Something to sing about - ICI Billingham Film Unit 1970s

"Something to sing about" is a rare archive film produced by the ICI Billingham Film Unit in the early 1970s about the reduction of pollution in the Billingham area and the Tees valley more generally. It details how the industry changed from its early, highly polluting, embodiment (nicely described in "Harvest from the sky") and shows how environmental protection started to be taken seriously by major manufacturers.
This film shows the changes to the Billingham site that took place between the 1950s and 1970s, with many of the early plants described in "Harvest to the sky" being shut down and demolished. It also details the significant reduction in atmospheric pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and soot that took place as part of ICI's environmental improvement campaign in the early 1970s.

[@bridgerectifier7711]

It's amazing to think in regard to our modern standards of environmental protection where at 7'35", you see a monstrous amount of brown Nitric Acid vapours pouring out of a large stack.
Great upload, I love watching these old vids. Cheers.

[@drbartsworldofchemeng]

Absolutely right - to anyone working in the industry, or otherwise associated with it, it's absolutely anathema. Interestingly, although produced very much from the angle of "oh look what we've done to clean up the local area", the timing of the Billingham cleanup falls at exactly the point the British government first recognised the problem of acid rain in Scandinavia...

[@bridgerectifier7711]

@@drbartsworldofchemeng - Thank you. I have been thinking along those lines myself whilst watching these vid's. Many have questioned the demise of the ICI division from a safety and economic perspective, but few have questioned the world environmental pressures that may have contributed to ICI's fragmentation.

[@drbartsworldofchemeng]

@@bridgerectifier7711 I don't enough to comment fully on that to be frank. My suspicion is that the main driver was similar to that for most of British heavy industry. A lot of relatively old / mature technology at what was rapidly becoming uncompetitive, sub-global, plant scale coupled with ever increasing feedstock price. Then, add that to some rather unsuccessful high-level strategy decisions and that gives a perfect storm in essence. I think there were stark differences at board-level between ICI & BASF in terms of shareholder return policy and forward-looking investment: with one strategy being rathre more successful than the other... Being blunt, I think any large chemicals complex worldwide up until the 1970s had eye-wsteringly slack environmental credentials compared to the current status quo! I'm happy to be corrected on any of the above with sufficient hard evidence though!

[@bridgerectifier7711]

@@drbartsworldofchemeng -
I had often perceived the fall of our chemical industry to be an opinion of "Not in my back-yard, please", in line with economic prosperity in the UK& Europe, which certainly may parallel the descriptive answer you have just given.
Thank you very much for your insights and comments. Cheers.

[@drbartsworldofchemeng]

@@bridgerectifier7711 No problem - they're only the insights that I've gleaned over the years from others, so may well be missing important parts of the story though!

[@weatheranddarkness]

I just learned that the song Process Man was written about this company and area.

[@aiden4163]

Go boys go.