Joachim Quoden has been a leading voice in European and international Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and packaging waste management for more than three decades. His professional journey began in 1992 at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, where he worked on the early implementation of the Packaging Ordinance and the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
Since 2013, Joachim has been Managing Director of EXPRA, the Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, representing 37 non-profit, industry-owned PROs from 34 countries. Under his leadership, EXPRA has become a recognised and respected voice in Brussels and beyond, promoting transparent, non-profit, producer-governed EPR systems that reinvest resources into better collection, sorting, and recycling.
Alongside his executive role, Joachim has practised as an independent lawyer in Germany since 1995, specialising in international EPR legislation and environmental compliance. He chairs the ISWA EU Group, and contributes as an expert to the OECD EPR Expert Group and the ISO global standardisation project.
He is also actively engaged in several cross-material industry initiatives, including CEFLEX (flexible packaging), HolyGrail 2.0 / 3.0 (digital watermarking for design-for-recycling), Close the Glass Loop (glass packaging), and 4EverGreen (paper packaging). These collaborations reflect his long-standing commitment to building an integrated and circular packaging value chain.
