I imagine that Sealed Air Corp.'s headquarters is a place where people are constantly making delightful popping sounds -- the sound of Bubble Wrap being punctured, crushed, squeezed and stepped upon. After all, Bubble Wrap is a Sealed Air product.

But there's an odd story in the news today about another sort of popping sound at Sealed Air -- the sound of gunfire from a nearby police training range.

The story, from the Bergen County, N.J., Record, says the company has asked the mayor and council in Elmwood Park, N.J., to make some changes to minimize the sound of gunfire from the range at Sealed Air's headquarters.

Sealed Air sent the letter to the borough last month, complaining that the sound of gunfire is especially pronounced in work areas and meeting rooms on the north and west sides of the building.

The company, which moved its corporate headquarters from Saddle Brook to Riverfront Boulevard in Elmwood Park last year, asked the mayor and council to consider adjusting officers' training schedules and provide additional sound insulation for the range on nearby Slater Drive.

"This noise has been disruptive and disquieting to many of our employees," Margaret Frontera, public affairs manager for Sealed Air, wrote in the letter. Frontera could not be reached for additional comment Friday.

[Police Chief Don] Ingrasselino has fired back with his own letter, arguing that the police training facility, which includes a firing range, was in that location long before Sealed Air moved in. The chief said noise concerns should have been addressed during the construction phase of the project.

"Police officers have trained at that location for over 55 years without incurring any noise complaints until now," Ingrasselino wrote.

Other news media have picked up the Record's story, including USA Today, which has a blog item about the dispute on its Web site today.

I imagine the company and police will work out this problem -- but until they do, I suggest the Sealed Air folks watch their speedometers and avoid rolling stops on the streets around the new HQ!

The news that oil traded for $100 per barrel yesterday for the first time generated a boatload of news stories today, many of them mentioning that higher prices could mean plastics will get more expensive. (I won't start a whole debate on that topic in this post, although I welcome comments. We've had a variety of items in recent months about whether the link between oil and plastics pricing is real or spurious).

The most interesting story I found, though, is one that pooh-poohs the $100-per-barrel trade itself. Apparently the transaction may have been a sham, according to this story in the London Daily Mail:

An independent trader 'seeking his moment of fame' caused oil prices to hit unprecendented levels of $100-a-barrel yesterday following a single deal.

The buyer, who was trading on his own money bought 1,000 barrels of crude oil from a colleague, which is the minimum allowed.

Strangely, he then sold then back almost immediately, making a loss of $600. The move left industry insiders questioning the reasons behind the deal.

Let's call it the trade that launched a thousand "trend stories" around the globe. A word to the wise: don't cite this news story when you call your customers and tell them why you need to raise your prices.

A German newspaper is reporting that machinery company Krauss Maffei GmbH is considering filing for an intial public offering. The Munich, Germany-based company currently is owned by Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Capital Partners.

The story comes from leading financial newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, so it has a ring of truth. Here's an abbreviated copy of the German language version, for those of you with advanced language skills.

The Thomson Financial news service picked up the story from FAZ, and notes that Krauss Maffei Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dietmar Straub also revealed that the company generated a profit of 72 million euros on sales of 950 million euros last year.

Straub declined to comment on whether the company may be planning an IPO, according to the reports.

This is a busy week for European machinery news, following the surprise announcement that Austrian press maker Battenfeld Kunststoffmaschinen Gesellschaft mbH had filed for insolvency on Jan. 3, shortly after being sold by private equity firm Adcuram.

Every once in a while I see critical coverage of plastics from an unexpected place. That happened today, when I spotted a story from the National Catholic Reporter newsweekly that slams the bottled water industry.

The story, by freelance writer Laura Lloyd, pulls together a variety of threads about various religious leaders and groups -- most of them Catholic, of course -- that are "spreading the gospel that bottled water, however convenient to tote around, is environmentally, economically and politically wrong."

Where is the push coming from? According to the story, "Some Catholic groups have borrowed information and ideas from Think Outside the Bottle, a major non-religious player in the anti-bottled water movement. The organization has launched a Web-based campaign that provides information and support. In addition to inviting individuals to sign a pledge to boycott bottled water, the program urges people to send postcards to corporations challenging corporate control of water, to attend stockholders’ meetings and mount other forms of pressure on corporate executives. Think Outside the Bottle (www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org) is part of a larger organization called Corporate Accountability International (www.stopcorporateabuse.org)."

The church has a long history of activism, often on environmental issues. Still, it's a bit surprising to see this so many religious leaders taking a stand against bottled water. It will be interesting to see how many parishioners listen to the message.

There's been a flurry of news about plastic bag bans this week, including news that China will ban some bags (I imagine that will be a very difficult law to enforce), and Australia may do the same.

On top of that, today the New York City Council voted not to ban bags, but to require many retailers to recycle them. (Check out the flurry of comments at that link, a couple of dozen in just a few hours!)

The New York Times weighs in on the issue here, with a quick opinion piece encouraging readers not to use plastic bags at all:

Plastic bags now represent an estimated three percent of the waste stream — and that percentage is rising. It can, however, be reduced through effective recycling.

Some municipalities already have such programs, but none is as sweeping as the measure passed today by the New York City Council. It would require plastic bag recycling for stores of at least 5,000 square feet or stores belonging to chains with more than five locations in the city.

Considering the size of the New York market, where about one billion plastic bags are used every year, the mandate is enormous. The law could go into effect by early summer.

What will become of these bags? They can find new life pressed into durable composite lumber, like that used in decks and boardwalks. Or they could be made into more plastic bags, and presumably re-recycled indefinitely.

Better still, the new law might just encourage people to forego the plastic and carry their own reusable bag for shopping and chores.

After all, from an environmental perspective, the best answer to the ubiquitous question “Paper or plastic?” is “Neither.”

The Associated Press has a fairly good laundry list of bag bans, taxes and other laws around the globe, although this seems to be a list that changes almost daily.

How is the plastics industry reacting? In the United States, the big news is that the Progressive Bag Alliance has been replaced by the Progressive Bag Affiliates, part of the American Chemistry Council, which will take on a larger role in dealing with bag issues.

India's Tata Group generated headlines around the world this week when it unveiled the long-promised Nano, a $2,500 car aimed primarily at emerging markets. Plastics play a big role in the Nano, but not necessarily in some of the applications that were originally planned.

The Times of India has a very interesting question-and-answer interview with Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, which covers some of the plastics details, as well as a wide vareity of other issues.

Here are a few of the plastics-related tidbits:

We decided to look at everything from scratch. I thought that we could have a car made from engineering plastics that would not be welded but use adhesives. But some of these concepts did not lend themselves to costs or volume manufacturing. So we moved on to a more conventional kind of car.

That led us to configure a small car which would be a full-fledged car. We started again in an evolutionary way. It started with a concept of being a four-wheeled rural car. Do we have roll up plastic curtains instead of windows? Do we have openings like autorickshaws have instead of doors, but have a safety bar? We had many such early concepts and we finally decided that the market did not want a half car. If we wanted to build a people's car it should be a car and not something that people would say, 'That is a scooter with four wheels or an autorickshaw on four wheels'. And so we decided to do a car and really pare the cost.

Can we expect to see the Nano in the United States? Tata thinks so. Asked "who are your potential customers?" he replies: "Rather than look at it geographically, look at who might be the buyer of the small car. If you look in the US or Europe, in some garages that have a Bentley or two, or a high-end Mercedes, you may also find a Smart (a subcompact car from Mercedes). Because that person thinks that it is a fun extra car to have. Then you may have a person who needs utilitarian transport and is not looking for a lot of creature comforts. Then you look at someone who is thinking of owning or owns an existing small car—to him this makes sense because it is more fuel efficient and costs less. On the other side, you have someone who aspires for a car. And this can come from anywhere in the country."

Canada has been the home base of musicians as diverse as Shania Twain, Barenaked Ladies, Robert Goulet and The Guess Who, but there's one thing that Canada doesn't have anymore -- a factory to press vinyl records.

According to cool Toronto blog blogTO, the last vinyl factory in Canada recently shut down.

For triva buffs, the last vinyl record produced in Canada was the single "Flesh Python" by Toronto-based electronic pop/alternative band vitaminsforyou.

"It is true that the vinyl factory is closing due to the retirement of our master pressman and plant manager", confirmed Aaron Zon, Vice President of Music Manufacturing Services (MMS). "We are indeed the last Canadian plant standing (that I'm aware of anyway)."

Do you have a favorite Canadian performer? A favorite Canadian album? Please, no Celine Dion or Bryan Adams posts!

Each year, the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) Web site publishes its "Dubious Data" awards, for activists and journalists who abuse science and statistics. STATS is affiliated with the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

This year, some plastics-related issues are featured. Here are a few highlights:

If it sounds suspicious, ban it In June, San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, decided to ban plastic water bottles, in part because of concerns about recycling, which was reasonable enough, and in part because they contained “toxic” vinyl softeners known as phthalates, which was, at least metaphorically, garbage. The mayor – and the journalists who dutifully conveyed his fears to the public – seemed oblivious to the fact that plastic bottles do not contain phthalates; they are, instead, made with a polyester called polyethylene terephthalate, which is something quite different even though it seems to sound similar. But that’s chemistry for you. Poylethylene terephthalate, or PET for short, is not considered a health hazard by any regulatory agency in the world.

Perhaps a refresher course in puberty?
Phthalatophobia, a subcategory of chemophobia (the fear of chemicals), led the media to make all sorts of remarkable claims in 2007, none more ballsy, perhaps, than Time magazine’s decision to advance puberty beyond the bounds of biological plausibility with the claim, in September, that inhaling phthalates from air fresheners could decrease sperm levels in infants.

Perhaps, Time was demonstrating that the mere act of reporting on toxic chemicals can cause mental derangement, as a) infants don’t produce sperm and b), the author of the study on phthalates in air fresheners, Dr. Gina Solomon of the Natural Resources Defense Council, admitted that had no “clear cut evidence here for health effects.” This comment was something of a let down from urgent wording of the NRDC press release, which claimed that phthalates were “particularly dangerous for young children and unborn babies.”

There are more, including the flurry of news stories that Greenpeace generated when it ranked Apple Computer at the bottom of its list of envronmentally friendly computer companies. Check out the link for that and more, as well as links to the STATS "Dubious Data" awards from 2005 and 2006.

For more Web sites that offer plastics-related science, check out the American Council on Science and Health's HealthfactsandFears.com Web site, the American Chemistry Council's plastics mythbuster site, or the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s mythbuster site. If you have your own favorite, feel free to post it in the comments section.

Plastics Products Manufacturing Inc., a Yorba Linda, Calif.-based acrylic display maker, has added a blog to its Web site. The company hopes the blog will "better answer customer and plastic enthusiasts' questions about their products. Additionally, the blog will act as an educational tool in order to inform the public about the various properties and benefits of plastic and plastic products."

Right now the blog features plenty of topics that are of general interest to the plastics industry -- topics like the history of plastics, an explanation of screen printing, and a primer on injection molding.

Meanwhile, on the lighter side, I discovered Ecorazzi, a blog that "exists as a conduit to report on the latest celebrity gossip as it pertains to activism and inspiring change. The word eco is in our name, but more than the environment is supported by those in the spotlight. We also highlight humanitarian efforts, beneficial campaigns, fundraisers and acts of good. In the spirit of fair play, we’re quick to point how who’s slacking and who’s deserving of recognition."

There are some plastics-related posts there (are you interested in how much bottled water Madonna buys?), but this doesn't appear to be a definitive source for information about the plastics industry. It's more for fun.

Welcome to blogland!

Here's a story about in-house recycling that a lot of processors could learn from -- and that many could try to pitch to their own local media.

Hoffer Plastics Corp., a South Elgin, Ill., injection molder, is the subject of the feature in the Arlington Heights, Ill., Daily Herald newspaper. It expalins how the company has made a commitment to recycling in late 2007 -- and how the decision is paying off.

In December, the company didn't send any waste to the landfill, according to Gretchen Hoffer Farb, the company's director of supply chain management.

"We're doing everything we can to sustain the environment and recycle. We send truckloads of plastic to a Jackson, Mo., recycler every week," Farb told the newspaper.

Farb said that value is translating to benefits for employees as well.

She estimates the company -- South Elgin's biggest employer -- will net more than $100,000 in the coming year from the initiative.

Although it takes workers more time to sort the materials, some of the funds will or have been used for employee recognition, the summer picnic and a Christmas gift for each worker.

"Without all the employees doing it, it wouldn't be successful," Farb said. "It's extra work, but everybody's embraced it."

Congratulations to Hoffer on implementing this successful program.

The Society of Plastics Engineers is seekings entries for its 2008 Product Design Awards contest, which will be judged and awarded at Antec 2008 in Milwaukee, and on display at the Plastics Encounter trade show (which is sponsored by Plastics News).

Two Glenn L. Beall Awards will recognize innovation in the design of plastics parts: one for consumer products, and one for industrial products. These awards honor Glenn Beall, a well-known individual in the plastic product design community, who, in 1968, founded Glenn Beall Engineering Inc., a plastic product design and development business, followed by Glenn Beall Plastics Ltd. in 1993.

The awards will be presented at the “SPE Celebrates” banquet on Sunday, May 4, 2008. The award consists of a $2,500 honorarium and a plaque.

“SPE has consistently recognized excellence in the plastics industry by rewarding the efforts of individuals who have made outstanding contributions in plastics,” explains Gail Bristol, SPE’s Managing Director, Foundation and Awards. “Participants in this awards competition will receive recognition for the impact they are making in plastics design by having their parts on display at Plastics Encounter @ ANTEC 2008.”

Parts in the contest must have been first offered commercially no earlier than Jan. 1, 2006. Judging is based on their optimum utilization of plastics, creativity and originality, value to the end user, and their impact on the plastics industry.

Forms must be submitted by Feb. 15. Applications are available at www.4spe.org/awards.

Madison, Wis., has a Commission on the Environment that is starting to consider bans on two plastics products. That's according to this story from the Wisconsin State Journal.

The group will discuss a ban on the sale of bottled water at public events, and on the use of plastic grocery bags.

Jon Standridge, chairman of the commission, said members voted unanimously at the end of last year to place both items on upcoming agendas.

"Each year toward the end of the calendar year we sit down and talk about what people are interested in, ' ' Standridge said. "We ask if something is an environmental problem and if it is worth taking up. And if it is worth taking up, is there something we can do? ' '

Both the use of bottled water and the use of plastic grocery bags are issues that are receiving considerable attention elsewhere, Standridge said. Plastic items are problems mostly because they pose tremendous waste disposal issues. Many things are made of plastic, which can be recycled, but when it does end up in landfills it doesn 't break down.

But, Standridge added, plastics also pose environmental threats because of the energy and resources used to manufacture them.

The idea of banning the sale of bottled water at public events seems pretty radical. The story quotes George Dreckmann, the city's recycling coordinator, who suggests that an alternative might be to encourage recycling.

Wisconsin has a pretty large and healthy plastics industry, but I'm not sure if that will make a difference to lawmakers in Madison.

In the meantime, Standridge's commission, which advices the mayor and city council on environmental issues, is at least a year away from making any recommendations on the use of plastic bottles and bags, he told the newspaper.

How would you like a bionic eye, like the Six Million Dollar Man or The Bionic Woman? Researchers at the University of Washington are working on the technology, although they're touting it for more "practical" purposes, like helping vision-impaired people, holographic driving controls or a way to surf the Web.

According to this release from the university, engineers there have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. "This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising."

A prototype was tested on rabbits, and the animals showed no adverse effects, according to the release. It adds: Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz said.

Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across. They then sprinkled the grayish powder of electrical components onto a sheet of flexible plastic. The shape of each tiny component dictates which piece it can attach to, a microfabrication technique known as self-assembly. Capillary forces -- the same type of forces that make water move up a plant's roots, and that cause the edge of a glass of water to curve upward -- pull the pieces into position.

A version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational "fairly quickly," according to Parviz. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and a Technology Gap Innovation Fund from the University of Washington.

Plastics News' newest blog -- or, rather, blogs -- went live today. Nina Ying Sun, our Asia specialist and staff reporter, has two new blogs, one in English and one in Chinese.

The two blogs are similar, but not identical. As Nina explains today:

... I'm writing directly in Chinese for the Chinese version of the China blog, tapping into the country's culture, literature and business background. This English version of the China blog doesn't mirror the Chinese version. Rather, it picks up China-related topics that are of special interest to Western readers and offers analysis from the Western point of view. If you are bilingual, that's even better. You'll probably be able to catch both sides of one story.

I encourage you to check out Nina's blogs, and to use the comments section to share your thoughts and opinions with her -- and with the many readers of our China Web site.

Cheer up, plastics processors. Not everyone in the world is pushing to ban plastic bags, water bottles and burger clamshells. This column from Don Brunell, president of the Association of Washington Business (the state's Chamber of Commerce) suggests that banning plastic products would be a mistake.

Still, I wonder how plastics processors and suppliers feel about one of the alternatives that he suggests: putting deposits on products like water bottles, and charging retail customers for plastic bags, and using the money for various eco-minded purposes.

Here's an excerpt from the column:

We depend on plastics for millions of essentials we use daily. Just think of a hospital without sterile plastic tubing or syringes. While no legislator in Olympia is suggesting a petroleum-product ban, before there is hasty action to wean ourselves from fossil fuels, we ought to think about what we would do without them.

The bottom line is we need to reduce greenhouse gases and our dependence on foreign oil suppliers. Recycling and reusing products is a key part of that strategy. And, it saves money.

For example, in 2006, Safeway stores in California diverted over 85 percent of their total solid waste from landfill disposal resulting in 207,190 tons of recycled materials. Safeway also saved $24,589,320 in disposal costs and has become a consistent winner in the California’s Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP).

Safeway also purchased enough wind energy to become the fourth largest retail use of renewable energy in the nation. Based on EPA estimates, Safeway’s renewable purchases cut carbon dioxide emissions by 121 million pounds which is a marketing plus for the company.

Businesses are eliminating waste because their customers are more environmentally aware. That is a positive step forward, and it saves money-money they can invest in new stores, factories and workers.

It is the American way to solve a problem by allowing people to make good choices - and put an extra buck in their pockets. The simple fact is market-based incentives are better than prohibition and punishment

I first spotted Brunell's column in the Vancouver, Wash., The Columbian newspaper. It's interesting that the paper regularly picks up this business-oriented perspective column. That's a good idea, and something that business groups in other parts of the country might want to suggest to their own local newspapers.

Plastics processors can be very important cogs in a their local economy. That's especially true for the many large and mid-sized processors that are based in small towns. Usually that's a plus -- the company has the attention of local and state officials, and company executives can expect to play an important part in the community.

But when something goes wrong, it can mean big problems for the local economy, and quite a bit of interest and concern.

That's definitely the case with Victor Plastics Inc., the North Liberty, Iowa-based injection molder that saw its sales plummet from almost $100 million in 2006 to about $70 million in 2007 -- and which filed for Chapter 11 protection on Jan. 15. We reported on the news on our Web site as it unfolded last week, and featured the story on Page 1 of our Jan. 21 issue.

Today The East Iowa Herald in Victor, Iowa, is revisiting the story, and the tone of the newspaper's update suggests that locals are very concerned. Here's the first graph:

In a community where a person’s word is usually good enough, the bankruptcy filing by Victor Plastics could have wide ranging repercussions for local businesses. As the details begin to emerge in the recent filing, questions are beginning to mount for both area businesses and employees.

The story goes on to explain how Victor employees are concerned not only about their jobs, but about their retirement savings, and how other local businesses could be hurt by the bankruptcy.

We've seen this happen elsewhere, for example when Rubbermaid Home Products closed its flagship plant in Wooster, Ohio. There was a lot of concern at the time, and the decision undoubtedly hurt many in the community. Still, Wooster has bounced back, and I hope that Victor and North Liberty, and Flora, Miss. (where Victor has another plant) will do the same.

Meantime, Iowans continue to hold out hope that Spell Capital Partners LLC, the owner of Victor Plastics, will find a buyer for the injection molder. The story quotes Dr. Leonard Seda, president of the Victor Community Development Association, saying he remains encouraged. “We do have a possible buyer or two,” Seda said. “We are hopeful and confident. I was encouraged by what I’ve heard.”

Add Matt Lauer, host of NBC's "Today" show, to the list of celebrities who are taking a stand against plastic bags. According to the Business & Media Institute Web site, Lauer "pestered shoppers at a Manhattan grocery store for the last installment of the “Today Goes Green” series on January 25."

“Paper or plastic? Turns out the right answer should be neither,” Lauer said, adding that Americans dispose of 100 billion plastic bags every year. “And where does it all go? Everywhere. Just about every piece of plastic we’ve every used still exists, clogging up landfills, spilling over the landscape for washing out to sea.”

“I’m on the prowl for victims, converts in our growing movement,” Lauer said while roaming the aisles of an upscale Food Emporium store in the Bridgemarket neighborhood of New York City. He stopped shoppers to ask questions like, “Do you have any idea how many plastic bags you accumulate in the average month?”

According to the report, Lauer was mostly encouraging shoppers to use reusable totes instead of paper or plastic. He told one that "If you think that we throw away a hundred billion plastic a year, it’s like taking 12 million barrels of oil and dumping it down the drain."

The Business & Media Institute report -- the group says its mission is to "audit the media's coverage of the free enterprise system ... to bring balance to economic reporting and to promote fair portrayal of the business community in the media" -- notes that "...the United States imported more than 10 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2006. Even if Lauer's figure is accurate, plastic bags account for only 0.32 percent of the oil imported into the United States every year."

Much of the mainstream media clearly is embracing the "use less stuff" movement, which in large part seems to be a "use less plastics" movement. Are consumers following their lead? And how will it impact plastics product manufacturers?

I've been watching a new feature on Salon.com called "Ask Pablo," where readers can send questions to Pablo Paster, a sustainability engineer. Today's question is plastics related: Should I buy soda in plastic bottles or aluminum cans?

This is a interesting question, and Paster breaks down a lot of numbers, including the energy needed to make both types of containers, recycling rates, greenhouse gas emissions and shipping costs. In the end, he favors PET over aluminum.

Let's assume that both beverage containers are filled in the same facility and shipped to the store with the same truck. The bottle weighs 2.05 kg when full (2 liters plus 50 g) and the 5.6 cans weigh 2.084 kg (2 liters plus 84 g). This means that the cans require slightly more fuel to transport than the bottles. That's two strikes against cans. How about a third strike? Soda bottles often find a second life in my favorite winter garments, as some clothing brands manufacture fleece in part from recycled plastic, which is melted into pellets and extruded into fine fibers. Try doing that with aluminum.

Paster has tackled quite a few plastics-related issues in recent weeks, including a column on bottled water and an explanation of plastics recycling.

The most recent column generated quite a bit of reader response to Salon's Web site (although not all of the writers very well informed). If you're interested in what the public thinks about plastics, this is a good Web site to monitor.

Today marks the 50th birthday of the Lego brick, and this is the type of plastics pop culture milestone that attracts a lot of attention.

Lego Group of Billund, Denmark, dates all the way back to 1932, but back then the company made wooden toys. Founder Ole Kirk Christansen bought the company's first injection molding machine 15 years later, and a cultural icon was born.

Every time I read about Lego history I learn something new. I didn't realize that the company didn't start making the blocks from ABS resin until 1963.

Enjoy all the Lego anniversary stories on the Web today, including these from Time.com, London's Daily Mail and slashdot.org.

This is the best line I've seen in an obituary for Richard Knerr: "He left behind a legacy of fun."

That's from a report on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," and it seems to capture the essence of Knerr, co-founder of Wham-O Inc., the company that made a fortune selling Hula Hoops, Frisbees and other iconic plastic toys to a generation of baby boomers.

Knerr died Jan. 14 at age 82.

Knerr and childhood buddy Arthur "Spud" Melin started a slingshot-selling business in 1948 in Pasadena and called their company Wham-O after what they said was the sound a slingshot made when it hit something.

"They were like John Wayne and Ernest Hemingway all rolled into one. They were all about fun," recalls Richard's son, Chuck.

Melin and Knerr had run a used-car store together in downtown Los Angeles before founding Wham-O. They started making slingshots, just for kicks, out of the ends of orange crates, Chuck recalls.

"Then their barber recommended they put an ad in a magazine and try mail order," he says.

At first business was slow — and the pair struggled to get by on just a couple dollars a day — but gradually the orders were pouring in.

Some other Wham-O plastic classics include the Slip 'N Slide, Silly String, and Superball.

The Hula Hoop has a beloved place in plastics history -- it was the first major application for Phillips Petroleum Co.'s Marlex-brand high density polyethylene.

Not too many companies manage to survive for 150 years, so let's recognize Bemis Co. Inc., the Neenah, Wis.-based flexible packaging company that started with three employees above a machine shop in St. Louis in 1858. Today the company, which is No. 1 on our annual ranking of film & sheet manufacturers, has 55 plants in 10 countries and is one of the largest flexible packaging companies in the world.

Tomorrow, Bemis executives will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange to kick off a year of events to mark the company's 150th anniversary.

Here's a bit of Bemis history, courtesy of the company's news release:

Judson Moss Bemis, founder of the Bemis Company, was the first to champion the use of machine-sewn cotton bags instead of the hand-sewn bags more commonly used at the time. Finding success in textile bag production, Bemis produced new packaging materials as technology and consumer trends developed, expanding into paper bag production in 1913. In the 1950s Bemis began to explore the extrusion, printing, and conversion of polyethylene, and, in 1959, the company entered into the pressure-sensitive adhesives business.

Since the 1960s, Bemis has grown significantly, extending its presence in the United States and abroad with strategic acquisitions and moving away from textile bag production. The company has developed new technologies and products for food and consumer product packaging and expanded into new markets such as medical device and pharmaceutical packaging. In 2005, Bemis reached a new milestone, surpassing the $3 billion mark with a record $3.5 billion in net sales.

Anniversary celebrations will continue at the Bemis annual meeting in May, and the company will sponsor a traveling series of historical exhibits honoring the company’s history, which will be displayed at all the Bemis locations.