In March 2026 we recognised Graham Houlder and formally passed the baton to a new leadership team of Arne Jost, Liz Morrish and Mike Jefferson.
Graham was a driving force in bringing the value chain into a shared mission, and bringing CEFLEX’s model and analysis of how circularity works in practice to life. That foundation now underpins real delivery across design, testing, policy and system understanding.
Key takeaways from that journey:
- Progress comes from shared evidence, not opinion
- Design matters, but system conditions and economics decide outcomes
- Circularity only works when demand, infrastructure and policy align
Now the pivot is clear, with legislators embracing our #missioncircular goals and making them legal obligations. 2030 and 2035 targets define the destination with numbers put to design thresholds, recycled content and recycling rates.
But targets don’t deliver the system needed to achieve them – we need to build and scale it together. Especially for flexibles.
This is where CEFLEX is focused today
Between 2026 and 2030, the priority is to accelerate our collective operationalisation across Europe, and equip stakeholders act with confidence in a fast-evolving landscape:
- Interpreting and shaping the implementing legislation that will define how the system operates with evidence
- Providing shared data and analysis to support investment and reduce uncertainty
- Connecting design, collection, sorting, recycling and end markets into a working system
- Driving country-level action to translate EU targets into operational reality
The shift is not from thinking to doing. It is from proven concepts and aligned approaches to consistent delivery at scale across Member States.
CEFLEX exists to help close the gap between ambition, targets and reality. That gap is now more visible, measurable, and urgent than ever.
If you are working in this space, lets collaborate, analyse and make this happen.
Because just as when CEFLEX started in 2017…. our dialogue and data is open and ‘We can’t make this happen alone’
Keep in touch and get involved: info@ceflex.eu
To hear more about lessons learned and challenges and opportunities ahead for the flexible packaging value chain, check out this podcast from the Packaging Europe team