2025 Conference PowerPoint Presentations
On this page, you’ll find the session PowerPoint presentations from the 2025 NYSAR3 Annual Conference & Trade Show, held Wednesday, November 12th thru Friday, November 14th, at The Otesaga, Cooperstown, NY.
Conference attendees and NYSAR3 members can also access conference recordings. Nonmember attendees have access for 90 days, expiring March 16, 2026, while NYSAR3 members enjoy unlimited access.
AGENDA
November 12, 2025
Reciprocity and Heart: A Path to Collaborative and Inclusive Leadership
Dr. Valerie Luzadis leads an opening dialogue in a time when the challenges we face are increasingly complex and interconnected, leadership rooted in empathy, collaboration, and environmental responsibility has never been more essential. This keynote explores how leading with the heart—grounded in compassion, authenticity, and shared purpose—can drive powerful collective action for sustainable change.
Shared Success: How to Build Meaningful Strategic Partnerships (No PowerPoint)
What does it truly mean to lead collaboratively? This session explores practical strategies for fostering collaboration within your team and organization, as well as building effective external partnerships that amplify impact. Learn how shared vision, trust, and inclusive decision-making can transform leadership from a top-down role into a collective force for change.
Closet Relationships - Enclothed Cognition & Sustainable Wardrobes
Discover how clothing shapes how we feel, act, and interact with the world — and how these choices impact sustainability. This session explores enclothed cognition, the emotional and sensory influence of textiles, and mindful wardrobe practices that extend garment life and support a circular fashion system.
Rethink, Reduce, Recharge: A Mentoring Exchange
This dynamic session fosters meaningful peer-to-peer engagement through structured, facilitator-led interactive dialogue. Participants will engage in guided conversations designed to surface shared challenges, exchange practical insights, and co-develop strategies for more effective collaboration.
The session leverages the collective experience of participants to strengthen team dynamics, encourage knowledge sharing, and build a supportive professional network. Ideal for those looking to deepen collaboration within and across teams, this session creates space for active listening, mentorship, and co-creation of solutions.
Give a (food) Scrap About the Future (No PowerPoint)
This engaging session brings together early-career professionals and seasoned experts from the recycling, reuse, reduction, and sustainable materials management fields. Through guided conversation and peer exchange, we’ll explore the evolving challenges and opportunities across the industry — from adapting to policy changes and advancing circular economy goals to integrating innovation and equity in waste reduction strategies.
Participants will share real-world experiences, challenge assumptions, and co-create fresh approaches to persistent problems. Whether you're just starting out or have years of insight, this is a space to connect across generations, spark new ideas, and strengthen the collective impact of our work in building a more sustainable future.
November 13, 2025
Policy, the Production of Ignorance, & the Challenges of Building More Circular Systems
Join Keynote speaker Dr. Laura Rabinow to discuss the challenges of and need to build more circular systems that recognize the ways our current policies, environmental media and materials, and knowledges systems are interlinked – and do so through a discussion of PFAS with respect to drinking water and biosolids
This session will focus on engaging our local leaders in EPR policy, drivers, and implementation in the context of the Phase 1 and 2 New York State Recycling System Needs Assessment data. After a brief introduction to NYSAR3’s legislative priorities and activities, our municipal leaders and stakeholders in the room will participate in a dialogue to explore the current state of our recycling systems, including a review of the New York State Recycling System Needs Assessment, as well as how the currently proposed packaging EPR bills may or may not address issues identified within our current system.
Designing for the Future - Infrastructure that Works
As materials, consumer habits, and sustainability goals evolve, so too must the infrastructure that supports our recycling systems. This session explores what it takes to bring recycling into the 21st century — from upgrading outdated equipment and improving sorting technologies, to redesigning collection systems and integrating digital tools.
Whether you're a policymaker, program manager, or industry leader, this session will provide practical approaches and innovative examples for transforming recycling infrastructure to meet today’s challenges — and tomorrow’s circular economy.
Materials Measurements: Metrics & Motivations
What gets measured, gets managed — but in the complex world of recycling, how we measure materials can shape outcomes, priorities, and public perception. This session dives into the critical role of metrics and data in advancing effective recycling systems and shaping sustainable materials management strategies.
Whether you're motivated by environmental impact, regulatory compliance, or operational efficiency, this session will help you better understand the power — and limitations — of measurement in moving toward a more circular economy.
Reducing Textile Waste - From Design to Refuse
Textile waste is a growing environmental challenge. Explore strategies to reduce waste across the fashion lifecycle, from design to disposal. Topics include sustainable design, consumer refuse planning and support, overcoming secondhand stigmas, and innovative circular solutions.
Let Me Tell You About Your Garbage
Presented by Stony Brook Waste Data and Analysis Center, this session presents key findings from the latest New York State Waste Characterization Study, offering a deep dive into the data shaping the future of recycling and organics management.
Through rigorous analysis and statewide sampling, the study reveals critical trends in material composition, contamination rates, and diversion potential — helping stakeholders better understand what's really in the waste stream and where the greatest opportunities lie for impact.
Whether you're a policymaker, hauler, sustainability professional, or local official, this session will provide actionable intelligence to drive smarter, more targeted waste reduction efforts across New York and beyond.
Hard to Recycle Items: Finding Solutions for the Tough Stuff
From film plastics and foam packaging to mattresses, carpets, and bulky goods — some materials just don’t fit easily into traditional recycling systems. This session dives into the complex world of hard-to-recycle items, exploring the challenges they present and the innovative solutions emerging to manage them more effectively.
This session will provide practical insights, real-world case studies, and strategies to help you tackle the "tough stuff" in your own waste stream.
This session will provide timely updates on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)'s key waste reduction and reuse initiatives. Attendees will hear the latest developments on:
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The expanded foam ban, including new restrictions on EPS (expanded polystyrene) coolers
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Implementation of the ban on small personal care product bottles in hotels
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Progress on the launch of DEC’s Reuse and Repair Grant Program
Join DEC representatives as they outline current policy changes, discuss anticipated impacts on local governments and businesses, and answer questions about what’s ahead for waste reduction and reuse efforts in New York State.
November 14, 2025
This interactive session will elevate the voices of women who are shaping the future of circularity through innovation, advocacy and action. Hosted by circular economy leader MaryEllen Etienne, the session draws inspiration from her widely read 'Women in Circularity' series and invites attendees to connect through personal stories of resilience, collaboration and systems change. This informal, conversational session is designed to spark meaningful discussion among peers and inspire new perspectives across sectors.
Addressing Food Waste with Bugs, Biochar, and Better Date Labeling
From food loss prevention to organics recycling to soil health , this session will feature three unique approaches to sustainable organics management. Learn about the important roles that invertebrates play in the composting process, how biochar pellets are produced from food waste and the soil health benefits they provide, and how improved date labeling can help consumers reduce food loss and save money.
This interactive session will guide participants through the process of designing and deploying effective reuse systems in their own communities—drawing from successful examples, emerging infrastructure models, and lessons learned from collaborative stakeholder engagement. As interest in reuse grows across New York State, the need to share best practices, avoid duplication of efforts, and embed reuse into broader Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) and Zero Waste strategies has become essential.
Participants will examine working reuse models such as the PERF (Product Evaluation and Repair Facility)—an innovative concept that provides the municipal infrastructure needed to evaluate, repair, and redistribute reusable goods, keeping them out of the waste stream entirely. They will also explore how measurement and data collection on reuse activity can fuel policy advancement, funding, and program expansion.
Join us for a conversation as we delve into the challenges of creating a thriving market for recycled glass. We’ll discuss ways to combat a patchwork of local recycling policies and limited infrastructure. We will take a look at the necessary equipment upgrades, public policies, and other strategies that municipalities, policymakers and MRFs can use to create positive outcomes for recycling glass.
