Breakout Discussions
Breakout Discussions
Choose a hot topic and add your voice to a facilitated discussion.
When: October 22, 2026 • 3:20 pm
Round out the 2026 National Zero Waste Conference by joining a facilitated discussion and go deeper into hot topics identified in the attendee survey. Share, learn, and get inspired!
Breakout Room Topics:
- The Radical Nature of the US Recycling and Zero Waste Movements
- Behavior Change: Outreach, Education, & Measurement
- Organizational Engagement: Campus, Workplace, & Leadership
- Business Logistics: Waste Reduction, Procurement, & Service Contracts
- Chemical Recycling
Attendees are expected to engage in civil and respectful dialogue with their fellow Zero Waste colleagues during these discussions.
Breakout Session Descriptions
The Radical Nature of the US Recycling and Zero Waste Movements – This breakout session invites participants to reflect on the roots of recycling and what they mean for the work today. It will start with reflections from the moderator and featured guests on how the movement emerged, why its message has resonated with progressives and true conservatives alike, and how SDS organizing in the 1960s became a gateway to recycling.
- Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA – moderator
- Rick Anthony, Zero Waste International Alliance – featured guest
- Dan Knapp, founder of UrbanOre – featured guest
Behavior Change: Outreach, Education, & Measurement
What actually gets people to sort correctly, and how do we know it’s working? This open discussion invites participants to share what they’ve tried and what they’re still stuck on. Conversation might touch on public education and media campaigns, reducing contamination, signage and bin design, programs for residents, schools, and multi-family properties, tracking engagement, and measuring impact beyond recycling rates, including the social value programs deliver to communities.
- Dennis Uyat, Zero Waste USA / Zero Waste Project – moderator
Organizational Engagement: Campus, Workplace, & Leadership
How do you get people inside an organization to care about Zero Waste, and keep caring? This open discussion invites participants to share what’s worked and what hasn’t. Conversation might touch on moving a campus community toward Zero Waste events, building a culture of Zero Waste, winning leadership support, managing pushback to systems changes, and making campus reusable programs work.
- Jeremy Drake, Zero Waste USA / Strategy Zero Waste Solutions – moderator
Business Logistics: Waste Reduction, Procurement, & Service Contracts
Where does a business actually have leverage to cut waste? This open discussion invites participants to share insights and challenges. Conversation might touch on reducing waste in day-to-day business operations, navigating legal food donations and the related IRS tax benefits, working with suppliers and contractors to cut waste upstream, and influencing third-party custodial contracts to include multiple sorting streams.
- Ruth Abbe, Zero Waste USA – moderator
Chemical Recycling
This open discussion invites participants to compare notes about what policies and infrastructure are emerging to address Chemical Recycling in your state, and what the response has been from industry, government, environmental groups, and Zero Waste advocates.
- Gary Liss, Zero Waste Associates / Zero Waste USA – moderator
