| EBIA News October 2021 22nd General Assembly Webinar 2021 – Utrecht After 13 years of dedicated service to EBIA, the European Bedding Industry Association, Mr Frank Verschuere, managing director at LS Bedding, retired as President on the occasion of the 22nd EBIA General Assembly held online on 23rd September 2021.  Mr Verschuere, who was nominated EBIA president in 2005 during the EBIA GA in Amsterdam, held the position for a total of 13 years (from 2005 to 2015 and from 2018 to 2021). “Being there at the creation of EBIA and having served as president for 13 years has been a privilege and I am proud of the achievements accomplished during all these years.” On the proposal of the EBIA Board, the General Assembly of EBIA took the unanimous decision to nominate Mr Geert Geerkens as the new EBIA President. Mr Geert Geerkens, director Sales and Marketing at the Belgian company Veldeman Group, states “I look forward to working with EBIA Board and all our members to ensure EBIA continues to support the bedding industry in all its activities. I fully believe in the European co-operation and am convinced that working closer together will lead to stronger results. EBIA must continue representing the bedding industries in Europe with one voice and we will work together to prepare the industry to thrive in the green and digital transition.” EBIA’s Managing Director, Frederik Lauwaert, welcomes the Board’s decision and looks forward to a fruitful collaboration: “We are excited to be working with Geert Geerkens as our new President. He has deep knowledge of the sector and has also the experience of working with trade association in Belgium. He will lead the association in these times to make the voice of the sector heard in Brussels.” “I would also like to warmly thank Frank for his invaluable contribution to EBIA in the past years. He has been a real driving force in the organisation, relentlessly promoting the interest of the bedding manufacturers and helping the sector to achieve significant successes.” Presentations at the General assembly – EPR, circularity and business tips Three interesting speakers addressed the audience during the webinar part of the General assembly. First, Mrs Vivian Shi from Oakdene Hollins gave an overview of the final project on the blueprint for mattresses Extended Producer Responsibility. The blueprint document will guide future discussions about Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) at a national and an EU level, allowing EBIA’s members to become further involved in policy decision-making. The outlined recommendations concentrate on the ‘best-case’ scenario for the implementation of EPR – all of which adhere to the concepts, definitions and minimum requirements set out in the Waste Framework Directive (Article 8a). Mrs Caroline McGarvey took the floor to present IKEA’s views on circularity in the bedding sector. IKEA aims at a desirable furnishing range which enables customers to make easy decisions to live an affordable and sustainable life at home, with a material portfolio produced responsibly and supporting circular range development. Mrs McGarvey talked about the material scope, and renewable and recyclable materials. The webinar was closed with a presentation from the US-based ‘Dos Marcos’, Mark Quinn and Mark Kinsley who gave the audience tools for attracting more foot traffic to the shop. They talked about the HATCH acronym and provided background on their “Galaxy graph”. All the presentations can be found n the members’ section on our website at Members Area | EBIA – European bedding industries’ association Visit to Retour Matras – Netherlands Recycling is and will remain a key word. And mattress recycling is obviously on every lips in our industry. Along with Board members, we visited one of their infrastucture. It helped us understand the whole loop of recycling, implying many stake holders. Retour Matras is a Dutch company specialised in collecting and recycling used mattresses. It has a full automatic disassembly line, as well as a manual disassembly point for the bad softies, that are glued together and need a hands-on treatment. The mattress is opened with a robotic saw system, the sleeve is separated from the core, the springs are shredded – ready to be re-melted – and the foams are cut and pressed together in bales and used as raw material for (acoustic) insulation sheets.  Visit their website at www.retourmatras.nl Sustainable Product Policy: Commission proposal may be delayed until next year The Circular Economy Action Plan focuses on sustainable resource use, especially in resource-intensive and high-impact sectors such as textiles, electronics and construction. The expected initiative, which falls under the Circular Economy Action Plan, would aim at establishing a set of requirements to ensure that all products placed on the EU market become increasingly sustainable and stand the test of circularity. The Action Plan notes that the core of the initiative will be to explore the potential of expanding the scope of the Ecodesign Directive to non-energy related products. According to the Action Plan, the Commission was expected to present a proposal on sustainable products. The Commission adopted its second Circular Economy Action Plan on 11 March 2020.  Priority would be given to key sectors such as electronics, ICT and textiles, furniture (including bedding) and high impact intermediary products such as steel, cement and chemicals. The Commission was expected to present the Sustainable Product Policy initiative, together with the proposal on the substantiation of green claims and the proposal empowering consumers in the green transition on 14 December 2021. However, the three proposals have been removed from the latest of the College of Commissioners published on 4 October 2021. Therefore the presentation of the initiatives is likely to be delayed until next year. Read more on Sustainable products initiative (europa.eu) If you want more information about the above, please feel free to contact us here. |
