Find the other 2024 Notable Leaders in Sustainability here.
Like a tightrope walker, balance is important to Justin Riney.
"Sustainability means different things to different people, but to me, it's about balance," said Riney, commercial sustainability manager for materials firm Ineos Styrolution America in Aurora, Ill.
"I'd like to find an ecological balance in that the end-of-life issues of our products are important, but the rest of the product's life cycle and overall impact is just as important," he added. "Plastics such as polystyrene are the best option from a life cycle analysis perspective for our customer's applications."
The PS industry is kicking off a collective effort to increase access to PS recycling in the U.S. with the Polystyrene Recycling Alliance. Ineos Styrolution and Americas Styrenics are charter members of the organization.
Riney described himself as "an accidental plastics professional." Packaging firm Sonoco Products gave him the opportunity to manage procurement of resins and additives. "When I accepted this role, I had no prior knowledge of what different polymers were or why they were so important to modern life," he said. "I was exposed to all of the benefits of plastics, and I've been hooked on the industry ever since."
Now, Riney added, his focus is on solving end-of-life issues for Ineos Styrolution's products.
"It's exhilarating working with like-minded professionals to solve for questions that most believe to be impossible," Riney said. "That, to me, encapsulates the experience of working in the plastics industry today, specifically in sustainability."
Becoming a father has been a big motivator for Riney's dedication to sustainability. "I want to ensure that I leave this world better than I found it," he said. "My efforts to increase the circularity of our products at Ineos Styrolution … should make a significant positive impact on the plastic waste issues we all face."
Taking an overview of the industry, Riney said plastics have been "largely reactive to date." He added that if the industry truly wants consumers to know the ecological benefits of the products it makes, it needs to engage with them directly.
"We need to reframe the conversation around [greenhouse gas] emissions and the advantage that plastics such as polystyrene have over competitive materials. We can't ignore end-of-life concerns with plastics, but we do need to include these other important points to view the issue holistically," he said.
The industry also needs to work directly with nongovernmental organizations and governments to expand access to recycling through infrastructure investments and new technologies, Riney said.
"No one group is going to solve for these issues," he said. "We need effective collaboration."
Among emerging technology, Riney said he sees advanced recycling as "a real game-changer" for the industry: "One of the biggest issues we face in the U.S. is availability of [post-consumer recycled] material suitable for FDA food-contact applications. Advanced recycling allows for scaling of these materials in a way not possible with current mechanical recycling technologies.
"There will always be a place for both [mechanical and chemical recycling] in the market, but if brands and EPR states want to meet PCR inclusion goals, it will require recycled materials produced by new advanced recycling technology to get there at scale."
For Riney, one of his first mentors in the industry was Jeff Mitchell at Sonoco Products. "He was always patient and generous with his time to answer any number of my basic questions," Riney said. "I try to pay that forward as well."
Riney is focused on his current work while looking to the future: "I want to excel at the job that I have today, and the rest will work out in the end. I find that if I remained focus on the task at hand, other interesting opportunities would present themselves that I would never have anticipated."