The Turtle Family

Tom Norton, President

Tom Norton attended John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio majoring in History and Speech. After a 25 year career in the lighting and apartment industries, he sold his business interest and retired. However, six months later, with not much to do and concerned that all of his six children were attending college at the same time, he decided it was time to start a new business.

Being a lifelong recycler and environmentalist, he started Cleveland Reclaim Industries in 1980. The goal of his company was to recycle plastic rubbish from industrial plants. Later, Turtle Plastics was started to manufacture and market actual products made from this plastic rubbish. The Magnificent Machinery Company was also started to design and build recycling equipment.

Tom was a longtime member of Sierra Club, Greenpeace, The Cousteau Society,T.A.C. (Technical Advisory Committee) and Former Chairmen of the Household Hazardous Waste Committee of Cuyahoga County.

Always pushing the envelope, in 1996 at age 60 Tom and his wife, Doctor Karen Bradley, adopted Anna Polina, a 13 month old Russian child, who now at age 16 keeps her dad forever young!

And now Tom has closed the Recycling Loop with Turtle’s new Buy Back Program.

Tom’s message is a simple one:

“If we create a market for recycled plastics, in the form of products, then the rest of the issues, such as collection and processing will take care of themselves.”

Michele K Norton

Michele has a Bachelors Degree in Commercial Music and Business Administration from the University of North Alabama.

After a breif career in the Music Publishing business, she joined her Father in 1988 at Turtle Plastics.

Michele oversees the Flooring Market and has been responsible for developing the entire office system.

Chuck Norton

Chuck is a C.P.A. from Notre Dame University.  After graduation, he joined KPMG and practiced in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, as well as, London England.  Upon returning to the U.S. Chuck became the controller of several companies.

As Turtle Plastics grew, Brother Tom realized that the company needed the professional skills that only a person of Chuck’s background could bring.

One of the early jokes that Chuck loves to tell is when he noticed the check book was never balanced, when questioned, classic entrepreneur Tom said “I always know in my gut what my balance is and when it gets to out of whack I just close the account and open a new one!”

Dennis Hildebrandt 

Dennis is our National Sales Manager/Railroad Sales Manager.  He has been calling on the Industrial Market for 19 years.  Dennis has been with Turtle Plastics for 7 years.  During that time he has called on numerous markets ranging from the military, railroad, mining, automotive and general industrial.

He loves to spend his spare time with his 2 beautiful Daughters, Allie and Clare.

Anthony Petti

Better known as “Ant” by his friends and associates, Mr. A as Tom calls him, comes from an accounting background.

Ant’s main duties are in production and purchasing but he also serves as close personal confidant for Tom.

Ever gracious and the go to man in the office, Ant makes an unselfish contribution by spending his Friday’s at a local Hospice. 

Ant lives in Old Brooklyn with his Wife, Yvonne.  Weekends are often spent on his bike or playing music.

Carol Maier 

Carol’s 30+ years of experience has brought a whole new level of competency to our Accounting Department.  In her 5 years with Turtle, she has streamlined order entry and invoice procedures, organized Human Resources and developed long-needed graphics and reports to help us manage our business. 

Carol lives close to the office with her Husband Alan of 42 years.

Jennifer Naelitz

After a stint in Retail Management, Jen was hired as Tom’s Personal Assistant and also works in the Industrial Sales division.

Over the years through education and experience, Jen has become very skilled at developing our website, press releases and catalog development.

When not at work, Jen can be found in her backyard flower garden.  She makes sure the office has a fresh bunch of flowers every week during the growing season!

Linda Jesko

Linda has headed up the Fire and Rescue division of Turtle for 15 years.  She is known to almost every distributor and apparatus manufacturer in the country as the “Can do all Fire Lady” of Turtle Plastics.

Linda is now entering a new exciting phase of her career by becoming the first Outside Salesperson to the Fire Industry!  She will be traveling the country with Husband Rich, finding new converts for her ezMats.

Linda’s big loves are her many grandchildren and Country music.

Liba Nemrava 

Liba came to her first interview with an interpreter.  She and her Husband Petr had recently emigrated from the Czech Republic.

Hired initially to help with the gritting process on tiles, she quickly not only became proficient in English but began to develop her computer skills.

Not to long after she started, an opening happened as a Customer Service Rep in the Industrial market.  Always wanting to promote from within, Liba was given the opportunity.

Seizing the “brass ring” she has become a valuable asset to our Industrial Sales team over the last 14 years!

Liba and Petr have 2 children and 4 grandchildren.

Kristin Boyd

Kristin was hired in July 2011 and is turning out to be another super star for Turtle Plastics.  We have had numerous compliments on her great customer service.

Kristin lives with her 2 children and one of her hobbies is helping to restore a historic VW bus.

Brian Nowicki

As the Inventory Manager/Warehouse Manager, Brian has a bad day if every order taken that day is NOT shipped that day!

Thanks to Brian, 90% of all orders for Turtle Plastics are shipped within 24 hours.  And with 1% error, Brian has a great track record.

Andres Dominquez

Starting as a gritter, Andres quickly became so proficient that he was able to grit almost 2,000 tiles per day.

Andres then developed a system for Personal Comfort Stations and the One Piece ezMat for fire apparatus’s.  The unique “Reel for Mats” was also developed by him.

Andres loves to travel and in the Summer of 2012 he will travel for 2 weeks to his nation Puerto Rico visiting family and friends.

Mike Toth

Mike is our newest member to the Turtle family!  He is working in the Fire and Rescue division as a Customer Service Rep.