Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019 - 32

INTERVIEW

Facts, not fiction
In this exclusive interview
with PRW, Julian Buckley
sits down with new BPF
president Martin Althorpe
to ﬁnd out what he has
planned for his tenure

People need to
understand what can
and cannot be done
Martin Althorpe, Epwin Group

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has been prevalent across the national
artin Althorpe is a bonaﬁde vetmedia and in Westminster.
eran of the UK polymer industry.
"I'd like to make sure the negativity
Having started as an injection
is minimised and there's more undermoulding machine operator directly afstanding," says Althorpe. "In a way, it's
ter leaving school, he has since been an
continuing Bruce's educational theme,
engineer, a designer, a technical manbut I'm looking to educate people outager, an operations manager and a site
side the industry about the beneﬁts of
manager.
what we do."
For the majority of Althorpe's career
He continues by explaining how he
he has been with Telford-based Epwin
has tried to improve the public image
Group. Now technical director of the
of plastic while at Epwin. Going back
fenestration division, he heads up prosome years, searching PVC on the
duction of extruded PVCu frame sections
Greenpeace website would return a
used to assemble windows and doors.
page entitled 'The Poison Plastic'. "Not
He starts the conversation with some
the most subtle message," he says with
company background. "Epwin Group got
a wry smile. But while PVC was being
into PVCu window proﬁle extrusions in
targeted by environmental activists, efthe early 1980s. The business then split
forts to reduce the material's environinto two divisions, injection and extrumental impact were largely ignored.
sion mouldings and I've been involved
"As a PVC consumer, we've always
with PVCu extrusion ever since."
seen the material having issues with
Since then, he says the industry
credibility," he says. "But since those
landscape has changed a lot, primarily
days, we've really got our act together.
due to rationalisation across the sector
We've entered into a series of voluntary
which has seen a series of smaller busicommitments, engaged with the Euronesses bought up and integrated into
pean Green lobby. We joined Vinyl 2010,
larger companies.
which increased the volume of recycled
"There were a lot of extruders in
material being used within the industry.
the late '90s, but mergers reduced the
On top of that we've reduced the use of
overall number. I was technical direcadditives, eliminating lead as a stabiliser
tor at Spectus [now a window brand at
in the material. Modern PVC is far more
Epwin]. Following the merger I became
benign within the environmentech director of Epwin Window
tal proﬁle."
Systems division. It's called the
Another issue relates to
Fenestration division, covering
how PVC is rated as a materiall the PVCu manufacturing for
al for use in windows. Althorwindow and doors."
Having been active in the E XC LU S I V E pe says that on the original
A-through-C BRE Green Guide
British Plastics Federation
rating scale, PVC was given a 'C'. This
(BPF) for most of his career, Althorpe
was due to it being considered non-rewas revealed as the group's new prescyclable. But following a revision, where
ident in May this year. Like his predethe ratings scale went from A+ to E, PVC
cessors, he has a clear plan for what
was given an A or A+.
he wants to achieve over his two-year
"It's the changes made to the matetenure.
rial, it's now considered recyclable," Al"I've seen what previous presidents
thorpe recounts. "Granulate it and it's
have done. Bruce Margetts [former
raw material again. Then there's the
president] was heavily involved in trainextended lifecycle. It has really good
ing and skills. But the choice of what to
longevity, we showed that PVC windows
do tends to focus on the key issues comcan last in excess of 35 years, possibly
ing into play at that time."
even reaching 45 years."
In a word, Althorpe intends to conLooking at it from another angle, PVC
centrate on communication. Speciﬁcally,
is a victim of its own success. While behe wants to improve access and deing commended for its durability and
livery of facts related to plastic and
persistence, the same characteristics
the material positives. The goal is to
are highlighted by environmentalists as
counter the anti-plastic message which

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Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019

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