The UK plastics industry has launched a campaign aimed at doubling plastic packaging recycling rates by 2020. The “Plastics 2020 Challenge” (www.plastics2020challenge.com), founded by the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk), PlasticsEurope (Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticseurope.org), and the UK’s Packaging & Films Association (Nottingham; www.pafa.org.uk), will target the plastics industry, government and consumers. The industry associations said the campaign will focus on reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering plastics.

"There are plastics businesses in virtually every parliamentary constituency in the land. The industry is worth GBP 19 bn (EUR 22m) to UK Plc and employs 186,000 people,” said Calum Forsyth of the Plastics 2020 Challenge. “Plastics have become indispensable to our daily lives, and yet debate surrounding their use and disposal has become unhelpfully polarised.”
The campaign is backed by UK Members of Parliament (MPs) from across the political divide.