Concurrent Session F: Evolving Markets, Evolving Responsibilities

Lorenzo Donini

Lorenzo is the Director, Government Affairs and Municipal Relationships - Solid Waste West at GFL Environmental Inc. He is one of the former owners of Ever Green Ecological Services, which was instrumental in bringing curbside recycling and automated waste and organics collection programs to Central and Northern Alberta; as well as popularizing many LEED programs for major construction projects in the Edmonton Region.

Lorenzo has fourteen years of experience designing, implementing, tracking and guiding integrated residential and commercial waste collection programs aimed at Landfill diversion. Typical programs achieve between 55 to 65% diversion from Landfill routinely. In his current position, Lorenzo is responsible for the basic assumptions and philosophy of most of GFL’s Western Canadian Municipal programs as well as the daily operation of a state-of-the-art Material Recovery Facility in Edmonton, built under Ever Green in 2014.

Jodi Tomchyshyn London

Jodi has more than 16 years’ experience working in the fields of waste minimization and recycling policy and program implementation, and she has operated her own consulting firm, JTL Squared Consulting Inc., since 2016.

Over her career, Jodi has held senior positions with the Alberta Used Oil Management Association, where she acted as their Executive Director, Waste Diversion Ontario, where she was their Manager of Policy & Planning, and the governments of Ontario and Alberta where she acted as a senior policy advisor. During her time with the Alberta government, Jodi was also seconded to New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment as a senior waste policy advisor.

Jodi is also an avid volunteer: she is the current President of the Recycling Council of Alberta and a Director on the Board of Goodwill Alberta.

Jodi holds the degrees of Master of Environmental Design (Environmental Science) from the University of Calgary, Bachelor of Science (Environmental Biology) from the University of Alberta, and a certificate in Dispute Resolution from York University.

Joe Hruska

Joe Hruska is Vice-President of Sustainability at the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) where he leads the development and execution of sustainability, advocacy, and partnership programs to promote solutions that increase the recycling and recovery of plastics at end-of-life and that reduce marine litter. 

Joe Hruska brings to this position a wealth of experience from various sectors including steel, petroleum, commercial banking, public policy and environmental protection. For more than 30 years, he has initiated product stewardship and environmental strategy policies and programs to promote positive change to drive the circular economy and sustainable materials management.

With his trademark leadership, vision and energy, he is the driving force behind an array of priority efforts at CPIA, including strengthening domestic end markets for used plastics resources, addressing impacts of domestic and international policies on plastic products and packaging, and analysing impacts and opportunities of plastics use and management throughout Canada.

Joe was a founding director and senior executive of the original Ontario Multi-Material Recycling Incorporated (OMMRI) where he worked to establish the Ontario Blue Box recycling system, markets for collected materials and policies in partnerships with industry and governments to support resource recovery. In 1996, he revisioned OMMRI into Corporations Supporting Recycling (CSR) to establish sustainable Blue Box Funding and stewardship programs in Ontario. In addition, he has been a director on the Recycling Council of Ontario and has provided advice and counsel as a director for other organizations, including Third Sector Recycling, Municipal Waste Integration Network and Collecte sélective Québec.