ENGEL is celebrating a double triumph in supplier partnership injection moulding at the Plastics Industry Awards 2025.
Winners of the awards, which celebrate the role that plastics product design, manufacturing and recycling play in driving innovation, were revealed at an event in London, hosted by comedian, actress, writer and TV personality Ellie Taylor.
In a first for the awards, Engel won the Supplier Partnership Injection Moulding Award with two different entries to which the judges awarded top marks. Their winning partners were with Bentley Motors and Summit Systems for automotive interior panel lightweighting, and with Notpla for its biopolymer packaging.
The Supplier Partnership Auxiliary Award went to TH Plastics and Counterplas, while the Supplier Partnership Toolmaker Award went to Ad-Vance Engineering and RLC Group (Aerospace Engineering).
One of two new awards introduced for 2025, Polyurethane Innovation was won by the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, ArianeGroup GmbH, European Space Agency ESTEC & MT Aerospace for its sustainable cryogenic PUR foam insulation for liquified hydrogen tanks on space rockets.
Miklos Argyelan of Amcor (Rigid Packaging Solutions International) won the Apprentice or Trainee Award and was awarded a £500 prize by the PMMDA. The Unsung Hero award went to Darren Burton of IPL Global.
The second new award for Sustainable Extrusion Technology was won by Flexipol Packaging, Plasmac and UK Extrusion for Flexipol’s introduction of in-house recycling and reuse of industrial scrap material using the Plasmac Alpha S Plus re-pelletiser.
The Sustainable Product Design of the Year was won by Greyparrot for its next-generation Greyparrot Analyzer Unit which now uses computer vision, rather than generative AI, to identify different types of material more accurately than manual sampling.
Amcor CleanStream Leamington Spa won Recycler of the Year for CleanStream®, which mechanically processes domestically recovered household PP waste back into contact-sensitive packaging.
The Material innovation award was won by Matrix Medical Materials, Matrix Plastics and KraussMaffei.
International Scientific Supplies (ISS) won the Processor of the Year Award, which looks at overall company performance across a series of different areas, including business growth, technology innovation, environmental custody and community involvement.
Best Training & Development Programme went to the British Plastics Federation for its training programme around Operation Clean Sweep (OCS). Plastek UK lifted the award for Best Business Initiative.
Colin Tirel, MD of Arburg Limited, who has served the UK plastics industry for four decades was named Plastics Industry Ambassador. Karen Laird, the founding editor of Sustainable Plastics website and magazine was also given a special tribute on the night as she retires after six years at the helm.
Matt Barber, global events director at awards organiser Crain Communications, said, “This year’s entries showcased an outstanding breadth of innovation, collaboration and commitment to sustainability across the plastics sector. Congratulations to the companies and individuals recognised this year. The awards highlight both outstanding organisational performance and exceptional personal achievement across the sector.”
