The British Plastics Federation (BPF), a trade association for the plastics industry, has launched an online portal to help organisations across the UK locate suppliers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new portal ensures that companies who are able to provide products to help with the UK’s response to Covid-19 are listed in one place. This includes those providing visors, ventilator parts, aprons, hand sanitiser bottles, clinical waste sacks, and other key supplies.
The BPF has reportedly been contacted by over 100 different organisations, including UK, Scottish and Welsh governments, the NHS, and organisations across the country, to help source suppliers who can provide critical supplies for frontline NHS workers as well as staff in other key sectors, such as manufacturing. Although requests have predominantly been for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), other items key in the fight against coronavirus such as bottles and closures for hand sanitiser have also been requested.
In response to these requests, the team at the BPF has been locating manufacturers and suppliers across the country, and as a result has played a key role in ensuring millions of face shields, millions of hand sanitiser bottles, and hundreds of thousands of other urgent medical supplies have been provided to hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales.
Philip Law, director general of the BPF, commented: “The BPF and its members have risen to the challenge faced by the NHS and industries across the country. Member companies have stepped up to transform and expand their manufacturing operations, working longer and harder to ensure we can provide the protective equipment and medical supplies the UK needs. We are also working closely with the government to access the specialist manufacturing equipment that is urgently needed.
“The BPF has been working alongside a number of government departments, including the Cabinet Office, the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, the Department for International Trade, and the Department of Health and Social Care.”
The new portal can be accessed here.