Brand owners and retailers elect new CEFLEX Steering Committee member
July 22, 2020Feliks Bezati, Global Sustainable Packaging Manager at Mars was nominated as representative of the ‘Brand Owners and Retailers’ segment of the value chain within CEFLEX and will take a seat on the CEFLEX Board and Steering Committee. He takes over from Sokhna Gueye, Plastics Sustainability Manager, Nestlé.
With more than 160 stakeholders, CEFLEX invites them to identify and participate in one of five relevant value chain groups, reflecting the role they play and representing their interests. Each of these five value chain groupings is represented by an elected member on the CEFLEX Steering Committee for a period of two years.
“Flexible packaging plays an important role in our daily lives. CEFLEX is an essential platform to help ensure the systems are in place to make it part of the circular economy. I am delighted to join the Steering Committee and contribute to this work,” said Feliks Bezati.
“Significant progress is being made in terms of design. For example, many of the brand owners in CEFLEX report that more than 90% of their flexible packaging portfolio consists of mono-material. I am confident that by working together as a value chain we can tackle our challenges in collection, sorting and recycling and return these valuable materials back to the economy,” he added.
The imperative for all flexible packaging to be circular and the need for rigorous technical solutions, underpinned by a sustainable environmental and economic business case, has seen CEFLEX grow its membership significantly. “A strong governance and project management, in place since our conception, has been instrumental to the success of the project so far and we have been fortunate to have the leadership and guidance of a balanced and representative Steering Committee,” remarked project coordinator, Graham Houlder.
“In addition to representing and coordinating input from his peers, Feliks brings with him insights from Mars and a PhD. in material sciences and recycling of plastics. These will be considerable assets in helping us meet our challenges,” explained Houlder.
