Violence in Pubs and Clubs - are plastic glasses the answer?
Friday, 26 November 2010
The Home Office and the Materials KTN recently held an event at the Institute of Materials called ‘21st century pint’ to address the issue around violence involving glass in pubs and clubs.
There are 87,000 violent incidents involving glass each year and glassings account for 10% of all assault injuries in Accident and Emergency Departments. The cost of glass related injury is estimated to be £100 million per annum.
The Home Office want safer glasses and bottles and want to facilitate a market solution and encourage innovation through a Standard based on injury potential. To develop the Standard with the help of IOM3 and the Materials KTN, best practice guidelines will be developed by early April and the Standard by November 2011.
BPF Director-General Peter Davis was present at the event and said, “This is a golden opportunity for plastics to provide products which eliminate glassing. However, first we must participate in formulating the Standard. Surprisingly most of Britain’s pint glasses are manufactured in Calais.”
The British Plastics Federation knows that it is completely feasible to supply plastic glasses that:
• have a longer life than glass
• will not score in a dishwasher
• have no ‘taint’ from the plastic into the drink
• weigh and look like glass
• are hard to break into dangerous shards
• have innovative shapes with printing and embossing possible
• can be designed with closures to reduce the risk of spiked drinks
All this is possible with plastics.
ENDS
For all media enquiries, BPF logo and images, please contact Rita Ogole, Senior Public Affairs Executive on 0207 457 5043 or email [email protected]
Notes to editor
British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the plastics industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.
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