The American Chemistry Council has tapped a senior executive at the American Beverage Association with a long background in Washington to head up its plastics division.
Washington-based ACC announced Aug. 17 that Joshua Baca, currently senior vice president, public affairs at ABA, will take over as vice president, plastics at ACC on Sept. 8.
Baca worked on environmental and sustainability projects at ABA, including launching a new sustainability initiative, and has a background in politics and issues communications at consulting firms.
He also served as national coalitions director for Sen. Mitt Romney's 2012 Republican campaign for president and worked in various legislative and campaign positions for former New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson from 2005 to 2008, including for her unsuccessful Senate bid in 2008.
"Joshua brings deep expertise on complex environmental and sustainability public policy issues that require coalition and consensus-building," said ACC President and CEO Chris Jahn. "Nowhere is that more critical than helping to identify, advance, and implement large-scale solutions to solve the issue of plastic waste in our environment."
ACC said Baca will oversee initiatives on plastics waste, including working with "diverse, cross value-chain stakeholders" to promote the circular economy and investment in recycling infrastructure, as well as the "broader benefits and innovations of plastics" around sustainability.
According to his Linkedin profile, Baca has been at the ABA since July 2019. Prior to that, he was a managing director at political and brand consulting firm Marathon Strategies LLC in Washington for a little more than a year and had worked at DDC Public Affairs since 2008, with the exception of working on Romney's campaign.
Jahn said Baca's background will help ACC achieve its goals of having 100 percent of the plastic packaging used in the U.S. be reused, recycled or recovered by 2040.
He replaces the longtime head of ACC's plastics unit, Steve Russell, who announced his retirement in late 2019.