Our Speakers

Mike Jefferson

Mike is the Managing Director of EPRO, an international circular plastics association with members in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Australasia.  He has over 32 years’ experience in the waste management and recycling industry.  Members of EPRO are producer responsibility organisations (PROs), national collection bodies, or plastic recycling associations.  Around half of his career has been spent in commercial and operational roles and the remainder as a consultant.  As well as EPRO, he supports other circular plastics platforms, CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) and PCEP (Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform).  He also chairs the technical group in EXPRA (Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance).  Throughout his career he has been heavily involved in the plastics recycling supply chain.  Areas of specialism include the collection and treatment of recyclables, materials recycling, markets for secondary raw materials, extended producer responsibility (EPR), and waste policy & legislation. 

Joachim Quoden

Joachim Quoden has extensive experience in packaging waste management, dating from 1992 when he spent 4 months in the German Federal Ministry of Environment working on packaging issues including the Packaging Ordinance.

From 1993 to 2006, Mr Quoden worked with Der Grüne Punkt as Syndicus, and head of International Affairs in 2001. Between 2001 and 2013, he also became Secretary General and later Managing Director of PRO EUROPE, an umbrella organisation of 35 PROs.

Since 2013, Mr Quoden has been the Managing Director of EXPRA, an alliance of 34 non-profit and industry owned PRO’s from 31 countries from all over the world.

Besides the above, Mr Quoden is working since 1995 as independent lawyer in Germany specializing in international EPR legislation, chairperson of ISWA’s EU group, and has served as an expert in ISO global standardisation project SIS/TK 165/AG 10 Packaging and Environment, chair/co-chair of ISWA’s Governance WG and EU Group, member of the OECD EPR expert group and several other value chain initiatives like CEFLEX, HolyGrail 2.0, Close the Glass Loop and 4EverGreen.

Bernard Le Moine

President of APE Europe, Bernard Le Moine is also the former general manager of CPA (French Committee for Plastics in Agriculture) and general secretary of the CIPA (International Committee for Plastics in Agriculture) , both acting in the promoting of plasticulture and the management of national collecting schemes of used agri-plastics. Bernard is coordinating the Agri-working group of the Circular Plastics Alliance, a joined initiative from the European Commission (DG Grow) and the Plastics Industry with the objective to integrate 10 M tonnes of post-consumer granules into new products. Ape Europe is the European’s non-packaging agri-plastics converters association representing over 80% of the markets suppliers.

Resume

Bernard has received masters’ degrees in political science at the University of Toulouse and in marketing in Aix-en-Provence, France. He has 30 years of experiences in the US and Europe, in general management, sales and marketing in corrugated board packaging, fertilizers and plasticulture industries. For 25 years now, Bernard is involved in agri-waste management and the establishment of National Collection Schemes in Europe. Bernard is the former director of publication of the magazine “Plasticulture”.

Gian De Belder

Gian is a technical director and packaging technologist at Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the world. In his 20+ year career at P&G, Gian has helped drive R&D into sustainable packaging across the company. With experience in upstream technologies (development of elastic PP), sustainable resins (renewable and advanced recycled) and EU funding projects, Gian has been involved in developing key partnerships across the value chain and managing open innovation through P&G’s Connect & Develop Programme. To help drive cross-sector collaboration, Gian has been engaged in several EU associations and has held several multi-year board member positions (eg Petcore Europe, Recyclass platform, …). He is also a regular speaker at international Packaging Conferences (incl advisory board member of some of them, eg Smithers, Packaging Europe…). Gian has been initiating and leading the 3-year Pioneer project “HolyGrail” on the standardisation of markers/ watermarks in packaging (barcode for recycling), to increase efficiencies in high-quality sorting and to strive for higher recycling rates, as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative. This project received multiple awards (eg Packaging Europe’s 2019 Sustainability Awards, 2020 Edie Sustainabiliy award, WPO Worldstar Winner 2021, PAC Global Leadership awards 2021, next to some other awards). He also ensured the continuation of this project into establishment of HolyGrail 2.0 (175+ members, Gian chairs the Leadership team), facilitated by AIM (European Brands Association) and powered by AEPW (Alliance to End Plastic Waste) , to proof the viability of digital watermark technologies and business case at scale. Gian has also been official juror for multiple packaging awards: PackTheFuture 2018, Dow DuPont Packaging Innovation Awards (2018), 20/21/22 Plastics Recycling Awards and Packaging Europe’s Sustainability Awards (2018-2023). He has been elected finalist for the 2018 and 2019 “EU Plastics Recycling Ambassador” (from Plastic Recyclers Europe) and actually received this title in 2019. In 2023, he received a newly created award called “Outstanding Contributions” within Packaging Europe’s Sustainability Awards. Gian is 48 years old and holds a degree in Polymer & Composites Engineering from Leuven University. He was born in Belgium and is married with 2 children. He is a big fan of sports (running/ squash/ padel/ cycling) and travel.

Ton Emans

President of PRE and Group Recycling and Procurement Director at Cedo as well as board member of Cedo

Ton Emans has more than 34 years’ experience in the plastic recycling process. He is Group Recycling and Procurement Director as well as board member of Cedo. Ton Emans started his career with DSM in Geleen, The Netherlands and worked as researcher in the field of environment and safety. In 1991, he relocated to a subsidiary of DSM called REKO, a company which started to recycle plastics in 1979. As an Quality, Environment, Safety and Health Manager he became familiar with plastic recycling. After the merger with Wavin Re-use into Arena Recycling he was named Purchasing Manager. After the bankruptcy of Arena Recycling in 2000 Ton searched for a new owner for the site in Geleen and found CeDo willing to buy her own recycling plant. He was named Managing Director. In 2004, Ton Emans extended his responsibilities and moved to Mönchengladbach, Germany where he was named Supply Chain Managing Director of CeDo Group. Ton Emans holds a Master of Science in occupational health and safety from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands and has completed several business programs. In 2011, Ton Emans has been named President of PRE, a non-profit organization whose members are European plastic recyclers. PRE represents National Associations and Individual companies covering 80% of the European market. PRE focuses on the promotion of plastic recycling and the creation of conditions which enable profitable and sustainable business.

Dr. Alexander Kronimus

Dr. Alexander Kronimus is the acting Managing Director of Plastics Europe Deutschland, the association of plastics producers, where he has led the Climate Protection and Circular Economy division since March 2022. Prior to this, he gained ten years of experience as an Energy Industry Officer at the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI). In this role, Dr. Kronimus contributed to studies on the transformation of the chemical industry towards greenhouse gas neutrality and focused extensively on non-fossil raw material bases such as biomass, CO₂, and plastic recyclates. His previous positions included several years in an internationally oriented research and project management role at the Dutch scientific service provider TNO (with a focus on geothermal energy and CCS), as well as work as a research associate at RWTH Aachen University. Dr. Kronimus studied geology and earned a doctorate in environmental sciences from RWTH Aachen University.

Vicente Olmos

Vicente Olmos is the CEO of the Valencian company SINTAC RECYCLING. He has more than 30 years of experience in the field of plastic materials recycling. Vicente's career has been closely linked to the international field and, particularly, to Germany. There he witnessed for three years the commitment of German businessmen to the Recycling, Sustainability and Circularity of plastic materials. He transferred this experience to Spain and applied it to his industrial and commercial relations in Spain with his wide network of suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.
Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of AVEP and Ecofira, and is President of the CAPEC Association. In 2024 he was appointed Ambassador of the European plastics recycling industry by the European Association Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE). 

Alexandre Dangis

Alexandre Dangis holds a Masters’ Degrees in Business and in International and European Law from the University of Brussels. After having been involved in the family business producing plastic bags and selling injection and blow moulding machinery Alexandre set up in 1990 the European Plastics Converters (EuPC) association, which is the European representative for plastics converters in Brussels representing a sector of over 50 000 companies (mainly SMEs) and a turnover of almost € 300 Billion as well as PRE (Plastics Recyclers Europe) in 1996. EuPC works with the European Institutions on legislative matters such as The EU Circular Economy Package and Waste & REACh legislation, providing its expertise and in-depth knowledge in integrating the plastics industry into a developing European circular economy.

Alexandre is also managing director of Polymer Comply Europe CVBA (PCE) , a service company providing the resources needed to work on issues affecting plastics converters in Europe. He is also the President of the Waste Free Oceans foundation (WFO), fighting against the problem of marine litter at global level. WFO has activities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Since 1st January 2023 he is Vice-President Global Corporate Affaires at the GreenDot group who owns Der Grüner Punkt and he is board member of EPRO as well as board member of Kunstoffland NRW.

Nicole Soligo

The goal of my work as a Product Manager in the plastics industry is to oversee the development and lifecycle of plastic products, ensuring they meet market demands, regulatory standards, and customer expectations. I coordinate cross-functional teams, manage product roadmaps, and drive innovation while balancing cost, sustainability, and performance. My role is pivotal in aligning business strategies with technical capabilities to deliver sustainable, competitive and high-quality plastic products.

Dr. Jens Hamprecht

Jens Hamprecht coordinates the Global Plastic Steering Committee of BASF. In this position, he defines the roadmap for realizing recyclability and recycled content for plastic materials of BASF. In his role at BASF, he collaborates closely with academia, drawing on over ten years of experience as senior researcher on circular economy at ETH Zurich.  He is a co-founder of Plastic Recovery: Land & Sea, which supports NGOs in South-East Asia in scaling up plastic waste collection and recycling. Jens holds a PhD from University of St. Gallen, he completed his engineering studies at ETH Zurich and Imperial College, London.

Benjamin Kampmann

Benjamin Kampmann studied plastics technology at the University of Applied Science in Osnabrück from 2004-2010. During this, he completed an apprenticeship in extrusion coating. He started at Pöppelmann in 2010 in the department of “New Technologies”, since 2019 he is part of the “Team TOMORROW” in the division Marketing & Innovation as an enabler for circular economy and climate. In this role he companywide leads and supports projects in the areas of circular economy, climate strategy and sustainability.

Mike Jefferson

Mike is the Managing Director of EPRO, an international circular plastics association with members in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Australasia.  He has over 32 years’ experience in the waste management and recycling industry.  Members of EPRO are producer responsibility organisations (PROs), national collection bodies, or plastic recycling associations.  Around half of his career has been spent in commercial and operational roles and the remainder as a consultant.  As well as EPRO, he supports other circular plastics platforms, CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) and PCEP (Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform).  He also chairs the technical group in EXPRA (Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance).  Throughout his career he has been heavily involved in the plastics recycling supply chain.  Areas of specialism include the collection and treatment of recyclables, materials recycling, markets for secondary raw materials, extended producer responsibility (EPR), and waste policy & legislation. 

Xavier Lhoir

Xavier Lhoir is 48y old. He holds a degree in Applied Economics from the Louvain School of Management (UCL). He started his professional career, as teacher/researcher, in Chile at the Universidad Católica of Valparaíso. He joined Valipac in 2002 as an auditor for the affiliated waste management companies. Since 2017, Xavier is Director Operations and Circular Economy at Valipac. Xavier also chair the WG Export and Recycling within EPRO. From 2010 to 2015 Xavier worked for Recydata (a spin-off of Valipac) using the Valipac (free market) approach for other waste streams subject to an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). During this 5 year period Xavier has been director of Valorfrit (the EPR organization for used cooking oils and fats) and has carried out several other assignments for, among others, the following organizations: Recovinyl (PVC frames), PV Cycle (photovoltaic panels), EuCertPlast,… Since Januari 2024 is Xavier also Director Operations and Circular Economy at Recydata, making its expertise and management skills available to the various EPR projects managed the organization (cooking oils, mineral oils, used matrasses, fashion, contruction,…)

Jan Bauer

CV to follow.

Isabel Goyena García Tuñón

Graduate in Chemical Sciences, and Master in Engineering and Environmental Management. She has developed her experience in the field of circular economy, recycling and plastics. She worked for 20 years in the engineering company IDOM carrying out international studies and projects on waste and circular economy. Since 2016 she is also the General Manager of Cicloplast, entity that promotes circular economy of plastics. Isabel is representative on the BOARD of EPRO The (European Organization for the Promotion of Plastics Recycling).

Today she is the manager of ENVALORA, the new PRO for industrial and commercial packaging in Spain, for all kind of packaging, multimaterial, one use and reusable packaging.

Teresa Martínez

Her academic background is as a chemist specialized in plastic materials. She has more than 20 years of experience in Spain in Standardization, Certification, Food Safety, Sustainability and Circular Economy for plastic materials. She is currently responsible for the Circular Economy Projects Department at SINTAC, where she coordinates the LIFECLOOVER2 project for the implementation of closed circuits for the reuse and recycling of polyolefin packaging for the agri-food sector.

Daan Vijfhuizen

Daan Vijfhuizen is Chief Business Officer at Veridis Technology, leading strategic partnerships and overseeing all commercial operations. Veridis is an innovative startup from the Netherlands with a mission to lead the development of innovative technologies for analyzing complex material compositions and empowering the circular economy. In the short term, we aim to do this with our MADSCAN technology. Daan has over 10+ years in various commercial roles and loves to use his experience to make the MADSCAN technology the standard for material testing in the recycling, waste, and polymer industry in the years to come. Overall, Daan is passionate about connecting, networking and providing the right fit of Veridis’ technologies to customers in the circular polymer value chain.

Mathijs Kuil

Mathijs joined Veridis in 2020 and is its Business Developer & Marketing Lead. He is focused on bridging technology, business and daily life through storytelling & communication. With a background in Consumer Marketing, storytelling and a knack for public speaking, Mathijs works on growing the business together with Daan Vijfhuizen by making Veridis’ MADSCAN® technology, approachable, understandable and market-ready.

Christopher Voigtmann

CV to follow.

Dr. Martin Leidinger

Dr. Martin Leidinger is a recognised expert in sensor technology and environmental measurement. Dr. Leidinger completed his studies in Mechatronics in Saarbrücken before earning his PhD in Gas Sensing at the Chair of Measurement Technology, where his research focused on air quality assessment using semiconductor gas sensors.

Currently, Dr. Leidinger serves as an Application Engineer at 3S Technologies, working on pioneering projects in the field of machine-based odour evaluation. With his extensive experience and technical expertise, he combines in-depth engineering knowledge with practical applications, driving forward the development of cutting-edge measurement technologies.

Clemens Kitzberger

A passion for post consumer recycling! Clemens Kitzberger joined EREMA in 1999 and for more than 15 years has been working on the recycling of post consumer plastic waste to produce high-quality recyclate. During this time he has acquired comprehensive expert knowledge that benefits customers and business partners when implementing application-specific recycling solutions. An outstanding example of this is the PCR-HDPE produced by the INTAREMA® TVEplus® RegrindPro® extrusion system in combination with the ReFresher module, certified by the FDA as food contact compliant.

Christian Raiser

Christian Raiser has learned the ropes of leading a mechanical engineering company from the ground up. His career began in 2007 in production at Coperion in Stuttgart in the screw element manufacturing segment. From 2013 onwards, he was responsible for assembly and logistics in the then Division of Compounding and Extrusion. In 2019, he transitioned to the Coperion site in Wytheville, Virginia, USA, home of parts manufacturing and assembly of ZSK extruders for the American market, as General Manager and Vice President Operations. In July 2023, Christian Raiser assumed the role of Managing Director at Herbold Meckesheim, taking charge of the company’s operational business.

Frank Reinecker

​​​​​​​Frank Reinecker, a qualified engineer (Dipl.-Ing.), has been working in sales since 1999, eight of those years at Herbold Meckesheim. After studying Manufacturing Technology and Quality Management at RWTH Aachen University, he held positions in international sales for French, Japanese, and US companies. For the past two years, Frank Reinecker has served as Sales Team Leader Central, overseeing a team of four area sales manager and eight agencies. He is responsible for Herbold Meckesheim’s central global sales region, which spans customers and projects from Scandinavia to South Africa, as well as the German market.

Dr. Benedikt Brenken

Dr. Benedikt Brenken studied mechanical engineering and economics at RWTH Aachen and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Afterwards, he worked as a consultant in the field of digitization as well as the development and design of industrial services. Concurrently, he pursued his doctoral studies on these topics.
From 2015, he held various positions within the Reifenhäuser Group, the leading provider of innovative technologies and components for plastics extrusion, particularly focusing on the establishment and development of the company's digital unit whose further expansion he oversaw until its spin-off into its own entity.
Since 2020, he has been leading and overseeing all operational and strategic activities of the cross-company R-Cycle Initiative. R-Cycle is the open traceability standard (based on GS1 standards) for packaging and plastics. By providing a digital product passport, R-Cycle enables simplified management of data, material traceability, real circular economy, and highly efficient process chains.

Dr. Felix Kaup

Dr. Felix Kaup is an economist and holds a PhD from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. For years, he has enjoyed working in international and interdisciplinary teams and projects in the field of resource efficiency and renewable energies.

At Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH, he heads the Industrial Technologies thematic area with a focus on resource efficiency and environmental technologies. On behalf of the Hessian Ministry of Economics, the team concentrates on key technologies for a sustainable transformation of the economic system.

Andreas Bastian

Andreas Bastian began his career in the circular economy in 2008 at RIGK GmbH, which develops and operates recovery systems for industrial plastic packaging; since then, he has remained loyal to the industry. After completing his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Cologne, he started as a Business Development Manager at RIGK, focusing on material flow management and market development. While pursuing his Master’s degree at RWTH Aachen University, specialising in technology and innovation, he developed a comprehensive concept to promote the use of recyclates. In 2018, he founded plastship GmbH with RIGK as a shareholder, where he is building a managed marketplace for the recyclate business and beyond for the circular economy.

Philipp Lubos

Philipp Lubos has a diverse academic background. Throughout his career, he has gained extensive experience as a specialist editor and PR consultant. At Kunststoff Information and Giesel Verlag, he was responsible for the recycling and packaging department, among other roles. He then transitioned to working as a PR consultant. With Circular Technology, Philipp Lubos runs a specialist portal focused on sustainability and the circular economy. Since October 2023, he has also been managing his own communications agency, LUKOM, which specializes in strategic communication and provides consulting services to clients in the industry.

Dr.-Ing. Herbert Snell

Dr.-Ing. Herbert Snell has been active in plastic recycling for over 30 years and has held various positions in the waste management sector. He is involved in the collection, sorting, recycling, and utilisation of recyclates. Since February 2024, he has been supporting companies in the value chain as an independent consultant. From 2000 to 2023, Herbert Snell served as the Managing Director of MultiPet GmbH, a founding partner until its sale to VEOLIA at the end of 2017. From 2006 to 2023, he was also the Managing Director of Multiport GmbH. Since 1996, Herbert Snell has represented the Plastics Recycling Association as Vice President on the board of the bvse. Among other roles, he represents the bvse as a member of the Advisory Board for "Collection, Sorting, and Recovery" at the Central Agency Packaging Register Foundation. He has been a member of the Management Committee of the European Association of Plastic Recyclers, Plastics Recyclers Europe, since 2016, where he leads the HDPE Working Group and the Technical Committee for HDPE at RecyClass. Additionally, he is the Deputy Chair of the PET Working Group.

Mike Jefferson

Mike is the Managing Director of EPRO, an international circular plastics association with members in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Australasia.  He has over 32 years’ experience in the waste management and recycling industry.  Members of EPRO are producer responsibility organisations (PROs), national collection bodies, or plastic recycling associations.  Around half of his career has been spent in commercial and operational roles and the remainder as a consultant.  As well as EPRO, he supports other circular plastics platforms, CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) and PCEP (Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform).  He also chairs the technical group in EXPRA (Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance).  Throughout his career he has been heavily involved in the plastics recycling supply chain.  Areas of specialism include the collection and treatment of recyclables, materials recycling, markets for secondary raw materials, extended producer responsibility (EPR), and waste policy & legislation. 

Gian De Belder

Gian is a technical director and packaging technologist at Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the world. In his 20+ year career at P&G, Gian has helped drive R&D into sustainable packaging across the company. With experience in upstream technologies (development of elastic PP), sustainable resins (renewable and advanced recycled) and EU funding projects, Gian has been involved in developing key partnerships across the value chain and managing open innovation through P&G’s Connect & Develop Programme. To help drive cross-sector collaboration, Gian has been engaged in several EU associations and has held several multi-year board member positions (eg Petcore Europe, Recyclass platform, …). He is also a regular speaker at international Packaging Conferences (incl advisory board member of some of them, eg Smithers, Packaging Europe…). Gian has been initiating and leading the 3-year Pioneer project “HolyGrail” on the standardisation of markers/ watermarks in packaging (barcode for recycling), to increase efficiencies in high-quality sorting and to strive for higher recycling rates, as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative. This project received multiple awards (eg Packaging Europe’s 2019 Sustainability Awards, 2020 Edie Sustainabiliy award, WPO Worldstar Winner 2021, PAC Global Leadership awards 2021, next to some other awards). He also ensured the continuation of this project into establishment of HolyGrail 2.0 (175+ members, Gian chairs the Leadership team), facilitated by AIM (European Brands Association) and powered by AEPW (Alliance to End Plastic Waste) , to proof the viability of digital watermark technologies and business case at scale. Gian has also been official juror for multiple packaging awards: PackTheFuture 2018, Dow DuPont Packaging Innovation Awards (2018), 20/21/22 Plastics Recycling Awards and Packaging Europe’s Sustainability Awards (2018-2023). He has been elected finalist for the 2018 and 2019 “EU Plastics Recycling Ambassador” (from Plastic Recyclers Europe) and actually received this title in 2019. In 2023, he received a newly created award called “Outstanding Contributions” within Packaging Europe’s Sustainability Awards. Gian is 48 years old and holds a degree in Polymer & Composites Engineering from Leuven University. He was born in Belgium and is married with 2 children. He is a big fan of sports (running/ squash/ padel/ cycling) and travel.

Dr. Isabell Schmidt

CV folgt.

Pierre de Lépinau

Pierre de Lépinau, 61 ans, est actuellement expert indépendant, membre associé de l’Académie d’Agriculture de France. Il intervient, en France et à l’étranger, sur les projets en lien avec l’économie circulaire, le recyclage des plastiques et l’agriculture. Il intervient comme consultant auprès de la FAO, en tant qu’expert REP et plastiques agricoles. En France, il a créé et dirigé de 2021 à 2023 l’éco-organisme A.D.I.VALOR, en charge de la filière nationale de gestion des déchets d’agro fourniture (emballages et plastiques usagés, déchets dangereux). Il s’est investi avec enthousiasme dans la réussite de l’initiative A.D.I.VALOR* : elle incarne pour lui l’engagement et les valeurs de responsabilité de l’interprofession agricole française, réunissant agriculteurs, distributeurs et entreprises de l’agro fourniture. Ingénieur Agricole de formation, il avait précédemment occupé des postes de management dans l’agro fourniture, en France et à l’étranger. * A.D.I.VALOR est l’éco-organisme en charge de la gestion des déchets d’agro fourniture en France. Son action s’appuie sur l’engagement volontaire de 350 industriels ou importateurs contributeurs, 1 200 distributeurs partenaires et 300 000 exploitants agricoles. Plus de 90 000 tonnes de plastiques et d’emballages usagés sont collectés chaque année dans le secteur agricole, recyclés à 90 %. With over 30 years of expertise in plant protection, Agri-waste management and plastics recycling, in France and abroad, Pierre de Lépinau works currently as an independent expert, specialized in circular economy, plastics recycling and agriculture. He is currently advising the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to improve sustainable use of plastics in agriculture. Agricultural Engineer, he is a member of French National Agricultural Academy. Previously, Pierre was the General Manager of ADIVALOR* since its creation in 2001; he has enthusiastically invested in the success of the French National Scheme in charge of Agri waste management. He embodied the commitment and values of responsibility of the French agricultural interprofession, bringing together farmers, distributors and agro-supply companies. *About ADIVALOR: ADIVALOR represents the National Collection Scheme, responsible for the management of agricultural waste in France. This non-profit organization consists of 350 industrials or importers, 1,200 distributors and 300,000 farmers. More than 90,000 tons of used plastics and packaging are collected annually in the agricultural sector with 90 per cent of the material recycled.

Ewald Werschmann

Factory Manager and Authorized Signatory of TAMA CE, a sales and marketing company of the TAMA Group. In addition, he serves as the Environmental Manager, overseeing the TAMA European Distribution Network and is responsible for the implementation and compliance with environmental strategies in this area.

Liam Moloney

Liam Moloney has worked as the CEO of IFFPG, the Agri-plastics EPR scheme in Ireland, since 2007. During this period, Liam has overseen the growth of silage plastics recycling in Ireland from 10,000 tonnes to the current 40,000 tonnes per annum, with a 90%+ recycling level consistently being achieved. Prior to working with IFFPG, Liam worked with a number of public and private bodies in the area of waste management. Liam was awarded a Masters in Water Science and Technology in 1998, having previously been awarded a Degree in Environmental Science in 1997.

Steven Byrde

Steven Byrde has been working since 2013 as a waste management consultant for CropLife Europe and CropLife International, the associations representing the Crop Protection sector. He has been supporting teams in designing and implementing collection and recovery schemes for empty pesticide packaging in a dozen of countries in Europe and in Africa. He has a Master's Degree in Environmental Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and has more than 20 years of experience in waste management with a focus on the source sorting and recovery of valuable wastes materials from sectors such as agriculture, construction or municipalities. He has also occasionally worked for the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) for the management of pesticides empty packaging and obsolete products.