Congratulations and thanks are in order for the Plastics Pipe and Fittings Association and its member companies that helped with a project that got fresh water to Honduran refugees from Hurricane Mitch.

According to a news release from PPFA, the Honduran federal government established the village of Colinas de Suiza to accommodate refugees displaced for lower lying areas following the 1998 storm. The village has a population of more than 8,000.

One of the biggest challenges was getting fresh water to the village, along with an irrigation system. Dr. David R. Muñoz from the Colorado School of Mines was involved in the project and looking for help, which he found when he contacted David Chasis, an alumnus of CSM and a member of PPFA, about another issue.

According to the news release, Muñoz was particularly attracted to the project because it could be integrated into a new minor program at CSM called Humanitarian Engineering, "which involves working on projects that require the use of engineering skills in addition to an enhanced awareness of culture and societal differences to sustainably improve the lives of the underserved throughout the world."

PPFA members who helped with the project include Georg Fischer, Hayward Industrial Products, IPEX Inc., IPS Corp., JM Eagle Manufacturing Co., LASCO Fittings Inc., Mueller Industries Inc, NIBCO Inc., Shintech Inc., and Silver-Line Plastics Corp.

Congratulations to the association and its members for their role in this project.

The Christian Science Monitor posted a story on its Web site yesterday that touches on some issues that plastics molders, material suppliers and designers can all appreciate. It's the story of John Huling, owner of a vacuum cleaner repair shop in Natick, Mass., who shut down his business this week.

The reason? Today's vacuum cleaners are difficult and costly to repair. When they break, most people throw them away and buy new models.

Huling blames the predominance of plastic parts.

He sighs as a woman comes in with a new machine. Politely referring her elsewhere, he confides, "It's a piece of junk, speaking technically ... that [machine] was made by the company that made the best vacuum cleaner that was ever made and then they switched to plastic."

The way he utters the word leads me to ask about the evils of plastic. His excited cadences take me back to childhood visits when – dislodging socks or Barbie clothes from a clogged hose – he'd counsel my mother on the need for careful attention. "You can't fix half the new vacs," he says. "Everything's plastic now, even the lever that releases the handle that you have to step on every day.... They snap off. By the time I order the parts and charge labor to repair it, you don't want to do it. I'm just waiting for them to tell me they can't fix my car someday!"

I think the "evils of plastic" is a bit overboard -- it's not the plastic that's the problem.

Obviously you can design and manufacture a very durable vacuum cleaner using plastic parts. But too many vacuums on the market today aren't durable. Consumers buy them anyway, rather than spend hundreds more on more dependable, more durable models -- the kind worth repairing, which keep people like Huling in business.

So American consumers have voted with their pocketbooks: they're satisfied with semi-durable products that fall apart after a few years and end up in the trash. Just make 'em cheap, we'll buy more.

Over the long term, is that a sustainable business model? I don't think so. But I can't predict whether that will change next year, 5 years from now, or 100 years after we're gone.

Thanks to EDN.com's Anablog, compiled by technical editor Paul Rako, for tipping me off to this story.

Congratulations to Rollprint Packaging Products Inc., an Addison, Ill.-based flexible packaging company that's celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. With the plastics industry only 100 years old, not many of our readers can say they work somewhere that's been around since the 1930s.

“We are proud of our latest milestone. It gives Rollprint another opportunity to renew its commitment of providing healthcare and food customers with leading edge structures to meet their stringent packaging objectives,” said Dhuanne Dodrill, president, in a news release sent today.

Rollprint is a global company -- in 2005, it formed a joint venture with Acme Packaging Co. (Pte) Ltd., Singapore to serve customers in Southeast Asia and China.

“Increasingly, we are all becoming part of a global economy. As a result, one of our goals is to continue to expand Rollprint’s worldwide imprint through acquisitions,” Dodrill said.

Good luck to Rollprint as the company aims at reaching the century mark.

Can you imagine a plastic that can change from hard to soft in a matter of seconds when exposed to a liquid?

That's what researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have developed. They're comparing the material to something already found in nature: sea cucumbers.

"These creatures can reversibly and quickly change the stiffness of their skin. Normally it is very soft, but, for example, in response to a threat, the animal can activate its 'body armor' by hardening its skin," said Jeffrey Capadona, associate investigator at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which worked on the development with researchers from Case's departments of macromolecular science and engineering and biomedical engineering.

According to a news release from the university, marine biologists have shown in earlier studies that the hard-to-soft switching effect in sea cucumber's biological tissue "is derived from a distinct nanocomposite structure in which highly rigid collagen nanofibers are embedded in a soft connective tissue. The stiffness is mediated by specific chemicals that are secreted by the animal's nervous system and which control the interactions among the collagen nanofibers. When connected, the nanofibers form a reinforcing network which increases the overall stiffness of the material considerably, when compared to the disconnected (soft) state."

The team used nanocomposites in their artificial version of the polymer, too, and they believe the material will have biomedical applications, such as in devices that help treat patients that suffer from Parkinson's disease, stroke or spinal cord injuries.

Their research also is featured in the journal Science.

When a customer says he wants a part to be lighter, plastics component suppliers figure they've got a foot halfway in the door. But this story by Design News contributing editor Doug Smock notes that Ford Motor Co. is focusing on lighter weight metal -- not plastics -- in its efort to improve fuel economy on vehicles currently being designed.

Smock interviewed Shawn Morgans, Ford's body structure technical leader, who said the carmaker's focus is on using thinner-gauge, high-strength steels.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but our head man is from the aircraft industry and he doesn’t understand why our vehicles aren’t lighter already,” said Morgans. He was referring to Alan Mulally, who became chief executive officer of Ford in 2006 after a 37-year career at Boeing, going from engineer to executive vice president. Mulally was involved in the game-changing decision to go to all-composite aircraft bodies at Boeing.

But despite Mulally's experience at Boeing, Ford apparently isn't hooked on composites. Smock writes that Ford expects to use more high-strength composites in front-end applications, but has "no plans to introduce dramatic new plastic technologies such as carbon-fiber reinforced composites. They’re too expensive right now, said Morgans. There are also technical problems with much-discussed efforts to make roofs out of polycarbonate. Scratch and weathering problems still have to be resolved, said Morgans."

For another opinion on the future of polycarbonate windows and roofs, check the March 10 issue of Plastics News for a feature on Exatec LLC by our Detroit-based staff reporter Rhoda Miel.

Wondering when to travel in the U.S. early next year? Here's a tip: find out when Plastics News is planning its annual Executive Forum and pick another date.

Just kidding, of course, but PN’s exec-level conference, always held between late February and early March in a warm climate, seems to be a magnet for extreme weather across the country. It happened again this year. The massive dump of snow in Ohio on March 7-8 broke records and caused the rare closure of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on the day before the March 9-12 Forum kicked off in sunny Tampa, Fla.

Several of PN’s own staffers, including Publisher/VP Tony Eagan and Editor/Associate Publisher Bob Grace, found themselves fishing for flights simply to get to their publication’s own event before it started. Grace, who as conference director recruited the presenters for the 30-speaker Forum, got lucky, after working two phones and the Web for four hours on the Saturday on which his flight was cancelled, and grabbed a seat on a Sunday morning flight.

Eagan was less fortunate. He got routed on Sunday through Nashville and got to the host resort about 2 a.m. Monday, after the opening Sunday evening welcome reception. Weather woes also caused a few attendees to cancel, but most made it, if later than planned. At last check, there were about 175 in attendance.

Last year, some speakers and attendees were delayed by a day or more on their travel to PN’s 2007 Executive Forum in San Diego, when a massive storm front reaching from the Dakotas to Texas in the country’s midsection caused havoc for flights. At a previous Forum in San Antonio, torrential rains caused flooding and washed out the opening golf day, and a few years ago the Forum in Orlando was brushed by a hurricane rolling off the Gulf of Mexico and across the state, causing a handful of attendees to bolt for what they thought might be safer ground.

Next year’s Forum, to be held in Phoenix, will go ahead as planned. Just be prepared for a locust swarm.

MSNBC has in interesting story today on how the plastics industry, specifically T-shirt bag makers and their suppliers, are battling the wave of bans and taxes that started in San Francisco and seems to be sweeping across America.

Sometimes there's a tendency in stories like this to make industry into a villain, but that's not the case here. I think this story is pretty fair. Both sides of the issue have their say, including two representatives from the Progressive Bag Affiliates, Donna Dempsey and Keith Christman.

Here's an excerpt:

The plastics industry had no intention of allowing the San Francisco model to spread without a fight, though. It quickly and quietly joined with retailers and other business interests and launched a successful counterattack, using lobbying muscle to quash proposed bans. In the face of the onslaught, the cities have instituted voluntary recycling programs that proponents of the bans say are ineffective and likely to remain so.

And in at least two instances, plastics interests have turned the tables on their green adversaries by filing lawsuits on environmental grounds in an effort to prevent bans from taking effect.

“The plastic industry … will try to win local battle by local battle,” says Marc Mihaly, director of the environmental law center at Vermont Law School. “They will intimidate where they can. If they can’t intimidate … they will try to influence legislators.”

Plastics industry representatives attribute their successes to a growing realization that plastic bans are misguided.

“The trend is that cities who are taking a look at what San Francisco did … are all taking a step back and going toward recycling,” said Donna Dempsey, a spokeswoman for Progressive Bag Affiliates, which represents plastic bag makers.

The so-far scattered skirmishes are part of a grander battle over bags, a conflict in which plastic and paper industries are fighting for supermarket supremacy while fending off an ecological newcomer: the reusable fabric bag.

The "scattered skirmishes" characterization is interesting. It seems like every week -- almost every day -- I see proposals pop up somewhere to tax or ban plastic bags. In the past week, Massachusetts joined the party, and the plastics industry is preparing for a battle in the United Kingdom, according to our sister publication Plastics & Rubber Weekly.

Does the plastics industry have a winning strategy for fighting bag bans? If not, what should it be doing differently?

S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. is the latest plastics processor to harness wind power in an effort to reduce the company's carbon footprint. The Racine, Wis.-based consumer products company announced March 13 that it has signed a deal to buy wind-generated power to run its big Ziploc bag and Saran wrap manufacturing plant in Bay City, Mich.

The company's news release doesn't mention the word sustainability, but this certainly is part of the trend.

S.C. Johnson said the deal, with Spartan Renewable Energy in Michigan, will provide 46 percent of the plant's power, and will reduce its environmental footprint by 29,500 tons of carbon dioxide annually. The amount of energy S.C. Johnson will save is comparable to the electricity needed to supply 1,800 average homes.

“In addition to helping accomplish our global renewable energy goal, this initiative further reduces the company’s reliance on coal-fired electricity,” said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of S.C. Johnson. “As a family company, we’re committed to exploring innovative technologies that hold the promise of cleaner, more efficient energy. This is a great step for SC Johnson, and for the future generations that will be affected by the environmental choices all of us make today.”

S.C. Johnson says it has a "legacy of environmental leadership," and the company's advertising frequently highlights those efforts -- for example, its decision to remove chlorofluorocarbons from its aerosol products three years ahead of the 1978 U.S. mandate.

So don't be surprised if the company features its wind-powered plastics film operations in a future TV ad.

(Interestingly enough, another apparently environmentally related move -- to stop using Saran polyvinylidene chloride resins to make Saran wrap -- has never been a featured topic in those advertisements. Perhaps it's too confusing, or maybe they don't want to highlight a change that some consumers might believe hurt the quality of the product.)

Will using more wind power make a difference with consumers? Will they pay a premium for plastic wrap and storage bags made with "sustainable" energy? I think they might. These types of moves certainly give the company a higher profile and a boost to its reputation, which can help with issues like employee recruitment.

The March 15 crane collapse that killed seven people in New York City is being blamed on a broken nylon sling. The New York Times has a story, and photos, posted on its Web site today.

Investigators believe the accident occurred as workers were trying to install a massive square steel collar around the crane’s tower, at the 18th floor of the construction site. They were using a series of manual winches that appeared to have been hung from nylon slings attached to a higher portion of the tower. The collar was to have been attached to the building by steel struts to give the tower added stability.

But the collar broke free and — along with the winches and slings — plummeted down the outside of the shaft, smashing into a second collar at the ninth floor and shearing it from the building before coming to rest on top of a third collar near the base. That destabilized the tower, and the weight of the crane’s cab pulled the tower down onto the buildings to the south, damaging several on 51st and 50th Streets and completely demolishing the town house where the bodies were recovered on Monday.

For investigators who arrived at the site after the accident, the ragged, broken slings immediately raised alarms, according to people involved in the recovery. Construction safety experts said the slings typically cost about $50 and, depending on their size, can lift moderate loads or loads of several tons. But they warned that if the slings are worn or damaged, their strength may be greatly reduced.

The story quotes Paul Zorich, chairman of the committee on crane and sling safety standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who examined the photos and believes the sling may have been "grossly overloaded.”

Another expert, Steven Dewey, president of All-Lifts, a company in Albany, N.Y., that manufactures construction slings, said slings generally fail only when they are cut or damaged.

Just in time for Easter, the Associated Press has a report on toxic lead levels in plastic Easter eggs.

The report was the result of testing on toys done by Jeffrey Weidenhamer, a chemistry professor at Ashland University, who has his students test Easter items each spring. According to the report, 13 of the 45 items they purchased had paint made with lead.

At Ashland, the biggest lead hazards were found in Easter egg spinning tops, plastic Easter eggs that typically are filled at home with treats, bunny hair clips and chick-style sipper cups -- all exceeding the government paint standard of 0.06 percent lead content.

Weidenhamer said the toys with lead-based paint would pose only a small risk, if the paint doesn't chip and the item is discarded before it deteriorates.

Still, this is a persistent problem for the plastics industry -- particularly for processors in China, since many of the products are made there.

Who in the world thinks it's a good idea to use lead-based paint on a children's toy? There's no excuse -- it has to stop.

It's a time-honored tradition in the field of marketing -- to congratulate a person or company in your field that achieves success, wins an award or reaches a milestone. Today, software provider IQMS Corp. did just that, with this news release congratulating two of its customers, Donnelly Custom Manufacturing Co. and Plastic Components Inc., for being selected as finalists for Plastics News Processor of the Year award.

The release also congratulates the winner of the PN award, Innovative Injection Technologies Inc., and "recognizes that organization as an exceptional company."

"We are proud that IQMS ERP software has played an important role in contributing to the success of our customers, especially as they are being recognized throughout the plastics industry," said Randy Flamm, president of IQMS. "We'd like to extend our sincere congratulations to PCI and Donnelly Custom Manufacturing for achieving this coveted position. We are thrilled that two out of the three finalists are IQMS customers; that fact speaks volumes to the success and impact our software has had in helping them obtain such prominent status."

IQMS, which is based in Paso Robles, Calif., designs and develops enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Let me add my own congratulations to the chorus. We had three excellent finalists this year, and it wasn't easy to pick a winner. Good job, i2tech!

And for all the other successful companies out there, start to think about nominating yourself (or, if you're an OEM or supplier, the best processor you know) for our 2008 award. We'll start to solicit nominations in July.

Plastic pipe is a relatively new product, and manufacturers have always faced tough competition from traditional materials, including concrete, steel and ductile iron. One question that's been tough to answer has been durability -- how will plastic pipe hold up in the field, where it's expected to work without fail for decades at a time?

Advanced Drainage Systems Inc., a Hilliard, Ohio-based manufacturer of high density polyethlyene pipe, recently got some first-hand information about how its pipe is doing, when it examined hundreds of feet of pipe that was installed in Ocean City, Md., as part of a storm water drainage project in 1987.

According to a news release from the company, the inspection revealed that the original pipe was still in excellent condition, even in this demanding application where it is subjected to saltwater, sandy soil and heavy vehicle traffic.

"The inspection definitively concluded that after the initial 20 years of service life, the ADS N-12 HDPE pipe installed in Ocean City is still performing as originally designed with no visual signs of deflection or other defects,” said Nathan Jovanelly, ADS regional engineer.

For more information how plastic pipe holds up, check out this 2007 story from Michigan Contractor & Builder.

I doubt there are any plastics companies out there with NCAA baskeball tournament pools, right? Imagine how much productivity the industry would lose if workers spent too much time following scores on ESPN.com or CBSSports.com?

Still, I'm sure a few blog readers have a sporting interest in the tournament outcome. I've got North Carolina, Kansas, Texas and UCLA in my Final Four, with Kansas winning the championship. (Despite the Big 10's lack of respect this year, I have Wisconsin and Michigan State in the elite eight -- but I don't feel very comfortable with either pick.

How about you? Who is in your Final Four?

We're wrapping up our annual ranking of North American injection molders, which is a huge project. But if you're with an injection molding company that manufactures in North America, there's still a few days to make sure you're included.

Every year we get calls from companies after our ranking is published -- and then again after it appears in our Market Data Book -- wondering how they can be included.

Well, this is your last chance. Click here, download the survey form, and fax it to our newsroom in the next day or two. We'll be watching for it.

This looks like an opportunity for some plastics companies -- certainly recyclers, and perhaps some materials suppliers or molders -- to lend a hand. The Kingsport, Tenn., Times-News has a report on a thief who stole hundreds of large plastic totes used by a charity called the Santa Train for the past 16 years.

According to the story, Ed Moore, manager of the Food City store in Kingsport, has stored about 700 of the large totes in a parking lot adjacent to the store for the past 16 years. But sometime on Wednesday afternoon, a "Grinch driving [a] flatbed truck," as the paper described the suspect, stole the totes.

I wonder if he plans to use them, or if he was thinking that he would sell them for scrap.

Moore said the totes cost $12 each when they were new, and he thinks they'd cost twice that much today. He still hopes the person responsible will return the totes, or someone will turn him in. In the meantime, plastics recyclers in the area should watch for someone looking to sell all that scrap.

Here's proof that getting involved in trade groups can pay off.

Lindsey Hahn, president of custom injection molder Metro Plastics Technology Inc. in Noblesville, Ind. is a former president of Mid-America Plastics Partners Inc., an Indianapolis-based trade group for plastics processors. He sent this email to fellow MAPP members today:

I know you are all busy, so I will keep this short.

Last night I had a very serious issue with a new injection mold and reached out to the MAPP network for help and here is my feedback:

MAPP is an amazing organization. I posted my request just before 5:00 PM last evening to the MAPP molders in my region and started receiving replies almost immediately. The replies continued to come in throughout the entire night. Even after I went to bed, MAPP members were still responding to my request for help. When I checked my e-mail in box this morning, I was relieved to see that someone had what I needed.

My emergency is now OVER, and I want to thank everyone who responded to my request for help!

It is wonderful how MAPP members unselfishly respond to the needs of their peers. In fact, people I didn't even know in MAPP showed tremendous concern and empathy for my situation; almost like they too had experienced my problem at some point.

MAPP is truly a trade association that helps its members, and an organization that allows its members to help each other!

Much has been written about the collapse of civic groups and social communities in America -- check the book "Bowling Alone" (and here) for background. But Hahn's email today is a reminder of the value of being involved.

Most of the stories we see about plastic product bans and taxes quote only people in favor of the restrictions. In fact, often if seems like there's no one at all, outside a few vocal bag makers and their suppliers, who are fighting the trend. So this story from the Palo Alto, Calif., Daily News has a "man-bites-dog" tone -- it's a city where some businesses have actually decided to fight against restrictions on plastic bags and polystyrene foam containers.

According to the story, about 40 businesses are supporting a petition that will be presented to the Palo Alto City Council tonight. The businesses say a ban would not work, and would hurt local stores and restaurants.

"Please don't punish local businesses just to make an empty environmental gesture," the petition reads. "Products don't litter, people do."

The City Council is tentatively set to take action on a bag ban on April 21, and it expects to look at restrictions on PS foam containers this summer.

The story quotes council member Yoriko Kishimoto saying she supports a ban.

"To me it seems like a no-brainer," Kishimoto told the Daily News. "I believe we definitely need to drastically reduce our use of plastic bags." She added that cities have tried for years to increase their plastic bag recycling rates, but the rate still hovers at about 5 percent.

I'm skeptical of that point. I have seen very few efforts by municipalities anywhere to recycle plastic bags -- typically they expect grocery stores to handle that chore.

The Huffington Post Web site has been host to a mini-debate on the safety of phthlates in recent weeks, including most recently a post from Mark Schapiro, author of the book "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products."

His post was in response to a Feb. 6 entry by Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, which attacked Schapiro's credibility. Here's a small taste of the debate.

Whelan: Phthalates are chemicals that are used to make plastics flexible -- and they have been widely used for some fifty years in everything from plastic shower curtains to medical devices to rubber duckies. Phthalates are invisible, unfamiliar (who can pronounce the word, much less spell it correctly?), and totally unknown to almost every parent. So when an activist like Mark Schapiro -- author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products -- claims that "American infants are...sucking on phthalate-contaminated teething rings, ingesting toxins directly into their still-developing, vulnerable bodies," you have the perfect storm: a purportedly hostile, invisible agent attacking your baby. The scaremongers have got you -- all because you are a loving, caring parent.

The scare tactics on phthalates worked like a charm recently in California, since Gov. Schwarzenegger banned most forms of phthalaltes, declaring, "we must take this action to protect our children. These chemicals threaten the health and safety of our children at critical stages of their development." Building on this momentum, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation to ban phthalates nationwide. These regulatory moves will do absolutely nothing to promote the health of children. They will only serve to remove from the market safe, useful products.

Schapiro: In her post, Dr. Whelan, President of the American Council for Science and Health, claims that "there is no evidence whatsoever--not even a hint--of health problems from phthalates used by children or adults." Alas, there is far more than a "hint" of such evidence. My book contains abundant, peer-reviewed evidence of such claims.

Closer to home, scientists in the United States have come to similar conclusions. Dr. Shanna Swan, Director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the Rochester University School of Medicine and Dentistry, showed a corollary between the phthalate intake of pregnant women and decreased ano-genital distance in their male offspring. That study was published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a scientific journal published by the U.S.-government funded National Institutes of Health. She told me shortly after the study was published that one of her fears is that phthalates could be contributing to "the feminization of infant boys."

There's much more if you click through to the links. It's interesting... about six months ago, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called me with some questions about phthalates, and I told him that it didn't seem to be a front-burner issue for the plastics industry. Other issues including bag bans and PET water bottles were getting more attention in the mainstream press. I think that's still the case, but I have a feeling that a lot of people have at least a crude understanding of this issue today.

Congratulations are in order for Cellect LLC and its owner, Scott Smith, who will be recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration with the 2008 Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery.

Cellect, a maker of specialty foam products for such items as baseball helmets and auto windshields in St. Johnsville, N.Y., was forced to evacuate its plant on June 28 when the Mohawk River overflowed its banks. Fifteen feet of water rose inside the 200,000-square-foot factory, destroying equipment, supplies and inventory.

According to SBA's news release announcing the prize:

Although Cellect sustained an estimated $10 million in damages and lost revenue, Smiths priority was to take care of his employees first. He organized a meeting with the New York State Department of Labor, quickly securing unemployment assistance for his 100 employees.

The care, concern and innovation that Smith displayed in getting his employees back to work in the aftermath of the devastating flood and his tireless devotion to the rebuilding and subsequent expansion of this St. Johnsville business has earned him the 2008 Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery.

The award will be presented during the U.S. Small Business Administrations (SBA) National Small Business Week 2008, to be held in Washington, D.C. and New York City April 21-25.

The Phoenix Award is an acknowledgment of an individuals heroic effort and recognition of contributions to the physical and economic recovery of their communities, said SBA Administrator Steve Preston. Mr. Smith displayed tremendous courage and resourcefulness in the aftermath of the disaster, and he exemplifies the spirit one must have to rebuild after a tragedy like this.

Kudos to Smith and his team at Cellect.

Sometimes these posts write themselves.

In my news searches today, I found a story on how Vancouver, British Columbia-based Mountain Equipment Co-op is having trouble keeping enough stainless steel water bottles in stock because of concern about bisphenol A in polycarbonate bottles.

That item popped up right next to a story on how the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling some metal water bottles made by Downeast Concepts Inc. in Yarmouth, Maine, because of lead paint contamination.

Consumers must be wondering, where can we turn for a safe water bottle? Are there any manufacturers we can trust?

Plastic threat to sea life 'exaggerated' -- That's the headline on a news story from The Australian, a Sydney, Australia, newspaper. That was enough to get my attention.

The thrust of the story is that Colin Limpus, introduced as "Australia's leading authority on sea turtles," believes that environmentalists who are lobbying to ban plastic shopping bags are exaggerating their impact on marine life.

"This has been picked up by the conservation community, but these bags would only account for a small proportion of plastic-related injuries," said Limpus, a scientist with the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.

The bigger threats, according to Limpus: careless boaters and fishing nets.

As he helped release into Moreton Bay 13 sea turtles that had recuperated after being taken sick or injured to Sea World on the Gold Coast, Dr Limpus identified boat strikes as the biggest threat to turtle populations in coastal waters.

About 100 large turtles are killed each year by boats in southeast Queensland compared with an average of 20 boat-related deaths in the late-1980s.

"These animals are mainly adults which take 30 years to reach breeding age, so the losses are substantial," Dr Limpus said.

Conservationists have used sea turtle and other marine animal deaths as a key argument in their campaign to eliminate plastic shopping bags.

The campaign has often cited a Canadian study to demonstrate that 100,000 animals are killed annually by the bags, although the study identified discarded fishing nets as the cause.

If the government really is serious about protecting turtles, it should regulate the speed of boats in areas frequented by turtles, dugongs and other vulnerable marine animals, Limpus said.

"The problem is that the boats are moving so fast that the animals don't have time to get out of the way and below the propeller," he said.

The newspaper also talked to Clean Up Australia chief executive Kerrie-Ann Johnson, who insisted that the impact of plastic bags on marine life had not been exaggerated. She cited a study by the Australian Marine Conservation Society -- although that group's spokesman denied that it had conducted such a study.

It looks like Limpus is using the raging plastic bag ban in Australia to try to focus attention on what he considers a more serious problem. Good for him.

Still, I don't think this is a signal that the marine debris issue isn't real. It's not going away -- especially in California and Hawaii.

Thanks to the Palo Alto Weekly, now we know the story behind the petition in that California city that opposed a ban on plastic bags. According to the Weekly's report, Dart Container Corp. was the driving force behind the pro-plastics campaign.

Dart Container is typically a publicity-shy company, but a spokesman confirmed that the company sponsored the letter campaign.

"We don't think there's a full understanding of what we believe the facts to be," Dart spokesman Jim Lammers told the Weekly. "The issues surrounding the ban are much more nuanced and complicated than I think people realize and the stated goals to be achieved by these bans are not going to be realized by selecting as the target of the ban foam products."

The newspaper talked to some of the people who signed Dart's opposition letters, and found a pretty wide range of opinions about the campaign:

Some local employees who signed the letter genuinely said they believe plastic bags or foam containers are critical to their businesses. Others said they had limited information and just signed because they were asked to by the Dart Container representative, a woman who visited restaurants and food stores on California Avenue, the Stanford Shopping Center, Town & Country Village and along University Avenue in early March.

A man also brought the letter to hotels along El Camino Real.

It is addressed to the City Council and begins: "I AM AGAINST A BAN ON POLYSTYRENE FOODSERVICE CONTAINERS AND PLASTIC BAGS."

Mladen Lucich, a manager at Michael's Gelato & Cafe, and James Choi, a manager at Teuscher Palo Alto, said the woman who asked them to sign was from Dart Container.

"I'm sure that's the company," Lucich said.

He said he signed "to be nice to her."

Michael's Gelato & Cafe on University Avenue, a family business, will be able to adjust to whatever rule the city sets, he said.

Choi said he was told the ban would affect the packages for Teuscher's chocolates.

"Until she brought this up, I had on idea what was going on," Choi said. "When they come to us with a one-sided case, you sign it."

One signee from a downtown restaurant, who asked to remain anonymous, said he didn't have strong feelings about a ban on plastic bags of polystyrene containers.

"But she asked me a couple times, so I said, 'Sure.'"

A manager at a local hotel, who also asked to remain anonymous, said: "I signed something about plastic cups, but I can't remember. . . . We use plastic cups, that's why I signed it."

David King, manager of Su Hong Eatery, confirmed he had signed the letter.

"I just thought that was what the city wanted. I don't really care," he said.

Jugal Shah, who works at the front desk at Palo Alto's Comfort Inn, said a man told him he wouldn't be able to use cups for coffee.

"He was, like, 'It's going to ruin my business,'" Shah said.

Other signees do want to keep plastic bags and Styrofoam containers around.

"Ninety-nine percent of people come in wanting bags," Spot A Pizza Place Manager Vu Tran said. "I don't see why not give them bags. It's convenient. How are you going to hold four sodas if you don't have a bag?"

The Polish Deli's founder Martin Klosek said that many of his customers already bring their own bags but that eliminating plastic bags entirely would be expensive.

"I don't want to pay more money for this," Klosek said.

Eliminating Styrofoam would also be tough for Jamba Juice, Shift Supervisor Chris Nguyen said.

The paper goes on to say that "The powerful plastic and container industry has mobilized against a movement among local governments to ban their products."

That's a common attitude -- you might say misconception -- about the plastics industry. Considering the size of the industry, it's quite fragmented and not a major political player. That's one reason it tries to use grass-roots lobbying efforts like this one from Dart Container.

Was Dart right to get involved? And how will cities and the public react to such efforts?

Plastics manufacturers are all too familiar with the problem of having their products counterfeited. Intellectual property is a hot-button issue. But here's a new twist -- researchers in England say they've devised a way to add anti-counterfeiting features to plastic products during the molding process

The news comes from the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. In a news release from the school, lead researcher Professor Gordon Smith compared the technology to a watermark, and said it could cost less than 1 percent of the total cost of manufacturing a product.

"There is an enormous amount of interest in anti-counterfeiting technology for plastic products. We at the University of Warwick are working on several processes to prevent plastic components being copied and this 'in mould' process is the first of them to be developed for use," Smith said.

"For commercial reasons we cannot detail collaborators but we are now exploring its use with one company that is plagued by the failure of a counterfeit plastic based safety critical product which is made to look exactly like their safety critical product and therefore damages their reputation as well as losing them sales."

Smith believes manufacturers of DVDs and CDs used in the entertainment and computing markets will be interested in the technology.