Another changing of the guards

What new UK leadership means for industry… On July 17, the UK got a new Prime Minister. This isn’t really shocking news, as Andy Burnham will be our sixth Prime Minister in 10 years. However, such changes have an impact on how we, as a Trade Association work, and also how businesses function. SPRAY Technology […]

What the next generation of innovators said…

In the April 2026 edition of the BAMA Bulletin, I took the opportunity to share some innovative ideas that university students brought to BAMA back in 2005. For presentation at the BAMA Innovation Day this year, we invited a group of students from Leeds Beckett Business School to consider the task to “explore the innovation […]

Doors open for next-gen aerosol innovators

Just over 20 years ago—and for those of my vintage, that’s 2005, not 1980—BAMA ran a competition for university students to come up with some new ideas for aerosol products. The top three ideas were:   1. A temporary spray-on tattoo. If you attended the BAMA Forum in 2024 (courtesy of Volcke Aerosols), you would […]

Knowledge sharing with a digital-first generation

At a recent conference I attended, the organizers ran a session where young people just starting in the industry shared their thoughts on life, now that they are out in the world of work. One young man, who had recently graduated from university, explained how he had taken his GCSEs (examinations one takes at age […]

Looking back on a decade of change

Electric vehicles, AI, 5G technology, the omnipotence of the smartphone and the revolution of the workplace have peppered a timeline of transformations over the last ten years. While perhaps not as historic as these societal and technological advancements, I thought my decade at the British Aerosol Manufacturing Association (BAMA) as Chief Executive was worth a […]

Redefining aerosols’ place in the cosmetic cosmos

A quick leaf through the pages of SPRAY Technology & Marketing magazine will show that aerosol dispensers are used for an astonishing array of applications—from food to disinfectants to lubricants to paint. However, sitting at the top of the chart, certainly here in the UK, are cosmetic aerosols; the range of cosmetic products that are […]

UK Packaging Waste Reforms

Packaging waste is a political “hot potato” in most major economies. For many years, the UK has had a Packaging Waste Recovery Note system (PRNs) that was designed to pay for the cost of recycling. As of Jan. 1, 2025, the UK has introduced the Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) regulations that establish new requirements […]

Aerosols & Design for Recycling

Those who take the time to read my columns (and thank you if you do) will know that the UK is very busy at the moment writing new regulations to improve recovery and recycling rates for packaging. In fact, this is something that most major, developed economies appear to be working on. The question about […]

Rediscovering VOCs

The staff at the British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association (BAMA) is terrible at throwing anything away. In a recent “tidy up,” we generated 15 sacks of wastepaper, which were sent away to be shredded and recycled. However, before we did this, everything was packed up, sent to be scanned and stored on our ever-expanding cloud drive […]

Have we reached “peak aerosol”?

In April, the British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association (BAMA) completed its filling statistics survey for 2023; the volume filled was roughly at the same level in 2023 as it was in 2022—just over 1.4 billion cans. Aerosol filling in the UK has been bouncing around the 1.3 to 1.5 billion mark for about 10 years now. […]