"Plastic will – and should – continue to play a vital role in all our lives going forward. As society continues to learn how to use plastic more intelligently, we also need to remember to #valueplastic." The British Plastics Federation (BPF) issued a response to the recently aired BBC War on Plastic programme co-presented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The UK plastics industry would like to see the UK reduce its reliance on exporting its plastic waste to ensure that any waste that is sent abroad for recycling, is actually recycled – and is done so in an environmentally friendly way. "Plastic brings many benefits, enabling many other cutting-edge technologies and keeping the weight and fuel emissions of vehicles down. It also contributes significantly to minimising food waste, which is partly why pre-packaged goods are often cheaper than loose goods. The enemy is not plastic, it is plastic waste", BPF explains. Other plastic materials have a different environmental impact, and their production uses more land, energy and water, as well as being heavier and bulkier in most cases. One study from 2016 by Trucost found that switching to alternative materials could quadruple what the researchers dubbed ‘the environmental cost'. "We need to be careful that people do not understand ‘plastic free' to necessarily mean ‘good for the environment'. Switching to bulkier, heavier packaging materials and/or allowing food waste to rise could easily result in carbon emissions increasing," adds BPF.