Mr Conran, who currently serves as director of consultancy 360 Environmental, takes on the role from Bob Lisney – who stepped down in September after five years in the role (see letsrecycle.com story).
The appointment, marks a welcome return for Mr Conran to the committee after previously serving as a member and taking part in working group.
The ACP – which consists of a chair and 12 members – was set up by Defra to help it get advice on the development of the Packaging Waste Regulations, as well as packaging recycling from an industry perspective.
Mr Conran has considerable experience within the sector, having spent 18 years as general manager of recycling development at Biffa where he helped develop and manage compliance schemes for packaging and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
He is also credited with having helped set up the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) – and has spent six years in his current role as director of 360 Environmental.
Challenges
Mr Conran will now be tasked with drafting new committee members while turning his attention to a wide range of challenges that the packaging recycling sector can expect to face during his five-year tenure.
Commenting on his appointment today, Mr Conran told letsrecycle.com: “I feel honoured to have been appointed. It’s great to be coming back to the ACP after all these years; I had a very enjoyable time previously working on it. Clearly there are lots of challenges and I am very much looking forward to taking those challenges on.”
He added: “Some of the challenges I can expect to face in the short term include the scrapping of the circular economy package, quality control of exports and the volatility of the market for glass.
“Other issues will be how the government is going to meet local authority targets and how that can be linked more with packaging targets. Also, the PRN system needs to be revisited at some point in the near future.”
Resources minister Dan Rogerson added: “I’m delighted to announce the appointment of Phil Conran as the new chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) – he brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to this important role.
“This government is committed to reducing waste and making improvements to packaging recycling – I very much look forward to working with Phil to help us deliver this.
“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank outgoing chair Bob Lisney for all his efforts and hard work over several years as chair of the ACP.”
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