NEWS

(07/06/2021 / sbr)

4evergreen welcomes new chair

4evergreen, the cross-industry alliance perfecting the circularity of fibre-based packaging from across the industry’s value chain, announced Hans Wortman as new Chair.

Wepa's Head of Paper for Recycling Sourcing, Hans Wortman, will be succeeding Eija Hietavuo as 4evergreen’s Chair. Tiina Pursula, having replaced Ms Hietavuo as Chair of the Cepi (Confederation of European Paper Industries) Environment and Safety Committee, will become Deputy Chair. The alliance is driving new developments across the paper and board sector, using the platform to push for industrial innovation in Europe by creating two sets of guidelines - design, and collection & sorting - to be released at the end of the year.

“I am delighted to chair an action-driven alliance gathering key players from the fibre-based packaging value chain, whose members share a common ambition to achieve structural changes through innovative recycling, design and waste management solutions,” Wortman said. Appointed for two years, the 4evergreen Chair assumes a double role in chairing Cepi’s Recycling Committee. After 5 years in the aerospace industry, Wortman gained over 30 years of experience in the paper industry. He has specialised in the sourcing of paper for recycling and, after coming out of retirement in 2017, became the head of Paper for Recycling sourcing at Westfälische Papierfabrik (WEPA) in 2019.

4evergreen strives to bring concrete answers to support the increase of the overall recycling rate of fibre-based packaging to 90% by 2030. Its four workstreams – focusing on recycling and circularity, industrial design, waste management and industrial innovation – are to release a recyclability evaluation protocol for fibre-based packaging, as well as guidelines for circularity by design, and collection and sorting from Autumn 2021.

“4evergreen has already gathered an overview of collection methods and best practices for specific fibre-based packaging items in twelve European countries to help define possible collection and sorting scenarios,” stated Wortman. “Our guidelines will help shape expected future regulatory developments in the field of collection and sorting at EU level.”

At this stage, the alliance has concluded a first round of tests to feed its future recyclability protocol. This new assessment tool will boost the industry's insights into each step of the life cycle of fibre-based packaging. Based on this, and stand-alone research conducted within the second workstream, circularity by design guidelines are being developed. One of the alliance’s four intermediary targets is for the industry to adopt its recyclability evaluation protocol and its design guidelines by 2025.