Agenda

Day 01
Day 02

Day 1 - 07 February

  • 09:00 - 09:30

Welcome coffee

  • 09:30 - 09:45

Welcome and Introduction

Antonello Ciotti

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.

Roberto Bertaggia

Roberto Bertaggia spent over 30 years of his career in managing both complex contractual sales and coordination roles. Roberto has dedicated his line of work to the PET industry: recycling technologies, regulatory and business development. Moreover, he was Petcore Europe’s Past President back in 2017.“I am very happy to join Petcore Europe, the well-recognised home of the PET value chain world. Sustainability is no longer an option nowadays. The industry is called not only to be in compliance with the sustainability concepts but to be proactive in offering solutions and Petcore Europe has a major role to play in coordinating efforts and resources to achieve the required targets and I am looking forward to providing my contribution too.” – Roberto Bertaggia.

Session 1- Market Dynamics

  • 09:45 - 10:05

Overall

Patrick Bouzekri

Patrick joined SBAcci after 14 years of experience in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (F.M.C.G.) industry with the global leader of bottled water. This experience gave him in-depth exposure to PET resin, PET preforms and PET containers. He has further experience in International Business Development and High Performance Coaching and Leadership. Patrick focuses on Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia with the World Polyester Research Program, which is a balanced model of supply and demand for global polyester raw materials (PX, PTA, MEG) and the global production and consumption of PET resin. Patrick’s vast experience on the procurement side of the table brings a fresh perspective to our clients and to our understanding of the industry. 
  • 10:05 - 10:25

Updates from UNESDA

Nicholas Hodac

Nicholas Hodac is the Director General of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe since October 2019, leading the Brussels-based association representing the European soft drinks industry with 23 national members and 10 corporate members. The areas of priority for Mr. Hodac are Sustainability (e.g. packaging, collection), Responsibility (e.g. nutrition, health, labelling) and Competitiveness (e.g. taxation). which form the core of UNESDA’s Aspirations for 2019-2024.     Previously, Mr. Hodac worked for IBM Europe, Ford Motor Company and General Motors. Mr. Hodac holds a Masters in European Foreign Policy, a Bachelor in European and International Economics and a Bachelor in Law. 
  • 10:25 - 10:45

Retailer

  • 10:45 - 11:00

PET producer

Alessandro Pirondini

Alessandro Pirondini is the Vice-Chairman of PET Europe. Since joining PET Europe in 2015, he has been working with the other PET Europe members to ensure that the European PET industry is sustainable and can develop and grow by focusing on stakeholders’ needs. Alessandro Pirondini has over 20 years of experience in various positions in the PET industry. 
  • 11:00 - 11:15

Q & A with Antonello Ciotti

Antonello Ciotti

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.
  • 11:15 - 11:35

Coffee break

  • 11:35 - 11:55

Converter

Bernard Merkx

Bernard Merkx is a social entrepreneur who held several senior management positions in the internationational plastics recycling and plastics converting industry for nearly 25 years, before starting his own consultancy company, GreenWavePlastics. Bernard holds a degree in Business Administration (Polytechnics), is member of several international advisory committees and is co-author of several studies and booklets. Bernard is managing director of both Brussels-based trade associations European Plastics Converters (EuPC) and European Single ply Waterproofing Association (ESWA). He is also among others CIO and Board of Directors Member of Plastix AS in Denmark, Honorary President of Plastics Recyclers Europe, co-founder of Waste Free Oceans Foundation and has a vast international network both in the public and private sector. Circularity has been a key driver throughout his career.
  • 11:55 - 12:15

Recycler

Tjerk Kuhlemann

Tjerk Kuhlemann is managing director of REMONDIS PET Recycling and responsible for three plants and their material flows. He started his career with REMONDIS in 2017 as a project manager and set up two plastics recycling plants. During his studies, he already focussed on the subject of raw material shortages and was appointed a member of the management board in 2021. He is committed to a sustainable rPET supply in Europe and partnerships that promote a European circular economy. Tjerk holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering. He lives with his family in Essen.
  • 12:15 - 12:35

Systemiq "Circular PET and Polyester" study sponsored by Eastman

Inari Seppa

During her almost 30 year career, Inari has always been involved with plastics, and over the years gained extensive, in-depth knowledge of various plastics, their potential, and their use in many market segments, which helps to put importance of their use in perspective. Right now, Inari’s focus lies on exploring the value, potential and capabilities of molecular recycling of plastics to enable the circular economy and is leading the European advocacy efforts on behalf of Eastman.
  • 12:35 - 12:45

PET study - highlights from ICIS

Helen McGeough

Helen leads market analysis for global recycled PET markets, managing global team of analysts focused on plastic circularity. She has over 25 years’ experience in consultancy, and for the past 20 years in recycled PET within ICIS and Wood Mackenzie (previously PCI). Prior to joining ICIS Helen has developed supply demand database for recycled PET markets, including forecasts for collection, recycling, and end use of recycled PET products. She has been responsible for monthly coverage of recycled PET market including price discovery, analysis of market developments and regulatory developments. Helen is the author of the ICIS R-PET Analytics service launched in May 2019 and price forecasts for recycled PET flake and food grade pellets. Helen has delivered multiple custom studies in the recycling area, assisting investment and strategy development for parties within the recycled PET supply.
  • 12:45 - 13:00

Q & A with Antonello Ciotti

Antonello Ciotti

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.
  • 13:00 - 14:00

Walking Lunch

Session 2 - Science and Regulatory

  • 14:00 - 14:30

PPWR

Leonor Garcia

Sustainable transformations strategies. Leonor supports clients with scientific, regulatory and advocacy expertise. She helps companies in setting and progressing forward–looking sustainable goals on the use of chemicals and selection of packaging materials to make Green Deal ambitions a market reality. Leonor has gained over 30 years of industry working experience in R&D, Innovation, Manufacturing, and Regulatory and Public Affairs within the Petrochemicals, Chemicals Specialties and Food Industries.

Session 3 - Communication and Advocacy

  • 14:30 - 14:55

Advocacy with Q&A

Argiris Dabanlis

Argiris Dabanlis holds the position of PETCORE Europe Technical Manager since September 2021. In parallel he is the General Secretary of EPBP (European Pet Bottle Platform) and TCEP (Trays Circularity Evaluation Platform) He possesses MEng (1983), MSc (2007), MBA (2018), has technical, and executive business background experience. Argiris started his career at Petzetakis – Pipelife plastic pipe industry and then, he moved to FMCG area. He worked for Coca-Cola Hellenic in Greece and Armenia and then, moved to The Coca-Cola Company, holding senior technical position for Central-Southeastern Europe Business Unit, for more than 26 years.

Patricia Fosselard

Patricia Fosselard has been Secretary General of Natural Mineral Waters Europe, the voice of the bottled water industry in Europe, since 2005. In that time, Ms. Fosselard has guided NMWE’s transition from a regulatory-focused organisation to an active partner with the European institutions and a driving force behind the industry’s progress on packaging circularity and overall sustainability. Ms. Fosselard holds a post graduate diploma in European law and is a member of the Brussels Bar, where she practised European and trade law. Before taking over at NMWE, she was an in-house lawyer for Spadel, the leading Benelux natural mineral water producer, and worked for the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB-VBO) where she helped develop the Belgian code of Corporate Governance. Ms. Fosselard is Vice-President of the International Council of Bottled Water Associations (ICBWA).
  • 14:55 - 15:10

Com Campaign with Q&A

Sam Rowe

Sam Rowe is a communications consultant with over 35 years’ experience. She has spent her career working in large network consultancies and moved to Brussels in 1997 having spent the first 15 years of her working life in London. Sam now runs her own business advising a range of public and private sector clients on communications and lobbying. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a past-president of the International Association of Business Communicators in Belgium.
  • 15:10 - 15:20

Updates from PAGEV

Yavuz Eroğlu

Born in Istanbul in 1973, Yavuz Eroğlu graduated from Istanbul Technical University Department of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering . He took master’s degree from Boğaziçi University Department of Biomedical Engineering and Marmara University Department of Management Organization. He got leadership trainings from Micheal Porter at Harvard University. He started his business life at their family-owned company, SEM Plastik. Having served at various roles, he has been the Managing Partner of SEM Plastik since 2002. Eroğlu is also the Chairman of Executive Boards of the group companies SEM Global Dış Ticaret and Credoy Polimer. He is the president of Turkish Plastics Industrialists’ Research, Development and Education Foundation (PAGEV) which is one of Turkiye’s top business NGO’s. Eroğlu is the president of the union of chambers and commodity exchanges of Turkiye (TOBB) Plastics , Composites& Rubber Industry Assembly . He is founder president of PAGCEV ( Green Transition and Technology Association) Eroğlu is also board member of EUPC ( European Plastics Converters) . He is the the Advisory Board of MECC (Middle East Center of Commerce) established by the US Chamber of Trade. He is the author of around fifty national and international academic papers on plastics, petrochemicals, packaging, environment, recycling, health, sustainability and macroeconomics, and is member of various juries. He delivered speeches at several conferences about petrochemicals, plastics industry, entrepreneurship and finance, in and abroa. Yavuz Eroğlu managed Turkish leg of the Waste Free Oceans( WFO) project under the name “Mutlu Balıklar” . As an amateur marathon runner, Eroğlu speaks English and German.
  • 15:20 - 15:40

Coffee break

Session 4 - View from decision makers

  • 15:40 - 16:00

View from decision makers

  • 16:00 - 16:15

Q & A

Moderated by

Carolina Gregorio

Carolina Gregorio holds since beginning 2022 the position of EMEA Regional Business Sustainability Director for Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business. She has in depth experience in plastics and currently leads our sustainability external engagement on plastics issues, both climate and circularity policies, including extended value chain engament activities. She is part of Europen board since mid 2023 and is the main Dow representative in key trade business associations in Europe such as Plastics Europe, Ceflex, RCI, AEPW… She joined Dow back in 2007 and since then held several commercial and marketing roles in the Packaging & Specialty Plastics business, including global project leader for some Dow’s packaging innovation platform targeting value creation across markets and applications. She has elaborated the marketing strategy for Dow’s bio-based offering and has been leading its implementation globally. Carolina holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Santiago de Compostela University in Spain and an Executive MBA from EAE Business School. She is finalizing the LEAP program by WBCSD focused on women leadership in sustainability, in partnership with Yale University and ESADE Business School.
  • 16:15 - 16:35

View from decision makers

Klaus Berend

Dr. Klaus Berend joined the European Commission in 1994 and is currently Director for the Directorate Food Safety, Sustainability and Innovation in the European Commission’s Directorate-General Health and Food Safety. Before, he was Head of Unit responsible for the implementation of the Pesticides and Biocides legislation in the same Directorate-General. Earlier, he was Head of Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs, in charge of the implementation of the EU Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). Previously, he was Head of Unit in DG Enterprise & Industry, responsible for EU legislation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP), Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), detergents, fertilisers, drug precursors, explosives and pyrotechnic articles. The Unit also dealt with the sustainability and competitiveness of the chemicals industry in the European Union. He was Deputy Head of Unit in the Commission’s Directorate General for Environment, Unit Biotechnology & Pesticides, where he co-ordinated the work concerning biocides, plant protection products and the Community’s participation in the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC). He studied chemistry at the universities of Heidelberg, Freiburg, and Stanford, and obtained a PhD in polymer chemistry from the University of Freiburg (Germany).
  • 16:35 - 16:50

Q & A

Moderated by

Carolina Gregorio

Carolina Gregorio holds since beginning 2022 the position of EMEA Regional Business Sustainability Director for Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business. She has in depth experience in plastics and currently leads our sustainability external engagement on plastics issues, both climate and circularity policies, including extended value chain engament activities. She is part of Europen board since mid 2023 and is the main Dow representative in key trade business associations in Europe such as Plastics Europe, Ceflex, RCI, AEPW… She joined Dow back in 2007 and since then held several commercial and marketing roles in the Packaging & Specialty Plastics business, including global project leader for some Dow’s packaging innovation platform targeting value creation across markets and applications. She has elaborated the marketing strategy for Dow’s bio-based offering and has been leading its implementation globally. Carolina holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Santiago de Compostela University in Spain and an Executive MBA from EAE Business School. She is finalizing the LEAP program by WBCSD focused on women leadership in sustainability, in partnership with Yale University and ESADE Business School.
  • 16:50 - 17:10

View from decision makers

Wolfgang Trunk

Team Leader, Circular Economy – From Waste to Resources, DG ENVIRONMENT, European Commission. Dr. Wolfgang Trunk is Policy Officer for the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation at the European Commission. Previously, from March 2005 to January 2022, he was Policy Officer in the fields of official controls of food and feed, feed legislation, sustainability of livestock farming, including fighting food waste at the European Commission’s DG SANTE.
  • 17:10 - 17:25

Q & A

Moderated by

Carolina Gregorio

Carolina Gregorio holds since beginning 2022 the position of EMEA Regional Business Sustainability Director for Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business. She has in depth experience in plastics and currently leads our sustainability external engagement on plastics issues, both climate and circularity policies, including extended value chain engament activities. She is part of Europen board since mid 2023 and is the main Dow representative in key trade business associations in Europe such as Plastics Europe, Ceflex, RCI, AEPW… She joined Dow back in 2007 and since then held several commercial and marketing roles in the Packaging & Specialty Plastics business, including global project leader for some Dow’s packaging innovation platform targeting value creation across markets and applications. She has elaborated the marketing strategy for Dow’s bio-based offering and has been leading its implementation globally. Carolina holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Santiago de Compostela University in Spain and an Executive MBA from EAE Business School. She is finalizing the LEAP program by WBCSD focused on women leadership in sustainability, in partnership with Yale University and ESADE Business School.
  • 19:30

Dinner at Le Plaza Hotel

Marco ten Bruggencate

Marco ten Bruggencate is the Commercial Vice President for Packaging and Specialty Plastics for EMEA, and is based in Horgen, Switzerland. Marco joined Dow in 2000 in the role of Commercial Manager, Spray Polyurethanes within PU Systems House. In 2007, he became Strategic Marketing Manager for Dow Building Solutions, before being appointed Product Director in 2011. As part of that role, he became the Chairman of the European Extruded Polystyrene Insulation Producers Association, EXIBA and represents Dow on the Board of Directors of the Joint Venture, Arabian Chemical Company Ltd, (Saudi Arabia). In 2012, Marco assumed the role of Business Director EMEAI for Dow Building Solutions and in 2014 was appointed Global Business Director for Dow Construction Chemicals. In 2016, he became the Global Business Director of Dow Building & Construction and was then responsible for Global Strategy for the Polyurethanes Portfolio before assuming his current role. Currently he is President of Brussels based association Plastics Europe, with a focus on driving circularity and decarbonization throughout the plastics industry. Marco earned his Masters degree in Business Economics at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. He is a vocal and active advocate for inclusion and diversity and is Co-Chair in Dow’s Women’s Inclusion Network, as well as the business sponsor for DEN EMEAI, Dow’s disability network.

Day 2 - 08 February

  • 09:00 - 09:15

Networking coffee

  • 09:15 - 09:30

Welcome and introduction

Antonello Ciotti

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.

Session 1- Emerging technologies and applications

  • 09:30 - 09:50

Depolymerisation overview

Bruno Langlois 

Bruno Langlois, PhD, graduated from Clarkson University, NY, USA. Over 25 years of experience in the chemical industry to develop business with innovative chemistries and establish long term partnerships. Bruno is passionate about innovations. Carbios, with its unique technical solution, business model, and ability to make PET circular is a perfect fit to passionately address the major issues to transition to a more sustainable economy by reducing our plastic and textile waste.

Marco Brons

Marco Brons has more than 30 years of experience with polymer and application development. He was part of a team that pioneered the mechanical recycling of polymers in Europe back in 1996, nowadays Marco Brons is the Chief Technology Officer of Cumapol and CuRe Technology. CuRe is a low energy, partial depolymerisation process – shortening the polymer chains just enough to allow the removal of impurities and to rejuvenate PET to high-quality rPET. Marco’s mission is to create a fully circular polyester chain, because polyester is one of the world’s most reversible plastics and should not go to waste.
  • 09:50 - 10:05

Accelerating a Circular Economy with Polyester Renewal Technology

Matthias De Vel

Group Leader Technology at Eastman Mr. De Vel leads Eastman’s Specialty Plastics technology team in Europe out of their European Technology Centre in Ghent, Belgium. With over 25 years of experience in the plastics industry within a wide variety of (co-)polyester applications across different market segments he possesses an in-depth understanding of these materials. He is also part of Eastman’s Circular Economy Advocacy team bringing expertise on molecular recycling how it will advance the EU circular economy.
  • 10:05 - 10:20

Textile

Christian Crepet

With a commercial and executive business management background, Christian-Yves Crépet started his career with Dow Chemical and went on with Eni Chem both in France and other European countries. Before running Petcore Europe, he has been the Managing Director of the French 50 kt/pa PET&HDPE recycling company Sorepla Industrie for the last 21 years. He is very familiar with the PET and the Polyolefin Industry. Having been a member of Petcore since 1993, became a director and treasurer. Also, for the past 15 years, Vice-President of PRE (Plastics Recyclers Europe), Chairman and founder of it’s HDPE/PP WG and Vice-Chairman of the PET WG. Christian Crepet moved into an Ambassador role as of 1 January 2023 and became an honorary member of the Board.
  • 10:20 - 10:35

Q & A session 1

Moderated by

Raphaël Jaumotte

He has been for more than 20 years in the business of PET recycling. Held various positions related to quality, environment, operations, purchasing and projects. His last position prior to joining Petcore Europe, was Director of Projects and Quality for the Plastipak Beaune (FR) operation producing more than 45.000T/y of food grade rPET for Plastipak’s preform injection operations with the main focus on continuously improving quality and output. He was formerly a board member and a treasurer of Petcore Europe and a board member of the French Elipso association. Raphael is based near Nuits-Saint-Georges in France.
  • 10:35 - 11:45

Innovation updates

Liliana Orban

Liliana Orban is the Product manager for PET recycling within Starlinger Recycling Technology. Passionate about finding innovative solutions, with more than 10 years of industry expertise in extrusion process optimization, quality control through rheology analysis, business development for new markets and products and machine sales through acquired projects for globally operating companies.

Pietro Simonetti

Pietro Simonetti is Technical Marketing Executive for EMEA at Sukano AG. Pietro graduated with a master’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Pisa in Italy, and moved to Switzerland to broaden his knowledge of polymer science and polymer processing working as a researcher under the Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. Following this, he joined Sukano as Global Product Manager responsible for part of the company’s product portfolio. Since the beginning of 2022, Pietro has brought in his deep technical expertise to further strengthen the Sales and Marketing team. Pietro is a lover of art and gastronomy. When he is not in a gallery or busy cooking, hecan be found at a lake dreaming of the sea.

Antoine Bourely

Antoine BOURELY, born 1960, studied at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of California, Davis, as well as a PhD in Automation. From 1986, he became a researcher in robotics, and then headed the Robotic Department at PELLENC SA, where he investigated sortation of packaging for recycling. He co-founded “PELLENC ST” in 2001, a major manufacturer of optical sorters. He led the development of most technologies of the company, including NIR, VISible, and MIR spectroscopies: they remain our main technologies today. He is currently working on Digital Watermarks for a more precise sorting of packaging within the Holy Grail 2.0 programme. He is the leader of WP1 “Intelligent Sorting”.

Andrea Smith

Andrea Smith has worked at Avient for eight years and is now Global Product Manager for PET resin processing additives. She graduated at Teesside University with a BSC (hons) in Chemistry in 1999 and began her career with ICI as a Research Chemist within the Chemicals and Polymers division, working on product development, PET catalysis and manufacturing processes of PET. She continued in this role for 15 years as the business was acquired by DuPont and then INVISTA. She then worked as Market Development Manager for Dorf Ketal, working specifically on the implementation of antimony free catalysts in PET resins, resulting in more than 25 years experience within the PET industry. As a Product Manager Andrea has led product development projects through to product launch for novel PET additives designed to enhance and improve the recyclability of PET, used in both beverage and food packaging applications. Within this role she and has frequently been involved in APR technical committee meetings and workshops.

Pranav Majgaonkar

Pranav Majgaonkar pursued his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Mumbai University, India and his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Ulm University, Germany. Since February 2020, he is employed as a research associate at Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) and is pursuing his PhD at the Institute of Process Systems Engineering at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). His research is focussed on developing sustainable chemical recycling strategies for common poly-condensed fractions present in post-consumer and post-industrial waste streams. Until now, Mr. Majgaonkar has spearheaded the development of technologies for chemical recycling of PC, PET and PLA. The scope of his research is not only limited to the use of low-molecular weight organic catalysts to depolymerise these macromolecules but also includes developing an energy-efficient down-streaming strategy for product purification. In a nutshell, Mr. Majgaonkar aims to utilise the fundamentals of process synthesis and intensification for developing holistic yet industrially feasible technologies for chemical recycling while strictly abiding by the principles of green chemistry and sustainable chemical engineering. Further information about his research is illustrated in the following publications: 1. P. Majgaonkar, K. Kruber, V. Aryan, R. Hanich, D. Pico, M. Skiborowski, Hierarchical Approach for Solvent Selection in Circular Economy, in 32nd European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, Elsevier, 2022, pp. 829–834. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95879-0.50139-9 2. P. Majgaonkar, R. Hanich, F. Malz, R. Brüll, Chemical Recycling of Post-Consumer PLA Waste for Sustainable Production of Ethyl Lactate, Chemical Engineering Journal 423 (2021) 129952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.129952

Moderated by

Luca Stramare

Luca Stramare graduated in Chemistry at the University of Milan. After holding positions in food packaging and PET resin manufacturing companies, he currently works for COREPLA, which is the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging waste. Within COREPLA, Luca is responsible for special projects and relationships with associations. He also held the role of Secretary General of the EPBP from 2014 to 2020. Luca has over 25 years of experience in plastic packaging and plastic packaging recycling, with a specific focus on PET. His expertise includes polymer chemistry, packaging design and performance evaluation, packaging food contact compliance, and packaging end of life management: separate collection, sorting and recycling.
  • 11:45 - 12:05

Coffee break

Session 2 - Improving purity

  • 12:05 - 12:20

Analysis of NIAS in PET and evaluation of migration by use of an activation energy based diffusion modelling approach

Angela Störmer

Dr. Angela Stoermer is working as research scientist, food regulatory expert and quality manager at Fraunhofer IVV in Freising, Germany, since 1997. Her main topics are research in the field of food-packaging interactions, the food regulatory assessment and advice in the field of regulations for food-contact materials. She is heading the migration laboratory. Angela Stoermer was coordinating several EU projects (e.g. MIGRESIVES, Specific Migration), national and international projects. Actually main research topics are the migration from polystyrene, from paper and board, of nanoparticles out of food contact polymers as well as investigation, migration estimation and evaluation of non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). Dr. Angela Stoermer studied Food Chemistry at Munich Technical University. After the practical education in Food Enforcement Laboratories, she graduated to “staatlich geprüfte Lebensmittelchemikerin” (certified food chemist). At GSF Forschungszentrum Umwelt und Gesundheit (today Helmholtz Zentrum München), Institute of Toxicology, she prepared her thesis and worked further 1,5 years as post-doc in the field of toxicokinetics of volatile substances.
  • 12:20 - 12:50

NIAS PING and KÖR

Casper van den Dungen

Casper is more than 30 years active in PET recycling. He started as mechanical engineer with a specialization in Plastic processing. Takes the responsibility of Poly Recycling since 2000. Worked in multiple concepts to make a food grade RPET. Experienced in all RPET applications. Jointly founded the European Plastics Recyclers Association, EuPR, in 1997, which now is called Plastics Recyclers Europe(PRE). Being vice President of PRE(EuPR) and chairman of Working Group PET since. Jointly founded in 2008 the EPBP and became member of the Steering board and the Technical committee until 2023. Since 2013 represented in PETCORE Europe in Technical committee and BoD. Recyclass and Eucertplast activities are 2 developments which contribute to improve the route to circularity. In 2023 he initiated as WG Nias the Labs platform to create the Nias databank program. Since 2018 Poly Recycling AG belongs to the Resilux companies which is growing in its recycling subsidiaries. PET recycling is since more than 30 year his work and his hobby.

Bernd Schwarz

Bernd is General Manager for the DACH region in KÖR Group and project manager for the NIAS ordering platform LABS, provided by KÖR. Bernd is holding an engineering degree in applied chemistry with specialization in analytical chemistry. Bernd has held several managerial roles at large TIC companies over the last 25+ years and managed several business lines and laboratories. He joined KÖR in October 2021.
  • 12:50 - 13:15

Q & A session 2

Moderated by

Casper van den Dungen

Casper is more than 30 years active in PET recycling. He started as mechanical engineer with a specialization in Plastic processing. Takes the responsibility of Poly Recycling since 2000. Worked in multiple concepts to make a food grade RPET. Experienced in all RPET applications. Jointly founded the European Plastics Recyclers Association, EuPR, in 1997, which now is called Plastics Recyclers Europe(PRE). Being vice President of PRE(EuPR) and chairman of Working Group PET since. Jointly founded in 2008 the EPBP and became member of the Steering board and the Technical committee until 2023. Since 2013 represented in PETCORE Europe in Technical committee and BoD. Recyclass and Eucertplast activities are 2 developments which contribute to improve the route to circularity. In 2023 he initiated as WG Nias the Labs platform to create the Nias databank program. Since 2018 Poly Recycling AG belongs to the Resilux companies which is growing in its recycling subsidiaries. PET recycling is since more than 30 year his work and his hobby.
  • 13:15 - 14:15

Lunch

Session 3 - PET Tray circularity: Myth or Reality?

  • 14:15 - 15:00

Functional Barrier

José Antonio Alarcon 

José Antonio has a degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Granada (Spain) and PDD from the Austral University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Jose Antonio has been involved in the Plastics industry for 35 years, mainly concentrated in the PET industry, involved in Virgin PET, Co-polyesters, Recycling and Packaging business. He has developed his carrier in Multinational companies as Eastman, Artenius, and Selenis.   José Antonio is currently CEO of IGBS, dedicated to Technical, Operational and Business consultancy, with special focus on the Plastic industry. As independent consultant, he has collaborated in the past with Petcore-Europe as coordinator of the Thermoforming Working Group  He´s currently collaborates with Indorama in Different recycling integration projects.  In December, Jose Antonio started a collaboration with Petcore Europe to work as Secretary of the Functional Barrier Consortium.

TCEP

Argiris Dabanlis

Argiris Dabanlis holds the position of PETCORE Europe Technical Manager since September 2021. In parallel he is the General Secretary of EPBP (European Pet Bottle Platform) and TCEP (Trays Circularity Evaluation Platform) He possesses MEng (1983), MSc (2007), MBA (2018), has technical, and executive business background experience. Argiris started his career at Petzetakis – Pipelife plastic pipe industry and then, he moved to FMCG area. He worked for Coca-Cola Hellenic in Greece and Armenia and then, moved to The Coca-Cola Company, holding senior technical position for Central-Southeastern Europe Business Unit, for more than 26 years.

Matthias Mazurelle

Graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Industries Agricoles et Alimentaires (ENSIA) in France. I have more than 30 years of experience in flexible packaging, including more than 20 years in the development of new markets and polyester films. Today I am responsible for the business development and sustainability at Transparent Paper Ltd. one of the main players in BOPET films in Europe. I am a French national, have 3 children and have been living in Switzerland for 15 years.

Samuel Pardo

Dr. Samuel Pardo works as Senior Innovation Manager in the Food Packaging division in Klöckner Pentaplast, industry leader in sustainable packaging solutions. His expertise deals with polymer science and processing. Most recently he has led circularity projects with high focus design for recyclability and incorporating recycled content into food packaging. He is member of TCEP Technical Committee and Board Member of PETSHEET Europe.

PET T2T Mechanical recycling: Faerch's circularity Breakthrough

Aron Damen

Aron has studied chemical engineering at the University of Eindhoven and started his career in pharma as a management trainee. He held several roles in manufacturing from process engineer and project manager to plant manager of large plants, for large multinationals like Kraft Heinz and Merck. Before joining Faerch in 2021 he worked as transformation lead in a large infant nutrition plant, reporting directly to the board of Reckit Benckiser. He is currently responsible for Cirrec, the recycling division of Faerch, as director Recycling. Aron lives in the Netherlands, is married and has 2 sons and a daughter. In his little free time he does voluntary work for the local community, plays tennis and hikes in nature with his family.
  • 15:00 - 15:20

Q & A session 3

Moderated by

José Antonio Alarcon 

José Antonio has a degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Granada (Spain) and PDD from the Austral University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Jose Antonio has been involved in the Plastics industry for 35 years, mainly concentrated in the PET industry, involved in Virgin PET, Co-polyesters, Recycling and Packaging business. He has developed his carrier in Multinational companies as Eastman, Artenius, and Selenis.   José Antonio is currently CEO of IGBS, dedicated to Technical, Operational and Business consultancy, with special focus on the Plastic industry. As independent consultant, he has collaborated in the past with Petcore-Europe as coordinator of the Thermoforming Working Group  He´s currently collaborates with Indorama in Different recycling integration projects.  In December, Jose Antonio started a collaboration with Petcore Europe to work as Secretary of the Functional Barrier Consortium.

Sergio Collado

A Chemical Engineer from the Superior School of Engineering of Seville.  The beginning of his career was linked to polymers in a SBR production facility, after this he participated in the development of the Single Operation Procedures and One Point Lessons instructions, and TPM for packaging lines at KRONES (2008-2012). Between 2012 and 2015 he was dedicated to the agri-food industry in the development of selective liquid-liquid and solid-liquid extraction processes for the recovery of olive industry residues rich in phenols and terpenes. After a brief stint in the construction sector where he led an EU-funded project for the development of resilient bitumen-polyurea pavements to increase urban safety, he joined the Sulayr GS team in 2016-2017 as head of R&D, and since 2018 as technical director of the Sulayr Group.   He has extensive experience in the development of mechanical and chemical processes for waste recovery and, especially in biphasic or triphasic interactions, such as liquid-liquid extraction or froth-flotation processes.   He has participated in a patent (as an inventor) to produce food spherifications and in the last years has developed a process for post-consumer tray recycling.

Session 4 - Design guidelines

  • 15:20 - 15:35

EPBP

Olivier Drain

Develop the program, pipeline and partnerships that support the NW EMENA ability to win through a Packaging transformation strategy, by increasing high quality PET collections, local market circular economy, promoting and strenghthening the usage of recycled PET (rPET).

Develop a solid expertise in PET recycling stream within the zone to be seen as the expert in the field and to ensure Nestle captures a best in class total benefit. Support Markets to implement the rPET program and to converge towards the Nestle Global plastic sustainability objectives, whilst considering wider impact (climate change, social). Provide technical support to build business cases for investment in circularity.

Provide strategic insights and solutions ensuring our packaging is made of recycled PET according to the business commitments.

Responsible to support the NW EMENA Business to increase year over year the rPET rate of usage with collaborative efforts directed towards Sustainability goals.

Responsible to provide information of all supply chain recycling and waste management initiatives ensuring end of life management has relevant solutions.

  • 15:35 - 15:50

Labels

Sofiane Mameri

He joined the Marketing Department as Communication Executive in 2012, to become Head of Marketing & Communication in 2017. Presently responsible for sustainable development products, he promotes to worldwide brands all the added value and benefits of shrink sleeve recycling technologies. With an intricate understanding of the customers expectations in terms of packaging eco-design and differentiation, Sofiane has provided valuable insight to multiple customers and partners.

Laurent Foldès

Laurent holds a French engineering degree. He is driving the brand management development program for the label division at Klöckner Pentaplast. In his previous life, Laurent work 15 years in the automotive industry before joining the packaging and label world working for CCL and Avery Dennison. Laurent is part of the cPET consortium and recently start co-chairing the label working group at Petcore. He lives in Saint Germain en Laye in France with his wife and their three kids. In his freetime, Laurent like to do trail running, play golf or coach Rugby for his son’s team.
  • 15:50 - 16:05

O&F

Alessandra Funcia

Alessandra Funcia is Global Head of Marketing and Head of Sales EMEA at Sukano AG, with almost 20 years of experience working in leading global & regional roles at multinational companies focused on the color and additives masterbatches business, she is responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of market strategies and communication activities, with a focus on specialty resins, polyesters recyclability, and biodegradable plastics. Alessandra is a yoga practitioner, a nature lover and local communities supporter. In her free time, she also acts as an environmental activist using science-based approaches to set priorities and promote impactful changes in our daily life.
  • 16:05 - 16:20

Standardisation

Vincent Colard

He started in 2008 at Elipso, the French Plastic and Flexible Packaging Association as Environmental project manager. Then, he joined Eco -Emballages/Citeo in 2016 as Packaging Ecodesign Engineer and now managing the ecodesign team dedicated to plastic and metal packaging.
  • 16:20 - 16:40

Q & A session 4

Moderated by

Raphaël Jaumotte

He has been for more than 20 years in the business of PET recycling. Held various positions related to quality, environment, operations, purchasing and projects. His last position prior to joining Petcore Europe, was Director of Projects and Quality for the Plastipak Beaune (FR) operation producing more than 45.000T/y of food grade rPET for Plastipak’s preform injection operations with the main focus on continuously improving quality and output. He was formerly a board member and a treasurer of Petcore Europe and a board member of the French Elipso association. Raphael is based near Nuits-Saint-Georges in France.

Session 5 - Supply chain optimisation

  • 16:40 - 17:10

LCA, REUSE

Delphine Close

Delphine Close is the EU Policy Manager of UNESDA since 1 September 2021. In her role, she is responsible for leading the association’s advocacy activities on sustainability and taxation policies. Prior to joining UNESDA, Delphine worked at Grayling, a public affairs consultancy, for seven years where she gained solid experience in developing and implementing public affairs campaigns and advising companies and trade associations on European political and legislative developments. Her expertise mainly lies in the areas of trade, environment and waste, nutrition and food safety.

Online

Laura Stewart

With more than three decades of experience with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), recycling and packaging, Laura brings her industry expertise to the National Association for PET Container. As Executive Director, she works on behalf of its members to promote and protect the PET molecule. The organization champions programs such as Positively PET™, life cycle analysis, data and reporting, and works to address key issues to further the value of PET.

Bernard De Caevel

Bernard graduated as a chemical engineer from the ULB (Belgium). He completed his skills with a degree in management at the ULB (Belgium) and a degree in human ecology at the VUB (Belgium). He is the founder and director of RDC Environment since 1992. He has developed an 35-years expertise in technical, economic and environmental analyses, which he uses in particular for cost/benefit analyses, life cycle assessments (more than 200 LCA produced or supervised), critical reviews of LCA studies (more than 40), evaluation studies or public policy prospective. He is an expert in environmental management, waste prevention and management (recycling and technologies), extended producer responsibility (EPR) channels, particularly for ELV, WEEE and packaging. He is responsible for the scientific quality of the studies and contributes centrally to the methodological aspect of the studies carried out by RDC Environment.

Monica Harting

Monica Harting is a Portuguese who moved to Germany to study process engineering. She first worked in the automotive industry, implementing development processes and sustainability projects. An additional MBA allowed her to further pursue the idea of combining sustainability with economics. In that period she developed renewable energies, always in an international scope. In the last 5 years she focussed on waste management, having worked with teams in different countries to optimize waste management strategy and develop new recycling processes. At REMONDIS she supports the goal of achieving more circular economy for plastics throughout the entire value chain and different industry sectors. 
  • 17:10 - 17:25

Q & A session 5

Moderated by

Argiris Dabanlis

Argiris Dabanlis holds the position of PETCORE Europe Technical Manager since September 2021. In parallel he is the General Secretary of EPBP (European Pet Bottle Platform) and TCEP (Trays Circularity Evaluation Platform) He possesses MEng (1983), MSc (2007), MBA (2018), has technical, and executive business background experience. Argiris started his career at Petzetakis – Pipelife plastic pipe industry and then, he moved to FMCG area. He worked for Coca-Cola Hellenic in Greece and Armenia and then, moved to The Coca-Cola Company, holding senior technical position for Central-Southeastern Europe Business Unit, for more than 26 years.
  • 17:25 - 17:30

Wrap-up and conclusion

Antonello Ciotti

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.
  • 17:30

End of the conference

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