After laying off most of its staff in a budget-cutting move in May, the National Association for PET Container Resources plans to hire recycling veteran Dennis Sabourin as its executive director and contract out its routine administrative work.
NAPCOR officials said they decided to add staff because the challenges facing PET recycling are increasing, and because they wanted to communicate better with members.
While the small trade group is trying to rebuild from the spring, when it laid off its president and two regional directors, it will continue to operate with ``significantly reduced'' budgets, said Chairman Gerald Claes. The layoffs left the group with a staff of two.
The group's executive committee recommended hiring former Wellman Inc. executive Sabourin as executive director, and using Sonoma, Calif.- based Moore Recycling Associates to handle office support and administrative functions, such as maintaining its Web site and organizing meetings, Claes said. Claes also is director of environmental programs at Graham Packaging Co. in York, Pa.
Sabourin has a long background in PET recycling. He was chairman of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers in Arlington, Va., for six years in the 1990s, and helped found that group.
Sabourin will work on a contract basis, as will Michael Schedlar, NAPCOR's vice president of technology, Claes said.
Claes said in a Dec. 13 interview that NAPCOR hopes to finalize all the changes by year-end. The group's board approved the changes at a Dec. 7 meeting in Charlotte, N.C.
``There's so much going on with PET from a legislative and recycling perspective,'' he said. ``It was obvious we needed someone to do all this.''
The group is also significantly restructuring its dues, capping fees for bottle makers and resin producers at $50,000 a year and limiting fees for associate members, like equipment suppliers, to at most $25,000 a year, Claes said.
Some key industry companies, like bottle maker Constar International Inc. and resin supplier Wellman, in Shrewsbury, N.J., are not members of NAPCOR. Claes said he hopes the dues reductions will bring in more members.
NAPCOR also will close its Charlotte headquarters. The group will have an office within Moore Recycling's facility in Sonoma, near where Sabourin lives. Schedlar will work from his home in South Carolina.