The Global Stewardship Playbook
7 expert-led webinars. 30+ years of proven European experience. One opportunity to shape the future of soft plastic stewardship in Australasia.
Australia and New Zealand are at a critical turning point. We are on the verge of implementing collection, processing and circularity outcomes for our communities, governments and industry partners.
Europe has spent three decades building mandatory producer responsibility systems that now deliver world-leading performance through stable funding, clear rules, and shared responsibility between government and industry.
The Global Stewardship Playbook is hosted by Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia and Helen Millicer (One Planet Consulting), drawing on her insights and contacts developed during her time in Europe. In partnership with APCO and The Packaging Forum NZ, the webinars feature world-leading experts from Europe and the UK, sharing the proven strategies, structures and funding models behind some of the most effective stewardship systems in the world.
The series will help you understand the critical elements in product stewardship and why they are important for the running of effective and efficient schemes that deliver real social and environmental outcomes.
At the end of the series, you will understand how and why these design elements have been incorporated into Australasian soft plastic schemes.
You can RSVP now to our fourth webinar Packaging targets, design and markets: How stewardship schemes deliver results for brands, community, recyclers and governments on the 24th of February.
Across seven sessions over six months, we’ll explore practical lessons on market development, governance, funding, infrastructure and regulation.
Each webinar will cover
Build a commercially resilient system
Explore how European stewardship schemes have achieved stable funding and efficient operations over decades. Understand how similar approaches can help create cost-effective frameworks, design effective levy structures, and open pathways to high-quality recycled materials for local markets.
Government alignment
See how leading PROs work hand-in-hand with governments to shape national stewardship systems. Participating gives businesses the insight and positioning to align early with regulatory expectations, ensuring they’re part of the conversation, not reacting to it.
Responding to rising community and environmental expectations
Learn how some effective stewardship systems have supported clear recycling labelling by developing consistent whole of recycling system standards and/or processes that delivered real landfill diversion outcomes and increased public confidence. This series highlights how these lessons can support credible, on-the-ground results in Australia and New Zealand.
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| 10 Golden Rules for effective product stewardship and pitfalls to avoid in Australia Session 1: Wednesday 22 Oct, 9-10am AEDT |
| This session will cover the fundamentals on stewardship schemes, starting with EXPRA’s well researched 10 Golden Rules for success based on challenges and lessons from good and bad schemes, including those EU schemes running for 30+ years. We will cover competing vs solo schemes, for-profit and not-for-profit schemes, membership and governance and the role schemes play in collections, processing, contracts and public communications. Joachim Quoden, CEO Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance (EXPRA) is becoming the globally recognised authority on robust and effective stewardship schemes, including advising the European Commission on their inclusion of EPR into eco-product regulations. Robbie Staniforth, Innovation and Policy Director, Ecosurety, UK will use his rare gift in explaining the complex, expensive tangle of UK’s laws, plastic taxes and competing schemes. You can watch this session here: |
| How good schemes collaborate with councils and invest in infrastructure to embed robust schemes Session 2: Thursday 6 November, 4.30-5.30pm AEDT |
| Fost Plus is the national approved mandatory PRO in Belgium for consumer packaging and a high performing global leader. Fost Plus has delivered strong industry investment and financial stability within Belgium, such that local plastics reprocessing rose from 9% in 2020 to 49% in 2024, with remaining material handled in neighbouring EU countries. Established in 1994 as a regulated not-for-profit entity it may be the best model for Australia. It has evolved to address national and global fluctuations in policy, business and trade, introduced highly pronounced eco-modulated fees for producers and manages a €336M annual budget and investments. Katrine Menten, Head of Account Management, Fost Plus will share their PRO role, how they plan and work with councils and processors on expanding collections and supplying into Belgium market. Piet Coopman, Regional Coordinator, Interafval, Flanders on collection, contracts with regions, the PRO and local government service providers. You can watch this session here: |
| Insights into Soft Plastic Collection Pilots and Consumer Demand from Australia, New Zealand and UK: Session 3: Thursday the 4th of December, 9:00-10:00am AEDT |
| In Australia, soft-plastic recycling rates remain low, but consumer sentiment is strong. Join this session of The Global Stewardship Playbook as we share results from recent soft plastics kerbside collection and sorting pilots across the UK, Australia and New Zealand, including valuable insights from consumer market research on community motivations, preferences and actions. This insight is critical to inform brands, retailers, councils, recyclers and governments as we jointly build a robust scaleable soft plastic recycling system. Featuring presentations by: Robbie Staniforth and/or Gareth Morton, EcoSurety; Tabitha Lucas, Bastion Insights; Mike Ritchie, MRA; Barry Cosier, SPSA; Helen Millicer, One Planet Consulting; Lyn Mayes, NZ PPPS. |
| Packaging targets, design and markets: How stewardship schemes deliver results for brands, community, recyclers and governments Session 4: 4:15-5:15 pm AEDT on Tuesday the 24th of February 2026 |
| The Netherlands has emerged to have one of the world’s best-performing stewardship schemes for packaging. In this session, you’ll hear from Verpact, the Netherlands’ government-approved Producer Responsibility Organisation, which achieved a record 88% recycling and reuse of packaging in 2023. Since formation in 1993, producers and importers have paid levies to Verpact based on the quantity, type and recyclability of packaging they put into the Dutch market. These levies cover costs such as collection, sorting and processing. We’ll hear how Verpact annually assesses and adjusts its levies to influence brands’ packaging design choices in line with improvements in recycling services, government targets and as markets shift. In 2024, Verpact restructured to lift effectiveness and efficiency. Speakers include Bianca Lambrechts (Director Operations) and Paul Christiaens (International Development Officer and Regulations), Verpact (Netherlands). You’ll also hear from Chris Foley, CEO APCO on insights from its 2025 EPR consultation and how this is shaping its direction. |
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| Money and responsibility: How European PROs, regulators and retailers deal with ‘free-riders’ for a level playing field Session 5: 4:15 – 5:15pm AEDT on Thursday the 12th of March 2026 |
| Stewardship schemes thrive when rules create a fair, level playing field or scheme participants. This webinar session goes inside two leading European jurisdictions to hear their different journeys to share responsibility and reduce “free-riders” so the stewardship schemes could confidently plan, invest and deliver effective and efficient collection, infrastructure and processing for their nations. You’ll hear how two mature systems have achieved over 80% company participation, compared with the 5–15% participation Australia often sees in voluntary schemes. We’ll explore the regulatory levers, governance models and practical enforcement approaches that keep funding reliable and outcomes measurable, including how retailers fit into the compliance ecosystem. Speakers include Jaana Roine (Marketing Director, Green Dot Norway) on the role of producers, PROs and retailers, including taxation as a backstop, and government Commissioner, Marc Adams (Director PRO Regulations, Belgium Interregional Commission) on the regulator’s role, governance and what makes oversight effective. |
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| Packaging design and recycled content: Impact of EU regulations and eco-modulated fees on Australasian manufacturing and exports Session 6: 4:00 – 5:00 pm AEDT on Tuesday the 31st of March 2026 |
| Do we need recycled content rules or are PRO eco-modulated fees enough? Eco-modulated fees have been increasingly used for better design and more recycled content. Do we need one or both? This session tackles the real-world evidence, and what it means for packaging legislation and decisions in Australasia, and what are the implications for exports and manufacturing with EU’s 2030 deadline packaging rules. This session is timely given France’s latest bold recycled content “Arrêté” rules came into force on 1 January 2026 that set rules and subsidy for recycled content. CITEO, established in 1992, pioneered the bonus and malus eco-modulated fee approach now being adopted around the world for packaging and other products. You’ll also hear from European Plastic Converters representing local manufacturers of products, from pipe to packaging who use both virgin and recycled resin. Speakers include Baptiste Roubaud (International Affairs, CITEO, France) and Thomas de Meester (Head of EU Plastics Films sector group, European Plastic Converters). |
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| PROs and viable recyclers reliably providing recyclate to customers Session 7: Tuesday 21 April 2026, 2:30-3:30pm |
| Australia and New Zealand’s proximity to Asia has resulted in the majority plastic packaging and/or resin being imported as local recyclers struggle to compete with low-cost imports. Successive governments have offered grants for recycling infrastructure; however, this has not translated into reliable, at scale, onshore recycling, market demand, or long-term operating confidence. This webinar explores how nations with mandatory EPR keep recyclers viable, protect supply chain stability, and give brands confidence to use verified recycled material. We’ll hear from Czechia’s PRO, EkoKom, which has funded the national packaging system since founding in 1997, coordinating 22,000 producer customers, 6,600 councils, and 147 sorting facilities. EkoKom operates as a “market conductor”, backed by auditing and reporting to the national regulator. We’ll also hear the processor view from Mateo Packing, contracted within the system and selling pelletised product since 2006 into Czechia and Germany, including the role of traceability and accountability as import competition grows. Speakers include Zbyněk Kozel (CEO, EkoKom, Czechia) and Tadeas Hnatek (Mateo Packing, processor of C&I and post-consumer soft plastics). |
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This webinar series is made possible by the voluntary participation of our members:
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