The significance of plastic in today’s society
“The plastics industry is one of the major strengths of the UK manufacturing sector.” – David Hall, President British Plastics Federation.
Plastic is a material that many industries rely on in today’s society, some of these industries include automotive and aerospace. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without the 170,000-people employed within the plastic industry, which also accounts for 6.5% of people whom are employed in the UK manufacturing sector; therefore, the plastic industry doesn’t always get the recognition it truly deserves.
The use of plastic throughout the UK has been predicted to almost double over the next 20 years. By 2020 the plastic industry is expected to be worth $650 billion.
There are around 6,200 UK companies that specialise in plastic and 5,200 of these specialise in plastic product manufacturing. Even though the UK may have one of highest productive plastic industries throughout Europe, the UK is suffering from a skills shortage in this area, which the government are looking at to improve.
The British Plastics Federation (BPF) and 40 key plastic companies within the industry have joined forces to craft an action plan to help tackle the skill shortage, environmental sustainability and the denied recognition the industry gets, to help fuel its success.
These actions will include adjustments to the current curriculum to make sure that the plastic presence will be available for young people to choose from within school and college. In addition to this, the encouragement of getting organisations to get involved within education and provide work placements and apprenticeships for young people will be highly focused on.
The BPF are also continuing to place pressure on the banning of landfilling any waste that is recyclable or recoverable, in addition to developing a Plastic Industry Recycling Action Plan.
All of these factors united, as well as added promotional factors will hopefully increase the exposure of the industry.
Added: 09 Jan 2018 09:45
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