Assessing and accelerating flexible packaging circularity in Greece

Assessing and accelerating flexible packaging circularity in Greece

In Greece, June 2026, CEFLEX’s Mike Jefferson and Marius Tent spent three days with HERRCO, Greece’s producer responsibility organisation for packaging, visiting sorting and recovery operations and meeting brand owners and technical teams across the local value chain.

The conversations were open, constructive and focused on accelerating circularity of flexibles.

Greece, like much of Europe, is weighing where to direct investment in flexible packaging recovery: intermediate sorting facilities? Upgrades to mechanical recycling lines? or another route? HERRCO is in the process of assessing what best fits local conditions, and will continue to exchange with the CEFLEX team to inform that choice.

It was a lively exchange of ideas with Lampros Petropoulos Head of Technical Services, the whole HERRCO leadership team and brands rather than a one-way briefing – which is precisely the point of CEFLEX’s country programme. The group took this in over a mix of site visits, infrastructure overviews and meetings.

Bringing real world insights and extensive experience of the country into the exchanges was also CEFLEX stakeholders Mars, Mondelez, Unilever, Nestlé and Hatzopoulos. Great to be boots on the ground and in person with so many participating stakeholders.

A consistent thread runs through all of them: recyclability alone does not build a system, and Extended Producer Responsibility is key when equipped with the mandate, fee structures and ownership of material flows needed to invest with confidence in meeting PPWR targets.

Looking forward to seeing Greece’s next steps and continuing to work closely together.
The session marked the sixteenth visit completed under the 2025-2026 implementation roadmap, with five more planned before the end of the year.

#MissionCircular in action!