Women in Plastics to host biggest and best event at Interplas 2021

Women in Plastics Networking event at Interplas 2021

09:45 - 10:30, 30 September 2021

Join the Women in Plastics team for refreshments and networking. You’ll be able to meet the founders, members, and companies championing diversity, plus you’ll find out more about how you can benefit from the Women in Plastics community. The reception is open to all, not just women.

Women in Plastics: Attracting, Training and Retaining Talent – Free seminar

10:30 - 11:30, 30 September 2021, Advancing UK Plastics Stage

Women in Plastics hosts its own conference session, focusing on attracting, training and retaining talent in the industry. With so many questions around quotas and the right people for the job, should you put people in a job due to gender, race or sexual orientation? The panel will discuss quotas, asking is it simply a promoted tokenism, box-ticking exercise, which could represent an unsustainable short-term fix?

The Women in Plastics community is looking forward to welcoming members old and new to this relaxed and friendly networking morning at Interplas 2021.  Interplas is Women in Plastics’ home, after the group’s debut at the show in 2014, which is why this year the free-to-attend ‘Breakfast’ networking event and associated presentations will be back at 09.30am on Thursday 30th September in Hall 3A.

Representatives and supporters of Women in Plastics of all genders will be in attendance to join the networking morning which will be followed by a panel discussion on Attracting, Training and Retaining Talent.

The panel will include Holly Turner, Material Planner at Bright Green Plastics, Adela Putinelu, Senior Sustainability Executive at the British Plastics Federation, Mark Lawson, Managing Director Sierra57 Consult and Alice Mortiboy an associate at Potter Clarkson.

The event gives attendees the chance to network and learn more about the mentoring opportunities available to women in the plastics industry, helping to pave the way to more female visibility across the sector which in time will help narrow the gender representation gap by inspiring new generations to pursue a career in plastics. 

Holly Turner

With a scientist mother and an eco-warrior father, Holly, who has a BSc in Chemistry, and an MChem in Chemistry with Industrial Experience, has her dream job working in a scientific role at the UK’s top plastic recycling firm. 

As Material Planner at Bright Green Plastics, where she has worked for two years, Holly plans the jobs for the production workers, which involves interpreting data from the Quality Control department and producing instructions, according to a strict product specification, for each batch of plastic product the company produces. Holly is also responsible for screening new plastic feedstocks and categorising material for upcoming jobs. 

Holly combines technical thinking, good planning and quick thinking to successfully scope out the jobs and come up with solutions on the go, whilst maintaining a solid rapport with the production workers, and gains immense job satisfaction from seeing results and change as a result of her input and ideas.

Adela Putinelu

Adela Putinelu is passionate about sustainability and has 10 years of experience in the field. Since 2018, she is working as Senior Sustainability Executive at the British Plastics Federation (BPF, the largest plastics industry trade association and leads the sustainability areas of work including circular economy, marine pollution and waste management.

She specialises in environmental policy and has a Master of Science in Environmental Technology from the Imperial College in London and a Master of Arts in International Development from the University of Manchester. She has worked in the past for the Environmental Investigation Agency in London and Carbon Market Watch in Brussels.

Mark Lawson, Managing Director, Sierra57 consult

Sierra 57 Consult is a professional & established Technical & Engineering Consultancy offering proven specialist services within Recruitment, Mould Process Contracting, HR and Technical Advisory & Training services to the Plastics industry, and mainly delivering added value to Plastics Moulding, Processing, Tooling, Recycling & Ancillary disciplines. Enjoying success the consultancy is expanding to accommodate exponential customer demand. All its consultants are trained within some level of technical plastics discipline. Sierra 57’s service support UK & Overseas manufacturing & engineering operations. 

The company is a recognised Recruitment partner to key manufacturing, precision engineering & trade moulding customers across the UK, and deliver an impeccable & highly regimented communication service between both client base & engineering professionals.

Alice Mortiboy

Alice Mortiboy works as an associate at Potter Clarkson, a full-service intellectual property law firm.  Her role can be best described as helping companies and individuals protect and create value from their innovation.  Alice has been working at Potter Clarkson for 4 years, after completing her master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Warwick.

As part of Potter Clarkson’s chemistry team, Alice works with innovations in the cleantech and advanced materials sector, and has a particular interest in polymer chemistry having worked on polymer research projects in both the UK and abroad.

Membership of the Women in Plastics Group is free and Interplas visitors and exhibitors are invited to register for the event on Thursday 30th September by visiting www.interplasuk.com/content/women-in-plastics-event.