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September 5, 2008
Clariant, Ciba in play (again)?
Bloomberg is reporting today that shares of Ciba Holding AG rose sharply today thanks to speculation that a merger may be in the works with rival Clariant AG.
The story seems pretty speculative -- it's based on the news that Clariant CEO Jan Secher had resigned, coupled with conjecture that company Chairman Juerg Witmer may be inclined to seek a merger with Ciba.
Still, if it's true, this would be a deal of special interest to a lot of folks in the plastics industry, especially in the compounding sector. Bloomberg notes that both companies "have struggled since 2000 with reorganizations, unsuccessful purchases and increased Asian competition."
This isn't the first time that Ciba and Clariant have been named in takeover rumor stories, Remember a year ago, when a Swiss newspaper reported that Huntsman Corp. considered both companies attractive takeover candidates? That one sure did not pan out!
September 4, 2008
Why ban stuff?
Why do some politicians like to ban stuff, like polystyrene takeout containers and polyethylene grocery bags? Peter Shawn Taylor, editor-at-large of Maclean's magazine, answers the question with this opinion column titled "Bomb the ban," in Canada's National Post.
Basically, Taylor says, there are four reasons for banning stuff:
1. Bans mean you care. ["Popular belief holds that saving the environment requires direct and immediate action. Further study is for wimps."]
2. Bans are easy. ["For politicians hoping to find simple solutions to difficult problems, a ban is the perfect option. ... Thinking intelligently about the law can be a complicated and time-consuming process. Not so with bans."]
3. Bans can make you famous. So true!
As politicians discover that bans give them a useful environmental profile, there's a strong incentive to be first. Case in point, Turner Valley's curious plan to ban Styrofoam. Such a move makes even less scientific sense than bans on pesticides or baby bottles. The embodied energy costs of Styrofoam are far less than paper alternatives, and it is entirely inert. This move will most likely do more harm than good for the environment. Besides, Styrofoam is simply the brand name for one form of polystyrene foam, which wasn't banned. But so what? Just announcing they were thinking of a ban got Turner Valley great press. It's the same reason even smaller Leaf Rapids, Man., banned plastic shopping bags last year. A ban is a great way for small-time politicians to get themselves national attention.
4. Bans provide cover for other ideologies.
If there is a ban to watch, it's the prohibition on bottled water sales. The Waterloo Region School Board got there first, as per reason three. Now university campus activists across the country are gearing up for major campaigns that will see bottled water banned in student buildings and offices. But this is not a crusade based on health issues. It clearly makes no sense to deny students access to a convenient and popular source of water at school, particularly given the state of most public water fountains. Rather, this urge is motivated by local politicians and campus groups who believe it is improper to make a profit selling water. The ban is meant to enforce the leftist belief that water should be free by outlawing its capitalist version.
Thought-provoking stuff... thanks to frequent blog reader Jim Cairns for pointing it out.
September 3, 2008
NY Times columnist pushes for plastic bag ban
The news media is part of the story in Westport, Conn., where a columnist from The New York Times spoke in favor of a plastic bag ban on Tuesday night -- and then said he'd write about the ban.
That's according to this story from WestportNow.com. Westport's Representative Town Meeting voted 26 to 5 (with one abstention) in favor of a ban on plastic bags after a marathon three-and-a-half-hour debate. The ordinance will become effective in six months.
According to the report, local resident David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times, "was animated in his support of the ordinance."
“Don’t let our kids and grand kids look back on us as idiots,” he said, adding, “And if you pass it, I’ll write about it in the Times.”
I don't see anything in the Times today, although Pogue did touch on the old paper vs. plastic question in a recent blog post.
I've covered a lot of city, village and town council meetings over the years, and I can tell you that it's rare to hear anyone use the word "idiots" in a public meeting. After the meeting, sure, you hear it all the time. But maybe folks in Connecticut are more direct.
Anyway, the bag ban craze has officially spread to The Nutmeg State, despite the efforts of Steve Rosario, who represented the American Chemistry Council at the meeting. Westport joins a handful of cities in California and Hawaii with bag bans on the books.
Who to believe, FDA or NTP?
Here's government in action... today the National Toxicology Program released a statement and a report that suggests that parents might want to reduce infants' exposure to products containing bisphenol A, such as polycarbonate baby bottles.
Remember, this comes just a few months after the Food and Drug Administration took the opposite approach, with testimony to Congress that BPA is safe.
When FDA came out with its statement, I was surprised by the amount of press converage it generated. After all, FDA wasn't really saying anything new -- the agency has said all along that BPA is safe.
Now the National Toxicology Program is publicly contradicting FDA. Here's NTP's advice to parents:
More research is clearly needed to understand exactly how these findings relate to human health and development, but at this point we can't dismiss the possibility that the effects we're seeing in animals may occur in humans. If parents are concerned, they can make the personal choice to reduce exposures of their infants and children to BPA.
With the release of this report, you can expect to see BPA in the mainstream media again, like this story posted today from USA Today.
And expect to see a lot of very confused consumers.
September 2, 2008
Spotlight on recycling
There's been a lot of attention on plastics recycling lately, thanks in part to the high cost of virgin resin. It reminds me a little bit of the early 1990s, when recycling was part of my beat. At the time, it seemed like I was getting phone calls every week from people interested in starting plastics recycling companies. Who will buy our material, they asked. How much will they pay?
A handful of those pioneering companies are still around today. Many more didn't last more than a few years.
Like now, prices for virgin resin were inflated back then, in part because of Gulf War. (The explosion at the Phillips 66 Co. plant in Pasadena, Texas, also contributed to the rise in virgin HDPE prices).
A couple of recycling-related items caught my attention today. First, this plastics recycling backgrounder came from Consumer Reports magazine's Greener Choices electronic newsletter. It's a decent source of information that doesn't slip into the common mistake of describing some plastics as unrecyclable, or worse. Nice job.
Second, I noticed this story from the Indiana Gazette newspaper's Web site in Indiana, Pa., which notes that the local recycling program is actually generating a profit this year thanks to rising prices for recyclables, especially newsprint and cardboard. (Unfortunately the borough doesn't collect plastic yet, but it may start soon).
Plastics recycling is a cyclical business, and if virgin resin prices start to drop, some recyclers will consider that pretty bad news.
August 26, 2008
Plastics + waterpower = electricity
The Discovery Channel's Web site has an interesting story today on how the city of Vandergrift, Pa., plans to use plastic strips to generate electricity thanks to the strong currents of the Kiskiminetas River.
Lisa Weiland, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, explains that Vandergrift is a steel town that is "reinventing itself and going for sustainability." The town hopes to generate between 20-40 percent of the city center's electricity using the technology.
Here's how the plastic strips will work:
That sustainable power will most likely come from a grid of undulating strips made of polyvinylidene fluoride or PVDF, a material that generates a slight electrical current when it is moved, in this case, by the currents and eddies in the Kiskiminetas River. Such materials are described as piezoelectric and the resulting electrical current would pass to small substations along the river's edge before charging a group of batteries. ...The exact details about how dense the grid would be, how long the PVDF strips will be, or even when the grid would be laid down, are still being worked out. But whatever the final plans are, the researchers claim they will maintain the health and appearance of the Kiski, which is used for fishing, canoe trips and other recreational activities.
Sounds like an interesting technology that, no doubt, could easily be duplicated elsewhere. It will be interesting to see if the project is really cost effective, which would make it truly sustainable.
Plastics as the cartoon villain
Here's a post that's sure to make some Plastics Blog readers angry. It's a Web-based cartoon called Gorilla in the Greenhouse, and its first episode is devoted to plastic bag litter.
I don't think most readers will have a problem with the idea of communicating to kids that they shouldn't litter, or that they should recycle or reuse things like plastic bags. Those messages are in the cartoon. The part I think some will find objectionable is how the cartoonist portrays the plastic bag company. The factory is run by some smarmy characters named Wormulus and Dr. Hufflebot, a "destructive duo" bent on world domination. In this episode, titled the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" (which not a new concept to this blog's readers), Wormulus and Hufflebot are creating billions of plastic bags in order to create a floating empire called Baglandia.
Remember, this is aimed at little kids. The tone is that plastics are bad, and factories are run by evil people. The Web site urges kids to push for legislative bag bans -- they're told that's the only real solution to the problem.
Thanks to the Los Angeles Times' Daily Deal Travel blog, of all places, for alerting me to this cartoon.
August 25, 2008
Deflecting an asteroid with PET film
Polyester film extruders -- prepare to save the planet. An Australian PhD student has won top prize in a global competition for a proposal to save the earth from a possible collision with an asteroid dubbed Apophis by wrapping the intruder with plastic film.
The theory is that if we could wrap enough reflective film on the surface of the asteroid, the film would act as a solar sail. "Such a coating may increase the asteroid’s reflectivity, enabling deflection by solar radiation pressure."
The prize winner is Mary D'Souza, a student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Queensland in Australia (two blog posts in a row from U of Q? Just a coincidence). Her paper is titled "A Body Solar Sail Concept for the Deflection of 99942 Apophis.”
The project is getting some media attention today, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it featured in your local newspaper or TV report sometime soon.
But isn't this all a bit far-fetched? Maybe so. (How would we get enough film into space? How could we wrap the asteroid?)
But maybe it's just crazy enough to work. It's not as photogenic as blowing up the asteroid in the nick of time, but it is brilliant nevertheless.
August 22, 2008
Sustainability around the globe
Sustainability is the latest buzzword in the plastics industry, and now some universities seem to believe it's an issue that will be with us for a long time. The latest to jump on board -- specifically related to plastics -- are the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
The universities announced the news today. Their agreement -- they call it a "partnership to promote plastics sustainability" -- "will accelerate research into new-generation plastics that are biodegradable, and environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques," according to the release. Peter Halley, director of the Centre for High Performance Polymers in the Australian university's School of Engineering, said polymer research was vital in developing a sustainable future for the plastics industry.
“The partnership connects leading researchers and research laboratories in nanocomposites, biopolymers and polymer processing, and allows us to share equipment and expertise,” Halley said.
In the United States, the University of Massachusetts Lowell has a sustainability effort with a notable plastics angle. (It's interesting that UMass Lowell also has a "Precautionary Principle Project," a topic that also of interest to the plastics industry.)
To learn more about sustainability, check out the Sustain '08 conference in November organized by Plastics News Global Group and the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.
August 20, 2008
Honors for Frigel
Congratulations to Frigel North America, which was named one of two finalists for the 2008 Illinois Sustainable Technology Award. The award honors companies that have developed technology that supports sustainability efforts and benefits the environment.
Frigel was recognized for its Ecodry system, which replaces traditiional cooling towers and helps conserve energy and reduce noise. According to the company's release announcing the news, a conventional 100-ton cooling tower might use as much as 1 million to 1.5 million gallons of water per year, but an Ecodry system with the same capacity requires only 20,000 to 40,000 gallons.
To be considered for this award, Frigel had to demonstrate how the Ecodry was a unique, proven technological advancement that promoted sustainability. Now that the two finalists have been selected, a committee from the Institute of Science and Sustainable Technology will be conducting on-site visits to see the technology in action and hear from a customer how it helps them operate a more sustainable process.
So some plastics processors are likely to have a role in whether Frigel brings home the gold.
The winner will be announced on Oct. 23. For a list of previous winners (including a company that makes an alternative to plastics packaging last year), check this list on the University of Illinois Sustainable Technology Center's Web site.
