Nigel Evans has been MP for Ribble Valley since 1992
Margaret Thatcher, a chemistry graduate, started her career in plastics. Her first job was at an Essex-based firm called BX Plastics. “I love argument, I love debate,” she once said. “I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.”
Now more than ever is the time for a debate on the future of plastics; not just within the industry, but more widely. How do we use our natural resources more efficiently and avoid waste as much as we can? We must be brave and begin an open and honest conversation, challenging ourselves and others. Yes, our materials are used to protect, preserve, package and prevent. But what about all our responsibilities to the four R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover? That is why I have launched the Plastics 2020 Challenge with Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle.
Plastics are essential to our everyday lives, and if anything are becoming more so. It is a £19 billion industry, with £4.6 billion exports, and employs 186,000 people across every parliamentary constituency in the land. The plastics industry is bigger than the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors combined. The country would come to a standstill if we truly, literally, dispensed with plastics.
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