British Plastics Federation warns of energy price rises

“We are concerned about the growing gap between supply and demand of energy,” said BPF director general Peter Davis, who will meet with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) minister of state Mike O’Brien to discuss the government’s energy policy.

Davis told Packaging News that BPF members were currently relaxed about energy costs, which have just gone down, but warned they were “not going to stay that way”.

“Experts are telling me that there’s going to be another big hike in energy costs next winter,” he said.

The meeting with O’Brien is the result of a letter the BPF sent to secretary of state for DECC Ed Miliband in February.

The BPF has welcomed Ed Miliband’s endorsement of energy from waste and hopes to work with government to win “hearts and minds” for the alternative source of heat and power.

It will also call for support for the Climate Change Agreement, which the European Commission did not approve, despite glass, metal, paper and board all benefiting from an 80% discount.

A second meeting with BERR economic and business minister Ian Pearson is also planned. This will focus on the difficulty faced by companies in attainting credit insurance.

“There’s a great pressure in the UK to expand recycling in the UK, particularly as China is taking less plastic waste from Europe,” explained Davis.

“Our recycling companies want to expand,” he said, “but they are finding finance for expansion very difficult”.

Pearson will meet with BPF president Calum Forsyth, past president Brian Mann of McKechnie Plastic Components and Mark Burstall, chairman of the BPF Recycling Council.

Dates for the meetings are yet to be confirmed.

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