The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the main trade body for the

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

s industry in the UK.

History

It was incorporated on 21 December 1933; the first Chairman was Charles Waghorne of Insulators Limited. It is the longest-established plastics federation in the world. The 1930s was the decade in which many common plastics were discovered, some in the UK. On 27 March 1933 Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett (with

Francis Arthur Freeth Francis Arthur Freeth (2 January 1884 – 15 July 1970) was a British industrial chemist. He spent much of his career at Brunner Mond and its successor Imperial Chemical Industries, as chief chemist, research manager and in a recruiting capacity, ...

FRS and Sir

Michael Perrin Sir Michael Willcox Perrin, CBE, FRSC (13 September 1905 – 18 August 1988) was a Canadian-born British scientist who created the first practical polythene, directed the first British atomic bomb programme, and participated in the Allied intel ...

) discovered

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...

(polythene) at ICI's

Winnington Research Laboratory Winnington is a ward and northwestern suburb of the town of Northwich, in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. Industry Winnington is the home to Brunner Mond UK chemical works, where soda ash is created. Polythene, the m ...

Winnington Winnington is a ward and northwestern suburb of the town of Northwich, in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. Industry Winnington is the home to Brunner Mond UK chemical works, where soda ash is created. Polythene, t ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

; John Crawford, at the Explosives group of ICI at

Ardeer, North Ayrshire Ardeer was a small town now officially incorporated into Stevenston on the Ardeer peninsula, in the parish of Stevenston, North Ayrshire, originally an island and later its extensive sand dune system became the site of Nobel Explosives, a dom ...

near

Stevenston Stevenston (, ) is a town and parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Along with Ardrossan and Saltcoats it is one of the "Three Towns#Scotland, Three Towns", all of similar size, on the Firth of Clyde coast; the easternmost parts of Stevenston are ...

, produced a commercial synthesis of

poly(methyl methacrylate) Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bran ...

, also known as Perspex with production beginning in 1934. Polythene is the world's most widespread polymer, and was first produced by ICI from 1939; many plastic bottles are made from

LDPE Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene. It was the first grade of polyethylene, produced in 1933 by John C. Swallow and M.W Perrin who were working for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) using a high pr ...

Polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It i ...

was invented in Germany in 1937.

PTFE Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene, and has numerous applications because it is chemically inert. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemours, a spin-off fro ...

was discovered in America (New Jersey) in 1938 by Roy J. Plunkett when at

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

PET A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/ cute appearances, inte ...

beverage bottles were introduced from 1973.

PEEK Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is a beige coloured organic thermoplastic polymer in the polyaryletherketone (PAEK) family, used in engineering applications. It was invented in November 1978 and brought to market in the early 1980s by part of I ...

was developed by ICI in 1977.

HDPE High-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polyethylene high-density (PEHD) is a thermoplastic polymer produced from the monomer ethylene. It is sometimes called "alkathene" or " polythene" when used for HDPE pipes. With a high strength-to-density ratio ...

water pipes were introduced from 1980. In 1988, a number code for recycling plastics was introduced.

Structure

It is headquartered in Old Street in central London. It houses the UK office of the PlasticsEurope Europe-wide organisation.

Membership

Companies in the BPF include: *

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

Polypipe Genuit Group plc, formerly Polypipe Group, is a manufacturer of plastic piping systems, for use in the residential, commercial, civils and infrastructure sectors. The piping systems are used for a variety of applications including drainage, plum ...

RPC Group RPC Group plc () is based in the United Kingdom, and is one of Europe's largest supplier of plastic packaging. Its headquarters are in Rushden in Northamptonshire. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Berry Globa ...

Rehau Group The REHAU Group is a family-owned polymer business, which develops, manufactures and markets products for the automotive, construction, furniture, materials, medical and industrial sectors. Rehau employs more than 20,000 people in over 190 ...

Function

It represents the UK

plastics industry The plastics industry manufactures polymer materials—commonly called plastics—and offers services in plastics important to a range of industries, including packaging, building and construction, electronics, aerospace, manufacturing and transpo ...

. It runs its Plastipedia, a resource on plastics. In 2009 it launched the Plastics 2020 Challenge.

Plastipedia

Plastipedia is an online

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

about plastics, starting from their birth in 1862 with the invention of

Parkesine Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day ...

; it is hosted and maintained by the BPF. It has a comprehensive list of plastic

manufacturing process Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

es, and lists the 25 main processing technologies, including detailed animations. It also deals with energy management in the plastic industry and offers a guide to the main standards associated with the plastic industry.

References

External links

Official WebsitePlastics NetworkExpanded Polystyrene Group
{{Authority control Plastics industry organizations Trade associations based in the United Kingdom 1933 establishments in the United Kingdom