RIPA 2025 Spring Technical Conference
Sunday May 4 – Tuesday May 6, 2025
Indianapolis, Indiana U.S.
Chair’s Message
– Eric Bernath
Greetings RIPA Members!
First off, THANK YOU to all who were able to attend the 2025 RIPA Spring Technical Conference in Indianapolis. Leading up to it, we had a distinct feeling of excitement. Attendance was expected to be strong. The location was attractive and accessible. The program and speakers were promising. And for the first time in many years there was going to be a plant tour.
As it happened, the conference exceeded all of our expectations! Nearly 100 members were in attendance, with many first-time attendees; Indianapolis proved to be a great host city; the speakers were uniformly excellent; the hotel was wonderful and the plant tour was quite impressive.
The evening receptions were FUN – as usual – allowing for great networking opportunities and time to catch up with colleagues. And the city offered a nice array of dining options at very close proximity.
The Speakers Program was timely and engaging. Topics included tips on executive management of personnel, artificial intelligence in industry applications, and a promising outlook on the U.S. economy.
The Board of Directors meeting was very positive and covered a wide range of topics, including association finances; planning for the upcoming Next Generation meeting; discussions about hosting the 2026 International Conference on Industrial Packaging, and more. The good news is that the state of the association is strong. Our finances are in great shape and regulatory concerns regarding empty drum management activities appear to have been put on hold by EPA.
Also on the regulatory front, we were happy to have as a special guest and speaker Mr. Bill Schoonover, head of the U.S. DOT office that oversees hazmat packagings and pipelines (PHMSA). Mr. Schoonover is retiring at the end of May and RIPA took this opportunity to thank him for his years of service to hazmat transportation safety and responsiveness to specific regulatory issues of concern to the reconditioning industry. We presented Mr. Schoonover with a specially engraved steel drum (produced by Skolnik Industries – thank you very much! – and pictured here).
RIPA staff provided an overview of key regulatory and compliance issues facing the industry. Additionally, C.L. Pettit presented the results of our most recent survey data on the U.S. reconditioning industry, which included estimates of production for 2023 as well as trend-lines over several years.
The group then toured the IBC production and bottling plant of RIPA member Superior Tote Solutions. The McGuire family did an excellent job preparing the plant and hosting the facility tour. Thank you very much!
I also want to thank our Supplier and Associate Members who have contributed each year to make the event special. And, THANK YOU to the Supplier Members who stepped up and individually sponsored several of the conference events, including Berger Global, CDF, NLB, KNS Companies and Drum Parts Midwest.
Next up? We have a Summer Board Meeting in late July in Chicago, followed by our inaugural Next Generation event, which is attracting a sizable crowd of young up-and-comers. Thanks to Fibre Drum Sales, Inc. for hosting a plant tour for this esteemed class of “cadets”.
Enjoy your summer! The fall Annual Conference is in October in beautiful Tucson, Arizona. It will be held in conjunction with IPANA and will feature the renowned Suppliers Exposition. I look forward to seeing you all there!
RIPA Tours Superior Tote Solutions in Indiana
