Bruce Welt Ocala Evening Lecture

Modern recycling systems are failing because they are costly, complex, and disconnected from market realities. This presentation explores the root causes of those failures and introduces a bold, market-driven alternative: Regenerative Robust Gasification (RRG).

RRG simplifies waste collection and sorting, reduces dependence on landfilling and incineration, and transforms municipal solid waste into valuable chemical feedstocks. By addressing both technical and economic barriers, this approach offers a pathway to lower emissions, stronger supply chains, and a truly circular economy.

Dr. Bruce Welt is a professor at the University of Florida in the agricultural and biological engineering department. Welt helped establish UF's Packaging Engineering program and has been the program coordinator since its inception in 2001.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Clarkson University, a master’s degree in food science from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in agricultural and biological engineering from the University of Florida. Welt has made significant contributions to food traceability, package permeation testing, and modified atmosphere packaging, and robust advanced recycling.

His recent work in robust advanced recycling led to the establishment of the Consortium for Waste Circularity, a plastics and packaging industry consortium committed to eliminating waste and achieving a circular economy for plastics.

Host or Publisher Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition