Pete Grogan receives Phil Alpert Memorial Award

Paper recycling industry honors Pete Grogan

The Paper Stock Industries Chapter recently presented the prestigious Phil Alpert Memorial Award to Pete Grogan of International Paper. The award was named in tribute to Phil Alpert, a former president of PSI. The recipient of the Alpert Award must have been involved with PSI for at least ten years as well as made a significant contribution to the overall betterment of the paper recycling industry.

“Pete has been such a consistent supporter of the paper recycling industry and has managed to do it with so little fanfare that his efforts and accomplishments could almost go unnoticed,” said Sandy Rosen, president of PSI. “I’m very pleased that PSI was able to honor him with the Alpert award.”

“Being the recipient of the Phil Alpert Award has very special meaning to me, as I have been selected by my industry peers for my dedication and work in the recycling industry and therefore for playing a small role in environmental stewardship and resource conservation,” said Grogan. “This is an outstanding honor, because only a very small number of industry representatives have ever received it and all of them made monumental contributions to the recycling industry. For me this is the equivalent of receiving the Super Bowl ring of the recycling industry.”

Grogan has been involved in the recycling industry for more than forty years, working tirelessly for the success of both the paper and recycling industry as a whole. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, he graduated from the University of Colorado in 1975. Throughout his career, he worked in a number of capacities in the industry including at R.W. Beck and Associates, Weyerhaeuser Containerboard and Recycling, and most recently with International Paper. Grogan has played a strong role in the implementation of recycling programs throughout North America, and is considered to be an expert in the field. In 2006, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Recycling Coalition.

“The work of PSI has been important to the paper industry and paper recycling industry for decades, and the work of PSI remains very relevant today and this will continue to be the case going into the future given the complicated and dynamic nature of our industry. Both ISRI and PSI are a tremendous value proposition for our industry,” said Grogan.

Past recipients of the Alpert Award include Johnny Gold, Nini Krever, Stan Litman, Ray Petermeyer, Ralph Simon, and Crawford Carpenter.