It’s been a difficult 12 months, but Power 50 demonstrates the industry is in safe hands

To take the last first: congratulations to all those who have made the list this year, and especially to our number one, Ron Marsh. Marsh has, in our view, navigated RPC through the past 12 months’ difficult waters with the right mix of decisiveness and a clearly stated vision as to where he wanted to get to. Packaging News readers clearly think so too – Marsh was voted number two in our first ever readers’ poll for the list.

Marsh is part of packaging’s old guard, of course. But elsewhere, the list’s newcomers highlight some of the great stories of the sector in the past year. These are people like Can-Pack’s Jerzy Laszcz, who has overseen construction of the first beverage can production facility in the UK for two decades; or Greenstar WES’ James Donaldson, who has placed himself in the vanguard of firms recycling food-grade plastics.

So it’s an exciting, if difficult, time. And we are waiting with bated breath to see what effect this month’s Packaging Strategy will have in the months and years to come.

Much of the strategy is sensible and on the money, even if we don’t think LCA and carbon footprinting of packaging is the answer until a common and agreed measure is reached – and even then, it may not be. One very welcome aspect, though, is the focus on seeing recyclable material as a resource and developing the UK’s recycling infrastructure.

Speaking of recycling, one person not in this year’s Power 50 list is Dan Norris, the new waste minister at Defra.

We hope Norris will prove to be as good a listener on packaging as his short-lived predecessor. But it’s easy to wonder if it’s worth lobbying Norris at all. After all, in nine months he may not be in government.

Josh Brooks is editor of Packaging News

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