shows, left to right, Webber, Ryalls, Gebhardt, and Zeid.)
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—Beyond attending the ReMA annual convention, I—along with other PSI officers and members—attended the winter, summer, and fall ReMA board meetings in Washington, D.C. (Feb. 25-27), Nashville, Tenn. (July 15-17), and Scottsdale, Ariz. (Oct. 7-9). At the summer meeting, PSI officers and members gathered for a bit of extra networking and socializing during a member dinner at The Twelve Thirty Club in downtown Nashville (see photo above left).
—And last but not least, nine PSI members and I attended the ReMA Great Lakes Regional Conference, held Aug. 4-6 in Erie, Pennsylvania.
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■ PSI Chapter members organized and/or participated in various virtual and in-person events throughout the year, including the following webinars and panel sessions:
—Past PSI Chapter President Johnny Gold of The Gold Group Recycling Consultants moderated the “Recovered Paper Update 2025” online discussion, a Jan. 15 webinar offered by ReMA and Davis Index. The session featured Past PSI Chapter President Myles Cohen of Circular Ventures, Ryan Fox of Bloomberg News, Jason Pelz of Tetra Pak, Jeff Rice of CellMark Recycling, and PSI Chapter Secretary/Treasurer Ed Tucciarone of Graphic Packaging International.
—PSI joined forces with the Recycling Today Media Group’s Paper and Plastics Recycling Conference to offer a Jan. 23 webinar on “Transportation and Logistics.” Past PSI Chapter President Nini Krever of The Wilmington Group moderated the session, which featured speakers Carl Bentzel, former commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission; Karyn Booth, partner and chair of the transportation practice, Thompson Hine LLP; and Robyn Lyons, head of strategic commodities–office-based sales, Maersk.
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—The PSI Chapter and the ReMA Paper Division organized a three-part webinar series on “Advancing the Paper Recycled Materials Industry.” The first webinar, held Nov. 19, provided a legislative update on paper trade and tariff issues. The remaining two webinars will be held in 2026, covering best practices in paper safety and operations (Jan. 6) and innovations in paper sorting and baling (March 3). Click HERE for more information or to register for the webinars.
■ PSI continued to recognize chapter leaders and members in its "Profiles in Paper" interview series. In 2025, our 10 Q&A's shined the spotlight on the following PSI colleagues: Rick Post of Pratt Recycling; Matt McDermott of Circular Services; Paige Denton of Recycling Management Resources; Justin Jungman of PADNOS; Joel Burkle of Graphic Packaging International; Anna Brock of Dixie Pulp & Paper Inc.; Myles Cohen of Circular Ventures; Laura Davis of Midland Davis Corp.; John Sacco of Sierra International Machinery; and Wayne DiCastri of Pioneer Industries International.
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