For Immediate Release
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Contact:
Kevin Neal, TPSA President
Phone: 765-494-1585
E-mail: nealk@purdue.edu
St. Louis, MO – The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance (TPSA) recently presented four
stewardship awards at the 10th Annual Pesticide & Ag Plastics Stewardship Conference held
February 22 in Savannah, Georgia.
The “Leadership in Product Stewardship – Private” was presented to Steve “Pizzy”
Pizzitola (posthumously) of Tri-Rinse, St. Louis, MO. Pizzitola, who was a founding member
of TPSA in 2000, was recognized for his life-long dedication to agriculture and pesticide
container recycling at the field level in the Midwest and for his national work through the Ag
Container Recycling Council (ACRC). Steve brought much energy and enthusiasm to TPSA
and served as a TPSA officer. He was a force for action and is deeply missed.
The “Program Excellence” award was presented to the Minnesota Department of
Agriculture Waste Pesticide Collection Program – Stan Kaminski, Program Consultant
and Sharon Emert, Administrative Specialist. The Minnesota program has demonstrated
excellence in collecting nearly 4 million pounds of waste pesticides since 1990. And, the data
from these efforts has been used to identify use trends, target educational and informational
activities, assist in pesticide investigations and site clean ups, and compliance issues. The
Minnesota Waste Collection Program truly sets a high bar for pesticide waste disposal.
The “Program Innovation” award was presented to the Think Plastics of New
Hamburg, Ontario, Canada; Chuck Sparks, President, company representative. Think Plastics
has demonstrated great innovation and tenacity by breaking through marketing barriers for ag
plastic film recycling. They developed two pure plastic products, “Baleboard” and “Nusheet”,
made from ag films collected from greenhouses and farmers in Southern Ontario.
Finally, the “Outstanding Member Contribution” award was presented to Margaret Jones, U.S. EPA Region 5. Jones has long been involved in pesticide stewardship issues in the Midwest and was a founding member of TPSA in 2000. Within TPSA, she has enthusiastically provided sustained leadership on internal governance, international