NYPSC Steering Committee

Steering Committee Chair

Tom Rhoads is the Commissioner of the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection. By recent appointment to this position by County Executive Joanne M. Mahoney, Mr. Rhoads now leads a highly skilled work team of almost 400 county employees dedicated to improving the environment through the use of green infrastructure as well as traditional treatment facilities.

Previously, he was the executive director of the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency, and prior to that a county administrator and county engineer in Central Pennsylvania.

Mr. Rhoads has a degree in Civil Engineering, a Masters in Business Administration, and a professional engineer’s license to complement his almost thirty years of public service experience.

Jeff  Bouchard is the Director of the Fulton County Department of Solid Waste, located in Johnstown, NY. In his present position, he manages a staff of 49, and is in charge of a 650-acre site, including a NYSDEC permitted landfill, 8 transfer stations, curbside and drop off recycling program, Materials Recovery Facility, compost facility, e-waste program, Latex Paint Exchange, Household Hazardous Waste Drop Off, a county-wide Demolition Team and a Government Surplus Purchase program. Recent projects he has overseen include a 13.5 acre landfill expansion,  8.5-acre capping project,  4.5 mile leachate-sewer line project,  gas-to-electric facility, on-site water development project and a recycling building addition.
 
He served as Deputy Director prior to becoming Director in 1998. He has worked for Fulton County for over 30 years, starting at the Fulton County Highway Department. His knowledge of construction has been invaluable to the Department of Solid Waste, where he has worked for the past 21 years.  

Mr. Bouchard is a past president of the NYS Association For Solid Waste Management and is presently a regional representative on its board of directors.

James Bunchuck is the Committee's liaison to the New York Chapter of SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America). He is also the Solid Waste Coordinator for the Town of Southold, where he manages the town's solid waste facilities and programs including an MSW and C&D transfer station, yard waste compost facility, PAYT and source-separated recycling programs, HHW program, and other operations. Previously, Mr. Bunchuck was a management and policy consultant working on EPA's Superfund program for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. in Bethesda, MD, and ICF Incorporated in Washington, DC. He holds a BA in Political Science from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, and an MA in International Relations from The American University in Washington, DC. graduate of American University and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. 

Resa A. Dimino is the Director of Legislative Programs at WeRecycle!, an E-Steward certified electronics recycling company headquartered in Mt. Vernon, NY. In that role, she works to implement electronics EPR programs in the northeastern states. From 2007 to early 2011, Ms. Dimino served as a Special Assistant in the Commissioner’s Policy Office of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.  The policy office serves as an internal consultancy within the department to develop innovative policy and implement the Commissioner’s priority projects.  She focused on solid waste and recycling policy.

Ms. Dimino has a strong background in recycling public education, advocacy and policy development and is a skilled technical researcher.  She is frequently invited to provide commentary on recycling-related issues in the national media, the trade press and at local, regional and national conferences and meetings.

Most recently, she served as the Director of Programs for the Bronx River Alliance in the Bronx, NY.  Prior to that, she served as the Environmental Analyst for Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., and his predecessor, Fernando Ferrer.  In that role, she monitored solid waste and recycling issues in New York City. She also held a gubernatorial appointment to the New York State Solid Waste Management Board.

She has organized several campaigns and coalitions on various recycling issues, including the campaign to establish President Clinton’s Executive Order on Federal Acquisition, Waste Reduction and Recycling, signed in October 1993. 

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Ron Gonen is the Co-Founder of RecycleBank. During his tenure as CEO from 2004-2010, RecycleBank grew from an idea to a company with contracts with over 200 cities as a service that rewards millions of people for their positive green actions across North America and the UK, and has diverted over a billion pounds from landfills. Mr. Gonen and RecycleBank were recognized by a number of leading business and environmental organizations including: the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer, the United Nations Environment Programme as a Champion of the Earth, The Social Venture Network with their Innovation Award, Time Magazine as Social Responsibility Pioneer, U.S. Conference of Mayors - Outstanding Excellence in Public/Private Partnerships, and the Wall Street Journal as one of their top 10 Venture Backed Clean Tech Companies of 2009 & 2010. He is currently a member of RecycleBank's Board of Directors.

Mr. Gonen was a recipient of the 2010 University Medal of Excellence from Columbia University which is awarded annually to an alumnus under the age of 45 for outstanding achievement in scholarship, public service and professional life. In 2011, he joined the faculty at Columbia Business School as an Adjunct Professor.

He is a past member of the World Economic Forum's Council on Sustainable Consumption and is currently a Henry Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is on the Board of Trustees of RARE Conversation, an organization that applies community-based solutions to global conservation challenges.

Mr. Gonen received a BA in History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and received an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Robert Lange is the Director of the City of New York Department of Sanitation’s Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling.  He began his government career as a Community Coordinator in the Recycling Programs and Planning division in 1988 when recycling was a voluntary community activity being conducted in a small portion of the West Village under the jurisdiction of the Department of Sanitation.  He was promoted to the position of Deputy Director in 1991 and Director in 1994.

Mr. Lange’s career in the Department of Sanitation’s recycling office spans the entire evolution of the recycling program from its nascent beginnings to the daily operation of the country’s largest municipal recycling program.  During his tenure, Mr. Lange and his staff have created an organizational, administrative, and contractual infrastructure resulting in the successful daily collection and processing of recyclables set out by residents citywide.  They have set a national standard for public information materials disseminated to residents periodically to educate them about how, what and when to recycle in New York City.

Mr. Lange holds advanced degrees in Philosophy, Linguistics and Public Policy.  He was recently selected as a 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Public Service Award recipient, an award widely recognized as the Nobel Prize of New York City government public service.

Wendy Kelman Neu is Senior Vice President of Hugo Neu Corporation.  She began her career as a social worker for Trenton State Prison and Yardville Correctional Facility, where she developed and implemented inmate work programs.  She now actively advocates for business and environmental integrity and leadership through her professionally work, and personally within the industry and with environmental and social justice grassroots organizations. She has chaired the Government Relations Committee for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industry (ISRI).  In 2002, Ms. Neu along with environmental partners helped to lead the creative effort which resulted in an economically positive New York City curbside recycling program.  
 
She has been honored by NY/NJ Baykeeper, the New York League of Conservation Voters and Earthday 2006.  In 1989, focusing on the areas of social welfare and animal rights and rescue, Ms. Neu organized and since then has expanded a non-profit organization, Companion Animal Placement, dedicated to the support of senior citizens and animal rescue.  In September 2006 she was made a Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and is a co-chair of the E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) initiative on the east coast which advocates for environmental legislation on behalf of NRDC.  She is a graduate of American University and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. 

 Ted Osborne is Sales and Procurement Manager for Buffalo Recycling Enterprises in Buffalo NY, a new “state of the art” single stream recycling facility.  He has 24 years of experience in municipal and private recycling management and sales.  Mr.  Osborne is currently vice-president of the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling.  He formally was a member of the board of directors of the New York State Association For Solid Waste Management.

Peter Pettit is a Professional Engineer and the Director of the Bureau of Waste Reduction & Recycling within the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC).  He has been with the Bureau for over 24 years working on New York’s waste reduction, reuse and recycling issues. He is responsible for all NYS DEC outreach and education program efforts regarding waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting; tracking and implementation of New York’s Returnable Container Act (Bottle Bill); coordination of mercury product reduction and management programs; management of the NYS hazardous packaging reduction program; and is responsible for DEC’s product stewardship and beneficial use determination programs.

Mr. Pettit also serves on the Board of Directors of several state and national environmental organizations, including the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse, the Northeast Recycling Council, the Northeast Waste Management Officials’ Association, and the Product Stewardship Institute.  He is the NYS representative to the Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse, and chairs ASTSWMO’s MSW Recycling Task Force, the NYS Mercury Advisory Committee and NYS DEC’s Internal Mercury Task Force.  He has a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Engineering and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering.  ___________________________________________________________________________ 

A Syracuse native, Andrew Radin serves as the Director of Recycling and Waste Reduction for the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA), and has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of recycling and solid waste management. He coordinates a team of recycling professionals who manage a wide variety of environmental programs, including compost operations, household hazardous waste collections, electronic waste recovery, and community outreach. Mr. Radin has testified before the New York State Legislature in advocating for expansion of the NYS Bottle Bill, and provided state elected officials with a real-world, local perspective as the State moved forward with passing Extended Producer Responsibility legislation for electronic waste. He is a long-time member of the New York State Association of Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling, and currently serves on its Board of Directors. Mr. Radin received a Masters of Public Administration degree from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and a Masters of Environmental Science degree from the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He looks forward to participating in efforts to advance product stewardship policies  as a key component of an equitable, sustainable materials economy.

Kate Sinding is a Senior Attorney and Deputy Director of the New York Urban Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she specializes in New York urban and regional issues, including a variety of solid waste, land use and energy matters.  While at NRDC, Ms. Sinding has devoted substantial energy to promoting product stewardship initiatives, including the enactment of electronic waste recycling measures in both New York City and State. Prior to joining NRDC in November 2006, she was a partner in the specialty environmental law firm of Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C. 

In addition to being a member of the board of the New York Product Stewardship Council, Ms. Sinding is a member of the Manhattan Citizens’ Solid Waste Advisory Board, and sat on the Advisory Group for the New York State Solid Waste Management Plan. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Law at Fordham University School of Law.  Ms. Sinding is a graduate of New York University Law School, the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and Barnard College.

Eric Swenson has served as Superintendent of Environmental Control for the Town of Oyster Bay for the past 22 years, and as Executive Director of the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee for the past 6 years.

He has been the Treasurer of the NYS Association For Solid Waste Management since 1996, and Secretary of the Federation of New York Solid Waste Associations since its inception. He also currently serves as a board member of the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Evan R. Liblit Scholarship Committee.

Dawn Timm is the Director of the Environmental/Solid Waste Management Division of the Niagara County Department of Public Works, located in Lockport, New York.  Ms. Timm is responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing various sustainability and solid waste and recycling programs in 20 municipalities and 13 school districts.

A 2002 master’s graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Ms. Timm’s master thesis became the technical foundation for state policy concerning the implementation of tipping fee surcharges and their impact on solid waste management operations.  She previously worked as a regional environmental consultant, coordinating and overseeing hazardous and non-hazardous landfill closures, post-closure care and site management of inactive facilities. She currently serves as the Region 9 representative and Secretary for the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSAR3).

Kevin Voorhees is a Principal Associate at the consulting engineering firm of Barton & Loguidice, P.C., and works out of their Syracuse, NY office. He has over thirty years of experience helping clients implement solid waste management and recycling projects in New York State.

Advisor to the Steering Committee 

Linda Jacobs has been with Empire State Development’s Environmental Services Unit since its inception in 1989.  ESU began as the Office of Recycling Market Development, assisting municipalities with marketing the materials generated by their recycling programs.  Since then, ESU has shifted its focus from assisting cities and towns to helping to keep New York State  businesses competitive through investments in recycling, pollution prevention and sustainable processes and products.

Over the years, Ms. Jacobs has focused on a variety of issues, most recently on increasing capacity for construction and demolition debris recycling in New York and growing its building material reuse and deconstruction industries.    

Ms. Jacobs holds a BS from Rutgers University and an MS from the University of Pennsylvania.

Coordinator

As Statewide Coordinator, Katherine Bourbeau's roles with the Council include communication and outreach, presentations and training for New York local government, and providing information on product stewardship to legislators, business, media and public.

A former media professional, Ms. Bourbeau helped found a not-for-profit organization in her native Finger Lakes in central New York State to promote awareness of new policies for waste reduction. She is a committed advocate for product stewardship, and is thrilled to be working on the cutting edge of policy to reduce waste, save taxpayer dollars, and protect the environment. She is co-located in New York City and central New York State.