Axion urges Government Circular Economy policy to support UK manufacturers

Sustainability and circular economy principles should be at the heart of Government policy to encourage UK manufacturers to incorporate more recycled content in new goods, conserve raw material resources and promote locally-made goods.

That’s the view of Keith Freegard, Director of Axion Polymers speaking at the first-ever Made in Britain (MiB) workshop focused on marketing in the Circular Economy (CE).

Keith commented: “Demand creation for recycled products is important if we are to create a circular economy based on efficient recovery and reuse of our existing finite resources, such as plastics.

“The technology is there to recycle these materials and there are multiple benefits to using recycled polymers from secure, locally-sourced UK supply chains with stable pricing. It’s also a brilliant carbon-saving story!”

Held at Axion’s end-of-life vehicle recycling facility in Manchester, the March event attracted more than 30 manufacturer and entrepreneur members keen to learn more about trading sustainably and supporting a more sustainable future in Britain.

Speakers also included Jane Gardner, Axion’s Head of Consulting Services on supporting business growth and development towards a circular economy; Malcolm Marnold from the Department for International Trade and Steve Poppit from Craemer UK who highlighted how their wheelie bin recycling scheme demonstrated circular economy principles.

Attendees also toured Axion’s facility, the Shredder Waste Advanced Process Plant (SWAPP) where resources are extracted from shredded scrap vehicles. Recovered materials include high-quality recycled polymers that can be used in new plastic goods, from automotive components to construction products.

For MiB member David Trotter, Managing Director of Muggi, the event has inspired him to seek recycled polymers for use in his plastic cupholder products. He said: “It’s really interesting listening to the experts and I enjoyed the networking. I found Keith’s talk fascinating and I will call him for a chat. I’m specifically interested in seeing what recycled products Axion supply that I could use in making our polypropylene Muggi tray.”

Made in Britain’s Chief Executive, John Pearce, said: “What a privilege! To have our members take the factory tour at Axion in the afternoon, after spending the whole morning learning how you turn old cars into high value polymers, which some of them will want to purchase, was as good a day as I have ever had at Made in Britain.

“For me personally, just to see how Axion is delivering on the Circular Economy already was a massive inspiration. I want to make sure all our members know what Axion are doing to be global leaders in this field: in my view, far more important than sending a car into space!”

Axion Polymers is part of the Axion Group that develops and operates innovative resource recovery and processing solutions for recycling waste materials. The Group works with a wide range of clients within the recycling and process industries on the practical development of new processing and collection methods.

For more information, contact Axion Polymers on 161 737 6124 or visit the website - www.axiongroup.co.uk @axionpolymers.