Circular economy is on everyone’s agenda.
NGOs, companies across all sectors and throughout the value chains, European regulators and legislators alike strive for a shift towards a circular economy. The new Circular Nonwovens Forum is dedicated to addressing challenges and collectively finding opportunities in order to accelerate this transition.
Join us and participate in this unique and interactive Forum to:
Nonwovens, you say? is an exciting campaign by EDANA that puts the spotlight on the many benefits of nonwovens. In 10 minutes, get to know the campaign and learn how your company can contribute!
Rahul Bansal is ‘AVP, Global Business Development Head’ for Nonwoven business – Birla Cellulose (part of Aditya Birla Group, India).
Rahul has more than 24 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development across Nonwoven & Textile industry. He completed his B. Tech with a specialization in Man Made Fibres Technology.
Prior to working on Viscose fibres at Birla, he has handled Spunlace nonwoven and Wet wipe product sales and business development.
Bruno De Wilde is the Laboratory Manager of Organic Waste Systems (OWS) in Ghent, Belgium for whom he has worked for more than 30 years already. In this capacity, he manages biodegradation, composting and digestion tests and consultancy services as well as waste analyses and inspection activities, supervising a team of 85+ people. Bruno De Wilde has authored or co-authored about 30 scientific articles. Besides he is an active participant of several ISO and CEN working groups in this field and each year gives about 10 presentations on this topic at international conferences and company workshops. He also works as an expert on biodegradable plastics for the European Commission.
He took his MSc in Agricultural Engineering at the State University of Ghent in 1983, spent another year in the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and then worked in an R&D project on making energy from biomass though biogasification in Indonesia for 4 years prior to joining Organic Waste Systems.
Natacha Defeche leads EDANA’s Marketing & Member Engagement department, dedicated to further developing and supporting member services. The department serves as the voice enhancing the visibility of the industry and the association, its members and its activities such as events, training courses and the INDEX™ exhibition.
She graduated with a master’s degree in Political and Social Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). She has been with EDANA for 4 years. She has worked for the Belgium Ministry of Foreign Affairs as adviser and for BAIN & Company as Marketing and Communication manager.
Natacha is responsible for managing all marketing and member engagement activities at EDANA. She manages several of the association’s Working Groups such as the Support to Nonwovens Innovations and R&D WG, the Nonwovens Producers WG, the Durable SG and any group which has a marketing need for the topics or products dealt with.
With an engineering and computer science background, Philippe Dewolfs has always worked in the field of conformity assessment. In the road and rail sector at the beginning of his career, then, since the end of the 1990s, in the certification of bioplastics.
He currently leads the bioplastics certification department in TÜV AUSTRIA, which acquired this activity from Vinçotte at the end of 2017.
TÜV AUSTRIA is a leading certification organisation with more than 5000 active certificates in this field.
He is a member of several national and international working and standardisation groups and is regularly consulted to share his experience.
Julien Diaz has a Master in Business Engineering and is Product Manager at NOOSA since 2021. At NOOSA, Julien is responsible for managing every business touchpoints with their product (commercial, sourcing, technical).
Prior to joining NOOSA, Julien was Key account manager at Too Good To Go (2018-2020) and Consultant at ORMIT (2016-2018).
Education: PhD Polymer Chemistry at KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Prior work: Consultant at McKinsey&Company (2019-2021)
Current work: OVAM, Project leader since 2021
Responsibilities:
My projects center around guiding Flanders toward a circular economy using policy. I focus on textiles, mainly consumer textiles, diapers and mattresses.
I studied Materials Science and Advanced Textiles & Performance Clothing at the University of Leeds, UK. For my master’s dissertation I studied the performance of 3-dimensional nonwoven fabrics in protective clothing. Since graduating in 2009 I have worked for a product development consultancy specialised in nonwoven fabrics, as well technical sales and business development roles before joining Aquapak in October 2020.
At Aquapak, I am responsible for the development of technical products to produce fibres and nonwoven fabrics. Working in close collaboration with customers, I develop formulations to meet specific needs and support the transfer of tested products into the required production process to produce high performance and sustainable nonwovens.
Working as Research & Development Assistant Specialist in HASSAN Tekstil
Graduated from Istanbul Technical University, B.Sc. Chemical Engineering
Accepted for Innovative Technical Textiles masters program in Istanbul Technical University
With nearly 10 years’ experience in delivering projects across a range of industries and continents, Volodymyr (Vova) Nesin is a distinguished scientist who provides the vision behind Pentatonic’s technical and material innovations as Research and Innovation Director.
Vova has an understanding of multiple precision disciplines that was enhanced by his early education; he attended one of the most prestigious science high schools in Ukraine and, after travelling to Taiwan for further studies and extensive commercial project leadership, he received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the National Chiao Tung University.
Gil Stevens is the External Relations and Sustainability Director for EDANA, the international Association representing the nonwoven and related industries, a position he has held since March 2018.
With a Master’s Degree in Product Development and in Environmental Science, Gil started his career as product engineer in the building industry. Pursuing his passion for sustainability, Gil joined the Cradle to Cradle Platform in 2012, where he has been guiding companies in different sectors, such as textiles, cleaning agents, building, office equipment towards the integration of C2C and preparing them for a circular economy. As sustainability coach at Sustenuto, Gil supported organisations in developing and implementing a sustainability strategy. At the beverage group Spadel, Gil’s responsibilities included the coordination of local CSR representatives at the various European sites and external CSR communication. During his career, Gil also concluded an Executive MBA programme at the Antwerp Management School.
Gil currently has responsibility for managing sustainability and maintaining external relations for EDANA. He manages several of the association’s Working Groups including the Circular Economy WG, Sustainability WG, Construction WG and the Communication & Advocacy SG.
Abby Turner is the Senior Marketing Manager for Health and Hygiene for Dow Europe GmbH. In this role, she is responsible for the overall marketing strategy and execution of plans for existing and new products within key applications. She drives the innovation and sustainability strategy for the hygiene market working in close partnership within the value chain including machine manufacturers and brand owners.
Abby has spent almost her entire career with Dow. Throughout the years, she has worked in a variety of roles including Customer Operations Leadership and Commercial Excellence Leader for EMEA. She graduated from an HCIMA in Hospitality and Event Management and more recently Marketing Diploma from IMD and the General Management program at INSEAD in France and Singapore.
Pierre Wiertz is General Manager of EDANA, the international association serving the nonwovens and related industries.
Pierre, who started at EDANA in 1982 as a Research Associate, has held the position of General Manager since February 2004. As head of the organisation, he is responsible for the Association’s strategy delivery and operations and has initiated a new business orientation for its activities and membership benefits and given impetus to the geographic expansion and leadership of the Association, as outlined in its Vision and Mission, as well as in its Sustainability Charter.
From 1982 to 2004, Pierre held several other positions within
Pierre regularly speaks at European and international conferences on topics related to the nonwovens industry trends and sustainability.
Pierre is fluent in both French and English, and has a working command of Spanish and German.
| Fees | Members | Non members |
|---|---|---|
| Circular Nonwovens Forum 2021 (Hybrid) Full delegate pass - attend in person | €295.00 | €445.00 |
| Circular Nonwovens Forum 2021 (Hybrid) ONLINE Delegate Pass | €295.00 | €445.00 |
| Circular Nonwovens Forum 2021 (Hybrid) Sponsorship | €2,000.00 | €3,900.00 |
The full-day forum will feature an outstanding programme of 10 presentations. Each presentation will be followed by a Live Q&A and a round table discussion animated with LIVE poll questions.
This Forum is free for stakeholders. If you wish to join as a stakeholder, please send a mail to christelle.tuncki@edana.org
You can choose to attend physically. The EDANA team, will be happy to welcome you in a green environment at the Dolce La Hulpe Brussels Hotel (number of seats limited to 65).
Or you can decide to join online. Through our event platform, you will be able to
follow presentations and to network with participants.
No covid-pass is needed. The mask is mandatory in the common areas. It can be removed when in the conference room.
You must complete the Passenger Locator Form (PLF) within 48 hours before arriving in Belgium, even if you’re vaccinate except:
You must fill in the Passenger Locator Form (PLF) within 48 hours before arriving in Belgium, even if you’re vaccinated. You must complete the form even if you are staying in Belgium for less than 48 hours or were abroad for less than 48 hours.
You must always fill in the Passenger Locator Form (PLF), even if you are staying in Belgium for less than 48 hours or were abroad for less than 48 hours.
If you have stayed in a very high-risk country for the past 14 days, you need to fill in the Passenger Locator Form (PLF), at all times, regardless of the length of your stay.
More information can be found on this website: https://www.info-coronavirus.be/en/travels/
We also encourage you to visit this website which provides information on the various measures in place, including on quarantine and testing requirements for travellers: https://reopen.europa.eu/en/
With over 100 delegates from across the nonwovens and related industries in attendance, the first edition of EDANA’s new Circular Nonwovens Forum successfully created a new platform for discussion on sustainability and circularity within the nonwovens sector.
Nonwoven manufacturers, their suppliers and converters are increasingly focused on finding circular economy solutions and this gathering was established to explore this trend in depth with key technical actors, business leaders and decision makers. The forum opened with a keynote speech from Paola Migliorini, the Deputy Head of Unit for Sustainable Production, Products & Consumption on the European Commission’s new Circular Economy Action plan. It was followed by a range of insightful presentations and discussions covering initiatives to address the circularity of AHP plastic waste, the biodegradability and compostability of nonwovens, material innovations, and developments in renewable polypropylene. Read more
