The steering committee at European Plastics Converters (EuPC, Brussels; www.plasticsconverters.eu) has appointed Bernard Merkx, co-founder and president of Waste Free Oceans (WFO, Brussels; www.wastefreeoceans.org), as the new managing director of the association. He will take over the position from Alexandre Dangis on 1 January 2023, who had been at the helm of Europe’s converters trade group for 30 years.

According to EuPC, Dangis will remain senior advisor to the association’s president but will engage with other personal circular plastics projects as well.

The change in management is part of the PolyVision project launched in June 2022, which aims to make member companies more circular by 2030. EuPC president Benoît Hennaut said, “An important aspect for the 50,000 SMEs in the plastics converting industry in Europe is that often family-owned businesses do not have the management time to foresee important strategic changes.”

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About the appointment of the new MD, he added, “Bernard Merkx has been working with EuPC as Building & Construction division manager since beginning of this year and he has always been very close to all the EuPC activities. Additionally, his background in plastics recycling will certainly help to continue the work done by Alexandre on the circularity of our plastics industry in Europe.”