“Plastics is a key enabling industry” BPF members tell politicians ahead of Brexit talks

Representatives of the British Plastics Federation (BPF) have held site visits with local MPs to highlight the importance of the plastics industry ahead of upcoming Brexit negotiations.

Senior representatives of Hellyar Plastics, M&H Plastics and Plastribution held the meetings as part of a larger project by the BPF to engage politicians at all levels.

This, it says, is to ensure that the plastics industry is high on the agenda going into any negotiations with the EU, in order to reflect the importance of the sector to the UK as a whole.

Commenting, Mike Boswell, Managing Director at Plastribution, which welcomed local MP, Andrew Bridgen, to its offices, said:

"[Plastribution] is particularly fortunate to have a local MP with a business background and we very much hope that this meeting will help to ensure that this important sector of the UK economy has a secure future, noting that plastics is a key enabling industry for other important business in the region including food and drink, automotive, aerospace and construction."

At M&H Plastics, Thérèse Coffey, Parliamentary Under Secretary at DEFRA, toured the site where she met with BPF Director-General, Philip Law, and Plastics and Flexible Packaging Group Director, Barry Turner, alongside Chief Executive Officer at RPC M&H Group, David Duffield, and External Affairs Director RPC BPI Group, Mike Baxter.

Together they discussed the industry’s progress in boosting recycling, reducing the amount of materials in use, future appropriate littering interventions, and the appropriateness of deposit return schemes within the UK, as well as other issues relating to Brexit.

The minister had recently proclaimed an ambition for the UK to be “one of the most resource-efficient countries in the world”, as announced by the Deputy Director of Waste and Recycling at DEFRA at a recent event by Aldersgate Group, entitled ‘Amplifying Action on Resource Efficiency’.

Hellyar Plastics received a visit from Sir Julian Brazier MP. David Hellyar, Chairman of Hellyar Plastics, said:

“We were delighted to share our thoughts and concerns about how plastics in the UK is going to cope with Brexit and to discuss the kind of support we would like from Government.

Sir Julian was very interested in the work we were doing here at Hellyar and in understanding about the sheer size and dimensions of the UK plastics industry. We also got chance to discuss in detail some of the important nuances of our industry such as REACH.”