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Head of Content
Dave Gray
I
’m looking forward to International Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June. If you follow me or any of the Interplas Insights social media pages, you’ll know I’ve had the pleasure of travelling the country, meeting with key stakeholders in the plastics industry recently. I’ve been asking people about their current challenges, trying to get to the heart of the kind of content that would best serve our readers. There have been many common themes, but probably none more pressing than the issue of skills, recruitment and diversity in the workforce. At a friend’s wedding recently, I found myself chatting to a student of data science, who had just finished writing a paper on the correlation between various societal influences and the uptake of engineering amongst young women. One key outcome from this work showed that the language used around engineering still depicts an overtly masculine arena. Neutrality of communications could be a key consideration in trying to invigorate diversity among the next generation of engineers. Get It Made, a UK contract manufacturer offering injection moulding, CNC machining and other services, got in touch with me to let me know about their initiative for International Women in Engineering Day. They’re offering a grant of up to £10,000 tailored exclusively to femaleled, engineering, design and
manufacturing enterprises. The recipient will also benefit from business support and guidance from Get It Made – vital for any small business trying to find its feet post-Covid. I’ll be speaking to the team at Get It Made in an upcoming episode of the Interplas Insights podcast. Speaking of which, I’m really enjoying hosting the podcast (which, by the way, is available on all major podcast apps) lately, because we’re getting some fascinating people in from all sides of the supply chain. Take for example a recent interview with Professor Michael Shaver at The University of Manchester’s Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub, and Natalie Mera-Pirttijarvi, project manager at the university’s Innovation Factory, Shaver has been leading a team of researchers in developing a new additive that can accurately detect the presence and concentration of recycled polymers. It’s timely, given the recent introduction of the Plastic Packaging Tax, and while uncertainties still exist (both in the interpretation of the tax, and the availability of recyclate), it’s likely to be a useful technology for the industry to have access to. In another episode, I caught up with sustainability leaders at Inovyn and LyondellBasell, firms that are both backing a cleanup project called Plastic Free Mersey. It’s perhaps not surprising that chemicals firms want to align themselves with these projects, and I wanted to find out how they plan to put words into action. It’s a panel discussion, so you’ll also get to hear from the team at Plastic Free Mersey (the team behind Thames 21) on what they think industry can and should be doing to address the problem of plastic in waterways.
