Melissa Walsh Innes is the Deputy Director at Recycling Reinvented, where she works with national brand owners, government and other vested stakeholders to advance a uniquely American approach to market-driven, industry-run recycling, away from the current government-run recycling system.
Melissa is a former state representative from Maine, where she also sponsored successful legislation expanding Internet wine sales, winning the support of the “Free the Grapes” campaign. Melissa was the sponsor of Maine’s first-in-the-nation Product Stewardship Framework Law of 2010, (receiving unanimous, bipartisan support as well as public support from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce for her inclusion of business concerns into the legislative process). She enjoys working with industry, legislators, NGOs and consultants around the world in recycling policy, and has spoken to audiences across the country, as well as Australia, Brazil and Canada. Melissa is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine, and is currently a student in Sustainable Business Management at the University of California Irvine. She can also be found on Twitter @InnesReport.