Speaker TBC, Plastics Europe

In this session our speaker will explore developments in chemical recycling legislation in the EU as well as the current state of the chemical recycling industry in the EU. they will present on legislation in the EU which is impacting chemical recycling both that already confirmed and legislation coming down the line. Finally they will examine the current state of the  chemical recycling industry in the EU.

Mark Palmer, Indirect Tax Directorate | Customer Strategy & Tax Design, HM Revenue & Customs

In this session our speaker will give an update on the progress towards including mass balance within the Plastic Packaging Tax.

Biography

Mark Palmer has worked in policy jobs in the civil service for over 30 years, first in the then Department of Social Security and now in HMRC. He has been working on policy for the Plastic Packaging Tax since 2021 and is the lead official on the introduction of a mass balance approach for chemically recycled plastic.

Silke Einschuetz, Senior Consultant Recycling & Sustainability, AMI

In this session Silke will talk about chemical recycling input capacity developments in the UK and Europe. She will also explore t developments in feedstock sourcing.

Biography

Silke is an economist with over 30 years of experience in strategy consulting. Resource economics and the transition towards a circular economy are key areas of her academic and professional interest. In her previous roles she has been involved in several high-profile bespoke consultancy projects for blue-chip corporate clients, government bodies, supra-national organisations, and NGOs, focusing on sustainability strategies in a corporate environment. 
Having joined AMI in 2020, Silke has been further developing AMI’s recycling and sustainability portfolio. She is the author of AMI’s reports on The Recycling of Flexible Polyolefin Films, The Recycling of Agricultural Films, and the quarterly updated Chemical Recycling Global Status. In addition, she has also contributed to a multitude of single client studies analysing waste management and recycling value chains. Her current focus is on the development of a detailed material flow analysis of plastic waste streams, with the aim of quantifying the current and future availability of recyclates, as well as the untapped potential of accessing plastic waste currently not entering recycling pathways.
 

Lara Steinhobel, Head of Policy, Plastics Energy

In this session our speaker will talk about the LCA of Chemical Recycling. They will talk about how Plastics Energy did their research on LCA's, their findings and the implications for chemical recycling.

Biography

Lara Steinhobel is the Head of Policy at Plastic Energy, a global leader in chemical recycling that transforms end-of-life plastics into a valuable resource for a circular economy. In her role, Lara leads engagement with policymakers, industry stakeholders and international organisations to support the development of effective legislation and collaborative solutions for plastics circularity. She is passionate about advancing innovative approaches that reduce plastic waste, and which contribute to a more sustainable future.

Lara holds an MSc in Environmental Policy from Wageningen University & Research. She began her career as an Environmental Scientist in South Africa before moving to London, where she transitioned into the plastics sector.

Monica Puccetti, Head of Impact & ESG | Investment Manager, Infinite Recycling

In this session our speaker will explore the challenges in funding chemical recycling. They will explore what investors are looking for when they invest and the issues they face when looking at investment opportunities

Gavin Lewis, Innovation Lead, Innovate UK

In this session, Nick will speak on the topic on innovation in chemical recycling, speaking about new and upcoming innovation in the chemical recycling sector that will be impacting the industry here in the UK in the next few years.

Biography

Gavin Lewis is an Innovation Lead at Innovate UK with a focus on sustainable packaging. He has a track record in leading innovation projects developing sustainable products, material technologies and business models.

Gavin worked on the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge (SSPP) and looked after several of SSPP’s large-scale Demonstrator projects that were aiming to deliver major advances in chemical recycling, the mainstreaming of reusable packaging for ‘pre-filled’ and ‘refill’ business models, and food-grade PP recycling. He also managed many of SSPP’s Business-led R&D projects, from novel identification, sorting and tracking technologies to new recycling-friendly coatings and barrier materials

Timothy Rotheray, Chief Sustainability Officer, Viridor

In this session our speaker will explore the challenges and issues that companies face in investing in the UK., exploring the hurdles and issues that stand in the way.

Biography

Tim joined Viridor in 2019 to drive decarbonisation and circular economy projects and to work with Government and Regulators to help ensure the policy environment supports the right investments and outcomes.

Since 2020, he has also led Viridor’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) work, overseeing the development and implementation of Viridor’s ESG strategy, which sets out a pathway to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, and climate positivity by 2045.. This ambition continues to guide Viridor’s major initiatives today, including our Carbon Capture project in Runcorn, active participation in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, and our acquisition of Quantafuel in Norway — a move that strengthens our position in advanced plastics recycling and the circular economy.

Prior to joining Viridor, Tim was the CEO of the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), where his work focussed on enabling more energy users to directly benefit from the transition to a low-carbon economy. Tim holds a BSc and PhD in Ecology and also serves as Chair of the ESA Climate Committee.

Nic Hunt, Global Head of Sustainability, Nelipak

In this session Nic, who will be representing the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council, will talk about the role chemical recycling plays in the healthcare sector, both now and in the future

Biography

Nic is focused on the rapidly changing purpose of materials in making the world more sustainable & healthier, with a better quality of life. Healthcare is responsible for between 4 & 5 % of global GHG emissions, and with over 80% of all plastic ever made still in existence, Nic believes that the incremental journey that created this legacy needs to be offset by transformational actions to deliver circularity and net-zero.  Nic’s experience spans plastic, fiber-based and nonwoven materials in the packaging, conversion, assembly, contract packaging and composite materials industries. Nic leads the sustainability focus in Nelipak – a leading manufacturer of healthcare packaging. He is a member of the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council executive committee. 

Lawrence Peckham, Application Development Engineer, Albis

In this session Lawrence will talk about the role that chemical recycling plays in the automotive sector in the UK

Biography:

Lawrence Peckham is currently Automotive Application Development Engineer part of the Global Automotive product development team for Albis and the Otto Krahn Group.
 
He has worked in the Automotive sector for just over ten years and has a degree on Polymer Chemistry , he is an experienced Injection and blow moulding process engineer,
He has worked in the Polymer industry for 43 years  in R & D , Product development , sales and technical support for companies such as Borealis, SABIC , Schulman and of course Albis UK .

Eric Applemann, Chief Revenue Officer, Aduro Clean Technologies

In this session Eric will talk about the role that chemical recycling plays in the agricultural sector.

Biography

Eric Appelman has joined Aduro on the 1st of September as its Chief Revenue Officer.

Eric, 60, is a Dutch national, was trained as a chemical engineer, and brings 35 years of experience in the chemical industry in a variety of disciplines and companies. After 3 years with Unilever working on processing edible oils, he switched to Unilever’s chemicals business (later acquired by ICI), working with renewable chemicals in technical-commercial and customer-facing roles for 12 years. Next he was technical director at Sigma Coatings, the second largest European paint company until its acquisition by PPG, for the Marine & Protective coatings business. Eric subsequently became Executive Vice President at Swedish chemical multinational Perstorp, accountable for innovation, market development and corporate strategy, for 8 years. After that he had non-executive roles at some startup companies and spent 6 years as CTO and Marketing & Sales Director at Brightlands Chemelot Campus, a unique and highly successful industrial environment in the Netherlands where more than 100 companies and more than 3000n professionals work on scaling the material and process technologies for the chemical industry of the future (with obviously a lot of focus on electrification, recycling and biogenic raw materials).

Eric met Aduro at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus and was immediately captivated by its unique technology, which offers decisive  advantages versus more traditional recycling technologies, by eliminating the need for costly posstreatment to remove unsaturation and heteroatoms, by accepting more contaminated, hence more affordable and available input streams, by a lower energy consumption, and by lower losses to char and fuel gas.

In this panel discussion our representatives from the automotive and healthcare sectors will talk about the common problems that they encounter when using chemical recycling and what these means for their sectors and the plastics industry as a whole.