Stephan Karl new chairman of the FKN

The general meeting of the FKN has elected Stephan Karl, Managing Director of Tetra Pak GmbH, responsible for the DACH region, as Chairman for three years. Volker Bubacz, Head of Market Area Germany SIG Combibloc GmbH, was elected as the new Deputy Chairman. Stephen Naumann, Elopak GmbH, continues to serve as deputy chairman.

"As an industry, we are well prepared"
In an initial statement, Stephan Karl points out the achievements already made by beverage carton manufacturers and looks to the near future: "The EU Packaging Regulation is fundamentally an important step towards a functioning circular economy. At the same time, it will change the packaging market and demand a lot from market participants. As an industry, we are well prepared: Our beverage cartons effectively protect the product, prevent food waste and are already more than 90 per cent recyclable."

"Need appropriate framework conditions"
"From an overall ecological perspective, beverage cartons perform at least as well as reusable glass bottles and are well ahead of single-use plastic bottles. We in the beverage carton industry want to forge ahead and make our contribution to a climate-friendly future. But to do so, we need the right framework conditions: Re-use and recycling should be on an equal footing. In my view, a policy that favours reusable solutions unilaterally and across the board without prior life cycle assessment analysis is therefore a step in the wrong direction."