Greg Janson is currently the President and CEO of Granite Peak Plastics and Blue Ocean Composites. Greg has spent a lifetime in the recycling industry and the last 24 years in leadership, visionary, and entrepreneurial roles.

After growing up working summers and weekends in a family owned recycling plant in Indiana, Greg attended Purdue University on a Naval ROTC scholarship. Upon graduation, he served for eight years as an infantry officer in the US Marine Corps.

Greg began his professional career in recycling at QRS Inc. in 1998 as the plant manager of a start-up facility in St. Louis. He then held positions of increasing responsibility at QRS, becoming market area General Manager, Chief Operating Officer, and, finally, CEO in 2008.

Through innovation into areas such as commercial single stream collection and regional mixed container processing, Greg led QRS to become the dominant commercial recycling company in three major markets: St. Louis, Louisville, and Nashville, consisting of five material recovery facilities, one metal yard, a fleet of trucks and trailers, over 300 team mates, and $50M plus in revenue. In 2011 Greg spearheaded the sale of the St. Louis businesses to Republic Waste, in 2013 the sale of the Nashville operations to Waste Management, and in 2018 the sale of the Louisville plant to WestRock, resulting in significant equity earnings to QRS Inc.

Greg was instrumental in pivoting QRS’ focus to challenging, post-use plastic streams through a regional PRF model. Around this vision, starting in 2010, the QRS team designed, built, and operated plastic processing plants in Louisville, Atlanta, Baltimore, and St. Louis, becoming the nation’s largest processor of mixed, post-consumer plastics. Greg has been intimately involved in both the technical aspects of mining value from challenging streams as well as the strategic issues related to supply and demand on a national scale.

Finally, Greg is leading Granite Peak Plastics and Blue Ocean Composites in the execution of an expansion and vertically integrated strategy that will mine increased volume from the plastic waste stream and convert these recovered plastics into superior end products. Granite Peak Plastics and Blue Ocean Composites are dedicated to providing business-minded solutions to the challenges and opportunities of post-use plastic.

Greg is a Board Member and Vice Chairman of the Association of Plastic Recyclers and he lives in St. Louis, MO with his wife, Jennifer.