Michele Raymond is the president of Raymond Communications, Inc., publisher of STATE RECYCLING LAWS UPDATE and Recycling Laws International. The firm also offers some custom research in the area of recycling policy. In her 22-year business writing career, she has covered recycling policy for 17 years and plastics and packaging for nine, and has started up four newsletters for other publishers. Other experience includes state legislative staff (Washington State), university media relations and community organizing. She has presented at more than 40 plastic, packaging and recycling conferences throughout North America, in Europe and Japan, as well as giving private presentations.

Besides US recycling laws, special report topics have included green labeling, transportation packaging and the environment, international battery recycling laws, as well as an in-depth report on electronics recycling policy. Her clients include many Fortune 500 manufacturers.

In 1996, Raymond created the Take it Back! Conference series, considered the top meeting place for U.S. executives concerned about “EPR” issues internationally. The next Take it Back! Conference will be March 7-9 2005 in Alexandria VA

Raymond has written for numerous other publications, including Plastics News, Packaging World, GreenPackaging 2000, BioCycle, Resource Recycling Journal, Paper Recycler, and Green@Work. She wrote the policy sections for the new Recycling Handbook from McGraw-Hill