Institute Lech Wałęsa
Solidarity (or Solidarność) emerged in August 1980 as the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. Led by Lech Wałęsa at the Gdańsk Shipyard, the movement grew into a massive, non-violent, anti-communist social movement that eventually toppled Poland's communist regime and sparked the Revolutions of 1989.
Lech Wałęsa was elected the first President of post-communist Poland and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his "non-violent struggle for free trade unions and human rights in Poland."
Today, the Institute Lech Wałęsa is introducing the non-violent, anti-plastic food packaging movement to eliminate microplastics from everyone's diets.
Meet Our Leaders
Dedicated to replacing plastic food packaging with safe, renewable biopolymers.
Marc Schechtman
Founder
A founder of Hold the Plastic, began his career as a classroom teacher in 1975, after graduating from the University of Illinois. He served in the United States Air Force Reserve as a Chaplain's Assistant during the Vietnam War. Marc and his family have been leaders in the food industry for three generations, including growers, producers, and brokers.
Carl Christian Carstensen
Director of Business Development
He spent 40 years as a leader at IBM in Europe, including serving as Country Leader. He has experience in business planning, team building, leadership, marketing, and finance. Carl is dedicated to our mission of replacing petro-plastic food packaging with plant-based biopolymers.
Biopolymer Engineering Professionals
Hold the Plastic works with biopolymer engineers that have commercial-scale experience using PHA to create food-grade packaging materials. Our goal is to produce these PHA-based biopolymer materials on the largest scale possible, to compete with the cost of petroleum-based food packaging. Contact us for more details.
Victoria Shvetsova
Director of Ukraine Operations
She graduated from the Zaporizhzhia National University and Classic Private University of Zaporizhzhia. In 1995 Victoria began her career as an English Teacher at secondary school № 1 where she worked for 20 years, also, while working at secondary school she worked at School for the blind for 8 years, since 2016 she has been working at Zaporizhzhia Technological Vocational College «MOTOROBUDIVNYK» She is head of the creative expert group of foreign language teachers in Zaporizhzhia, provides methodological support and professional development of foreign language teachers in Zaporizhzhia and the region; member of the jury of regional English language competitions and co-author of the creation of creative regional competitions in the organizing committee since 2018; annual development and release of collections of methodological recommendations for teaching a foreign language in vocational educational institutions in Zaporizhzhia; constant participation and speeches as a speaker at regional seminars, workshops, conferences, trainings, webinars etc. Victoria is dedicated to our mission of replacing petro-plastic food packaging with plant-based biopolymers.
Mohammad Hunain Ali
Chief Technical Officer
He graduated in Computer Science from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan, in 2024. He began his career as a Full Stack Web Developer and has over four years of hands-on experience across the field of computer science, building and maintaining web applications from front-end interfaces through to back-end architecture and database design. As Chief Technical Officer at Hold the Plastic, he leads the organization's technical direction, overseeing web development, digital infrastructure, and the online platforms that carry the campaign's message to supporters across the United States, Ukraine, and Poland. His work spans full-stack development, site architecture and performance, multilingual implementation, and the ongoing technical support that keeps the initiative's digital presence running. Hunain Ali is dedicated to our mission of replacing petro-plastic food packaging with plant-based biopolymers.