PlastChicks

Bonus Episode! PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Jess Rodriguez , Sustainability Project Manager at Berry Global, Inc. They discussed her journey in the plastics industry and working with designers and customers to improve sustainability and recyclability in healthcare packaging through circular content, recycling technology, and process optimization. This episode was recorded l...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Jake Kelly-Walley , an R&D Engineer at Matrix Polymers and PhD Student at Queen's University Belfast. They discussed UN Sustainable Development Goals, responsible consumption of materials, introducing post-consumer recycling into rotational molding processes, banana fiber, deciding which applications can use less virgin materials while maint...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Wendy Hoenig , CEO at H & H Business Development , 2024 inductee into the Plastics Hall of Fame, and 2018 Women Breaking the Mold award winner. They discussed Plastics Pioneers , her work at Dow, product incubation, emerging trends in the plastics industry, approaches to and importance of mentoring and being mentored, giving back to the next...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Dr. Ellen Lee, Technical Leader of Additive Manufacturing Research at Ford Motor Company , live from ANTEC ® 2024. They discuss her journey in additive manufacturing, challenges in using additive manufacturing in the automotive sector, developing technical roadmaps, collaboration with the value chain, advice for people interested in additive man...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Darien Dierksen , Senior Application Engineer at Procter & Gamble . They discuss her journey in the plastics industry, mentoring, challenges for women in the plastics industry, sustainable solutions at Procter & Gamble, the importance of recycling education and her road ahead in plastics. Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Alethea Schaeffer, VP of Sales & Engineering, USHECO . They discuss her journey in the plastics industry, thermoforming processes, the company's entrepreneurial approach to manufacturing, designing for manufacturing, approaches to problem-solving in engineering, pivoting to support pandemic supply needs and how the company stays innovative....

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host the co-CEOs of Hoffer Plastics : Gretchen Hoffer Farb, Charlotte Hoffer Canning and Alex Hoffer. They discuss the dynamics of a family-owned injection-molding plastics business, their approach to innovation in the plastics industry, the advantages of having multiple co-CEOs, the importance of family being part of company values, and working toge...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Monika Stroeder, PhD , Team Leader, Circular Products R&D at NOVA Chemicals . They review her role in developing new products, her move into technical services, packaging, sustainability and finally into research and development of circular products. They discuss working together with the industry in a value chain, downgauging, mono material...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Madison Kramer, a Plastics Engineering sophomore at Penn State Behrend and the first PlastChicks Scholarship Winner. They discuss her scholarship, her interest in plastics engineering, how Lynzie and Mercedes created the PlastChicks podcast, plastics mold design, the benefits of internships in addition to academic studies, and innovations in the...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Sarah Webber , Sustainable Packaging Engineer for Plastic Ingenuity . They discuss her sustainable plastics industry career journey, encouraging others to explore careers in plastics, the importance of involving packaging engineers early in the process when the design is frozen but not ready to launch to optimize the potential for sustainable pa...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Mitch Rife, Engineering Manager for Additive Manufacturing, Delta TechOps. They discuss transitioning from subtractive to additive manufacturing processes; designing for 3D printing while considering injection molding requirements should production needs increase; producing 3D-printed tools, tool carriers and protectors to support aircraft mecha...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Kate Davenport, Co-President of Eureka Recycling , a nonprofit zero waste organization and social enterprise recycler based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They discuss the economics and opportunities in providing recycling services, including finding sustainable markets that are interested in purchasing recycled materials, considering processes to m...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Nathan Rader-Edkin, Plastics Innovation and Resource Center Program Manager, Pennsylvania College of Technology , a Plastics News Rising Star for 2023, and a co-founder of a new plastics career site, PlasticsPostings.com . They discuss his plastics industry career journey, parenting, injection molding, the importance of industry experience to an...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Dr. Sherrika Sanders, Senior Technical Engineer, Manner Polymers and member of the SPE DEI Advisory Board. They discuss her career journey, being one of the Hidden Figures of Dallas, developing small molecules to authenticate fuel and consumer goods, the use of PVC in building and construction, SPE Foundation's PlastiVan program, and the importa...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Rashed Islam, Head of Product Integrity at Lyft - Transit, Bikes, and Scooters. They discuss his journey in his product integrity career, working at Google and Lyft, the challenges of implementing recycled plastics in products, sustainable transportation design, eStation strategies, the Lyft Micromobility Lab, and testing for different environme...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host 3Dnatives guests Alexandre Martel, Co-Founder, and Filippos Voulpiotis, Chief Business Officer. They discuss the role of 3Dnatives as a reliable source of information on the latest trends of the Additive Manufacturing market, common misconceptions about additive manufacturing, the careful work that goes into producing content tailored to multipl...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host four of the 2022 SPE Foundation Scholarship winners: Rachel LeBlanc, Allen Román, Kelsey Allis, and Wyatt McGraw. The SPE Foundation is an arm of SPE that supports the development of plastics professionals by funding quality educational programs, grants, and scholarships, emphasizing science, engineering, sustainability, and manufacturing to cre...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Ed Hall, President and CEO of Baerlocher USA , discuss Ed's career journey, the importance of ethics and diversity in the workforce, Baerlocher USA's move into sustainability and services, and the need for the plastics industry to get together to teach, learn and collaborate in their approach to finding recycling solutions. Find out more a...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Mason Myers, Principal Implementation Consultant at Autodesk , discuss the advantages of using simulation software to make it easier to get a process up and running, saving time and money using simulations, Autodesk's Moldflow Simulation software, and automation software advances in meshing and Cloud solving. Watch the PlastChicks podcast...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Neil Thompson, Founder of Teach the Geek , author and podcaster of Teach the Geek to Speak , discuss helping STEM professionals develop their presentation skills to further their career development, the challenges engineers face when communicating to a non-technical audience, attributes of engaging and unengaging presentations and dealing...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Dr. Katrina Knauer, Program Manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and CTO of the BOTTLE (Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment) Consortium discuss attaining your ideal job in your plastics career; Katrina’s research into deconstructing plastics to get useful chemicals and buil...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Pat Haney, Research and Development Engineer, MTD Micromolding , examine research and development in micro-medical plastics injection molding; the unique challenges of super-small molding, including differences in non-Newtonian fluid behavior, shear thinning and crystalline formation; processes for developing implant molds; designing for b...

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Tim Osswald, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Co-Director of the Polymer Engineering Center , University of Wisconsin-Madison , delve into plastics history, plastics developments at the University of Wisconsin, the evolution of plastics programs in universities, the sharing of ideas between industry and the educational community at...

On this episode of PlastChicks – The Voices of Resin – Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Amanda Nicholson, Senior Project Engineer, The Madison Group , live at ANTEC® 2022. They discuss the importance of conducting professional moldflow analysis, establishing credibility as a young female engineer in the plastics industry, using short videos to provide pinpoint training for young engineers...

On this episode of PlastChicks – The Voices of Resin – Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Amy Aussieker, Executive Director, Envision Charlotte , live at ANTEC® 2022. They discuss the circular economy, sustainability, new advances in recycling techniques developed in the Innovation Barn , and challenges in recycling plastics. Please note the audio is somewhat rough due to issues with the liv...