FEAD installs new leadership team

The Brussels-based European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD) has welcomed two new officers to its roster with the start of the new year.

Peter Kurth, president of Germany-based FEAD member federation BDE, has become FEAD’s new president. Also, Valérie Plainemaison, who previously served as the European representative of France-based FEAD association FNADE, is now serving as general secretary of FEAD.

“I’m proud and honored to become the new president of FEAD,” states Kurth. He says FEAD and the companies it represents have a “determining role” to play in the success of the EU Green Deal. With more than 320 000 employees in Europe, and more than €5 billion ($5.5 billion) invested each year, private waste management companies are key in making the circular economy happen on the ground, according to FEAD.

Kurth indicates that “much more needs to be done to fight climate change and in achieving a circular economy. He says additional annual investments of from €260 to €300 billion ($289 billion to $367 billion) are required to “decarbonize” the whole economy, as called for by European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen’s EU Green Deal.

“This is an extremely ambitious challenge, yet I am convinced that FEAD will be a solid, long-term partner for discussion with the EU legislator in this matter, bringing forward facts and figures that clearly illustrate market needs, and that explains how our industry treats and transforms waste into resource in an environmentally sound way,” states Kurth.

Kurth also says he will “build on the dialogue with the EU institutions undertaken by my predecessor, Jean-Marc Boursier, who will remain a vice president of FEAD, along with Cesare Spreafico.”

Kurth says FEAD’s strategy “is based on three robust pillars: a strong demand to boost recycling markets; using fair competition as the cornerstone for dynamic, efficient, affordable waste management; and a full recognition of the avoided CO₂ emissions by the entire waste management chain.”