An Vossen is the Executive Manager of Plarebel, a non-profit organization promoting the recycling of plastic waste in Belgium. In this role, she is working as a consultant for Fost Plus, the Belgian take-back scheme for household packaging waste, with regard to collection, sorting and recycling of household plastic packaging waste in Belgium. She assists Fost Plus in the following tasks:

• Competence centre. Plarebel accumulates and develops knowledge and expertise on the collection, sorting, and recycling of plastic packaging and packaging waste. They monitor technological developments in packaging and recycling, maintain contacts with existing and potential recyclers, and study the recyclability of new packaging.
• Monitoring. Plarebel carries out administrative and operational checks in the field. They visit sorting centres and recyclers to ensure the recycling quality that Fost Plus guarantees. In case of complaints about quality, they provide Fost Plus with expert advice.

With more than 10 years’ experience in the field of plastic recycling, she has worked with a variety of national and international sorting centres, recycling companies and recycling organizations, contributing to an efficient implementation of the recycling activities in Belgium and across Europe.

Her career has led her to specialize more and more in packaging ‘design for recycling’ and new recycling technologies such as bottle-to-bottle recycling.

An Vossen is also an active member of EPRO, European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations, where she is leading the Working Group on Bottle Recycling. EPRO and its working groups provide a unique forum for the leading specialists in plastics waste management in Europe to exchange information on technological projects, new technologies, improving quality, etc. about plastic recycling throughout Europe.

An Vossen – as leader of the EPRO TWG Bottles – has played an important role in the creation of the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP), a voluntary initiative grouping technical experts in the field of PET design and recycling for the evaluation of new technologies; together, they aim to provide an objective evaluation of new technologies and an independent assessment of their impact on PET recycling processes across Europe. EPBP is supported by the EPRO, Petcore Europe, PRE, Unesda and EFBW.