At the annual general assembly of European plastic pipe manufacturers association Teppfa (Brussels / Belgium; www.teppfa.eu), members elected Mónica de la Cruz vice-president for a two-year term. Cruz is the MD of Spanish Teppfa member Asociación Española de Fabricantes de Tubos y Accesorios Plásticos (ASETUB, Madrid; www.asetub.es) and has been part of the plastic pipe industry for over 20 years.

Cruz’s focus as part of Teppfa’s executive committee since 2020 has been on standardisation and circular economy, and she also represents Spain’s Asociación Española de Industriales de Plásticos (ANAIP, Madrid; www.anaip.es) in the EU initiative Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA). She is also the chairperson of CEN/TC 155, the technical committee of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).

Other executive Teppfa committee members elected for the first time were Markus Hartmann, MD of German plastic pipe association KRV (Bonn; www.krv.de), Bert van Steeg, MD of BureauLeiding (The Hague / The Netherlands; www.bureauleiding.nl) and Helmut Hilger, head of the global technology centre at Georg Fischer (Schaffhausen / Switzerland; www.georgfischer.com).

Teppfa’s 13 multinational company members and 15 national associations in Europe represent 350 manufacturers of plastic pipes and fittings. Association members have an annual production volume of 3m t, employ 40,000 people, and combine for EUR 12 bn in annual sales.

A recent, internal survey conducted by research institute Vito (Mol / Belgium; www.vito.be) showed that a record 218,000 t of recycled polymers were used in new plastic piping systems in 2020. Teppfa collected recycled plastics uptake data from its member companies and national associations. The larger part of reclaimed content comes from externally sourced pre- and post-consumer plastics waste.