Technical Advisory Committee

The purpose of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is to discuss innovation in packaging development, material science, recycling technology and the infrastructure of the industry to ensure our information and tools are kept up to date and backed by evidence. They discuss items including common and specific member queries, proposed recycling status for material types and new innovations in packaging material or recycling technologies and how they potentially impact our labelling rules and tools.

The TAC meets quarterly and has representatives from across the industry, including Recyclers, NGOs, brands, packaging producers, manufacturers, retailers, compliance schemes, industry bodies and consultants. Each TAC member was chosen for their experience within the industry and we will review the members every 3 years.

Adam Herriott

Adam is a Senior Specialist at WRAP, leading a team of specialists working on the UK Plastics Pact helping the UK transition to a circular plastics economy. He has over a decade of experience working with Local Authorities and recyclers across all packaging materials.

Brian Lodge

Brian is Director of Plastics and Flexible Packaging at the BPF, and Independent Consultant on sustainable plastic packaging. He has over 40 years’ experience in the plastics industry as a designer, manager, and director, focusing on making plastic packaging more sustainable.

Denise Mathieson

Denise has over 35 years in experience in packaging, she has recently joined Waitrose as Partner & Manager Packaging Innovation & Delivery. Prior to this was Sustainability lead at Faerch for 12 months. Prior to that was Senior Packaging Manager at Tesco. A Fellow of IOM3, steering group member for RECOUP and a proud judge of UK Packaging Awards and she is also a very active member of UK Plastic Pact Tray 2 Tray groups.

James Skidmore

As the Head of Consulting at Valpak, James has been involved in producing a series of reports relating to packaging - assessing the impact of legislation change and quantifying material flows. James has also worked for Sainsbury’s managing waste, customer recycling and working with the packaging team on sustainability issues.

Jarno Stet

Jarno Stet is the Secretary of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO) and Waste & Recycling Manager for the City of Westminster. Jarno has worked in the waste and resources sector since 2003 and specialises in local authority waste management.

Karen Graley

Karen is Packaging Innovation and Delivery Manager at Marks & Spencer and one of the original Directors of OPRL, serving on the Board since 2009. Waitrose was one of the founding partners working with the BRC and WRAP to develop the OPRL label. Karen is a member of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging. Karen started her career on the design team at Safeway’s Stores having grown up around print, starting with summer jobs in her father’s print factory in Liverpool as a teenager.

Kevin Vyse

Kevin has spent 40 years in the packaging business and is qualified as an industrial designer and a packaging engineer. Over these years he has worked with some of the biggest retailers (Tesco and M&S), brands (Muller, Premier Foods, GSK) and manufacturers as a designer, engineer and technologist. As well as being a former Non-Executive Director of OPRL he is an associate board member of INCPEN and has a Fellowship from the Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals in 2020.

Matt Harris

Matt is Head of Packaging Moy Park and has worked within the food Industry for 20+ years in a variety of Packaging R&D, Operations and Innovation roles across the red meat & poultry industries. He’s delivered award winning packaging innovations, developed sustainable packaging strategies and provides Packaging direction & leadership at a Global level for JBS.

Natasha Cook

Natasha is the Packaging Manager at Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited. She provides subject matter expertise on all aspects of packaging and is responsible for shaping and delivering the Morrisons packaging sustainability strategy. Natasha joined Morrisons in 2018, previously working as a packaging technologist at Sainsburys and holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Paul Davidson

Paul joined UKRI in 2020 as Director for the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge programme. He has over 20 years’ experience in the field of plastics, including his time at SABIC where he was responsible for European market development for flexible packaging resins. Paul holds a first degree in Materials Science and Technology and a PhD in the processing of PET.

Roger Wright

Roger is the Waste Strategy & Packaging Manager at Biffa, bringing his retail experience to Waste Management. By developing a unique service that helps businesses think differently about the packaging they consume and become more circular, he designs-out the materials they don’t need, and implements the scalable alternatives they do.

Russell Granville

Russell is the Senior Projects Manager in Amcor, responsible for the Recycling flexible packaging journey with a focus on the Retailers. He has 35 years experience with Flexible packaging ranging from Compostable / renewable commercial products to replacing complex multi layer laminates with mono PE or PP solutions. Russell has a passion for Sustainability.

Severine Mongauze

Severine is the Packaging Sustainability Senior Manager at Unilever. She has held different positions within Unilever, first in Packaging Development and then, since 2015, in Packaging and Plastic Sustainability. Severine has a background and experience in Circular Economy, design for recycling and end-of-life management of packaging in the European region.

Timothee Duret

Tim is Director of Sustainable Technology at Veolia. He has a masters in Environmental Technologies and over 12 years of experience in the recycling industry, covering plastic, recycling infrastructure design, composting, alternative fuels, and biomass. He is a member of the OPRL Technical Advisory Committee and the UK Plastics Pact Advisory group.

TAC is supported by Jude Allan – Interim Managing Director, Alice Harlock – Director of Technical and Member Services, Emily Gardiner – Account Executive, and Linda Fell – TAC Secretary.