MoDiP at the Department for BIS

We have been pleased to work with the British Plastics Federation, the leading trade association for the UK Plastics Industry on an exhibition being opened today, 22 July 2013, by The Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET, a stone's throw away from Westminster Abbey. The Department focuses on economic growth and invests in skills and education to promote trade, boost innovation and help people to start and grow a business.

The theme of the exhibition is 'The UK Plastics Industry - A Strategic Manufacturing Sector'. Its aim is to demonstrate how the plastics industry is an essential part of the countries DNA and how future business in Britain would be impossible without plastics. Part of the exhibition is historical featuring a plastics timeline alongside current facts and figures about the plastics industry and part is a display curated by MoDiP which explores the design freedom provided by plastics and their beneficial impact on society through eight themes: flexibility, recycling, living hinges, sustainability, colour, enablement, buoyancy and insulation. 

The display is in two tall display cases and each of the 17 objects is also featured on a huge screen.

Design, manufacture and marketing is now a global process and plastics is a global material. However all the products on display have a UK connection. Some are historical and others of today, including a ruff handmade from used plastic bags by Laura Anne Marsden, Joseph Joseph’s colander with 12 living hinges, D3O’s engineered material that absorbs shock, Kevin Moseley’s SwimFin that aims to place children in an optimum swimming position, and some Polypipe Terrain products that provide a more sustainable solution than traditional materials to drainage and ventilation. 

The exhibition will be on until 1 August. Do drop in and have a look.

Michael Fallon MP and Mike Boswell, President of the British Plastics Federation discuss the objects from the MoDiP collection.  Image courtesy of the BPF.

Susan Lambert, (Head of MoDiP)