Chemicals giant Ineos has announced that it will play its part in helping the UK to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
The firm announced earlier this month that it planned to build two hand sanitiser factories in just ten days. Once the plants are operational the company estimates it will produce one million bottles of hand sanitiser a month.
One of the factories is slated to be constructed in Middlesbrough, while the other will be situated in Germany. Ineos is also talking to the NHS about supplying it with the finished product free of charge.
Tom Crotty, one of Ineos’ directors, told the Guardian that the company realised even though it was producing plenty of two of the key ingredients for hand sanitiser – isopropyl alcohol and ethanol – that production of the finished product couldn’t keep up with demand.
“We figured that we’d already pushed as much of our product as possible into these uses but there’s a limit on capacity to produce the gel,” he asserted.
Earlier this month, craft ale company BrewDog announced that it would start making hand sanitiser and giving it away free of charge to those who need it.
The company made the announcement about the change to its production after shortages of hand sanitiser were reported following the outbreak of COVID-19. Several independent gin producers have also started producing hand sanitiser instead of their usual alcoholic beverages in a bid to help tackle the coronavirus crisis.
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