The winners of the Plastics Industry Awards 2024 were announced on Friday 22 November at a black-tie gala evening at the Intercontinental London Park Lane.
PIA
Presented by Zoe Lyons, award-winning stand-up comedian and TV and radio star, the awards recognise the ways in which plastics product design, manufacture and recycling contribute to successful and sustainable innovation in the UK & Eire.
One of five new awards introduced for 2024, Sustainable Product Design went to JLR for its composite cross-car beam, beating seven other shortlisted products. The composite cross-car beam is a structural component that supports the car dashboard. It's designed to replace a difficult-to-recycle magnesium original with a potential 80% reduction in CO2 emissions.
The Recycling Machinery Innovation Award went to Greyparrot for its Analyzer. It gathers real-time data on waste streams and uses AI to identify 89 different types of material more accurately than manual sampling.
EREMA Group won Recycler of the Year for Project Re:claim, a joint venture with the Salvation Army Trading Company to recycle thousands of tonnes of end-of-life consumer and industrial polyester textiles into rPET pellets that are respun into yarn for new textiles.
A record ten organisations had been shortlisted for the Material Innovation Award, with the winner’s trophy going to Notpla and Plastek UK for the Notpla chip fork made from biodegradable polymer made from seaweed.
Lily Atkinson of IPL Global won the Apprentice or Trainee Award and was awarded a £500 prize by the PMMDA. Professor Stefaan Simons of the Horners Awards Committee on behalf of The Worshipful Company of Horners presented the Unsung Hero Award to Andrew Jones of Fisher Plastics.
For the first time in the history of the awards, two individuals were announced as Plastics Industry Ambassadors for 2024, Richard Orme of Distrupol and Carl Futcher of PlastikCity.
Polystar Plastics won the prestigious Processor of the Year Award, which looks at overall company performance across various areas, including business growth, technology innovation, environmental custody and community involvement.
Best Training & Development Programme went to Bespak for its Injection Moulding Academy. PlastikCity lifted the award for Best Business Initiative for the “PlastikCity on Tour” promotional programme.
The three Supplier Partnership Awards went to Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK, Hi-Tech Automation and Nolato Jaycare for Injection moulding; Adreco Plastics and Global Access Diagnostics for Toolmaker and TH Plastics with Polypipe BHL for Auxiliary.
Matt Barber, Global Events Director at Crain Communications, which organises the awards said: “We introduced five new categories in this year’s awards and I am delighted to see a great mix of first-time winners alongside others who have previously won multiple times in our 23-year history. Congratulations to them all. The quality and number of entries we received this year was exceptional and the winners fully deserve to be recognised for their innovation, excellence and sustainability.”
Engel UK and Distrupol were Platinum sponsors of this year’s Plastics Industry Awards and Gold sponsors are Arburg Limited, Hasco, Meusburger, PlastikCity and Interplas. Funds raised from the Charity Casino sponsored by Arburg are going to the Midlands Air Ambulance. The awards also enjoy the support of industry associations including the BPF (British Plastics Federation), the GTMA (toolmakers’ trade association), the PMMDA, the SPRA (Scottish Plastics & Rubber Association) and the Sustainable Plastics magazine and website.