How often do you see polyurethane foam as the cover story in a business weekly like Barron's?

Today's issue has the story -- although the subject matter may seem more appropriate for Cosmopolitan!

The story, "Sex or Sleep?", looks at PU's growing stake in the mattress market, and what it means to activity in the American bedroom.

OK, I'll spell it out: "They induce a blissful snooze but make sex a challenge."

Sadly, polyurethane never gets mention in Miriam Gottfried's cover story. The story calls it by the generic name "memory foam," described as a "dense material that softens in reaction to body heat" that dates back to NASA research in 1966.

Memory foam has shaken up the sleepy mattress industry, accounting for almost 20 percent of the market, Barron's reported.

Check the link for the salacious details. Don't worry, it's all in good taste -- despite Rupert Murdoch's role, Barron's is still a Dow Jones flagship.

Plastics News featured the one-cup coffee maker trend a few weeks ago, highlighting the rapid growth in the segment -- and how plastics were benefitting.

Readers of that story, "Brewing up market share, 1 cup at a time," may be interested in the latest news about sector leader Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.

The New York Times' Dealbook reported this week that Green Mountain founder Robert P. Stiller resigned his position as chairman on May 8 after he sold 5 million shares of the company's stock -- worth about $125 million -- to pay off loans he had taken against the shares.

Stiller, who is still on the company's board, now owns only about 5.4 percent of Green Mountain, down from 27.5 percent in early 2008, according to the report.

Indepedent shareholders took a bath as a result of Stiller's margin call too -- the value of Green Mountain stock lost about half their value in the past few weeks.

The Chicago Tribune is in the middle of publishing an investigative series on the safety and effectiveness of chemical flame retardants -- which are used widely in plastic foam upholstery.

The first two stories in the series, "Playing with fire," charge that the chemical industry misled consumers and legislators in order to require widespread use of flame retardants.

The second story is particular is sure to raise eyebrows. "Big Tobacco wins fire marshals as allies in flame retardant push" charges that the tobacco industry worked behind the scenes to steer the debate away from making cigarettes less hazardous -- and towards requiring wider use of flame retardant chemicals.

A primary player in the debate, according to the story, was Peter Sparber, a former Tobacco Institute executive who helped create and steer the National Association of State Fire Marshals.

The meat for the report came from tobacco industry documents that became public after cigarette companies settled lawsuits over the health costs of treating smokers, according to the Tribune.

Watch for the next two installments in the series on Wednesday and Thursday.

A controversial pro-plastics section has been removed from a proposed environmental curriculum in California, according to a report by California Watch.

Last year California Watch had reported that Gerald Lieberman, a private consultant hired by California school officials, added a new section to the 11th-grade teachers' edition textbook called "The Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags," with the title and some of the textbook language inserted almost verbatim from letters written by the American Chemistry Council.

In the wake of that disclosure, the state Environmental Protection Agency took another look at the proposed curriculum, which is part of a statewide K-12 curriculum on the environment.

In a follow-up story posted last week, Suzanne Rust of California Watch reported that the curriculum has been rewritten.

The lesson (PDF) "no longer includes a section titled, 'The Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags,' and it incorporates more recent and relevant recycling statistics," she wrote.

The story quotes Bryan Ehlers, Cal/EPA's assistant secretary for education and quality programs, who said: "We went back and looked at the whole unit and really picked through it with a fine-tooth comb."

"Our concern always with the curriculum was to ensure integrity and accuracy," Ehlers said.

In "Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags" workbook section had asked students to list some advantages of plastic bags. The correct answer, according to the teachers' edition, was: "Plastic shopping bags are very convenient to use. They take less energy to manufacture than paper bags, cost less to transport and can be reused."

California Watch is an initiative of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

CNN's Jane Velez-Mitchell covered the debate over sustainability of PET water bottles yesterday, and while the report is worth a look, it also has some serious problems.

With a "Ban the Bottle" graphic looming in the background, Velez-Mitchell tells viewers that she has an ally -- none other than 84-year-old Jean Hill, who led the effort to ban single-serve PET water bottles in Concord, Mass. (See PN's April 26 story, "Concord, Mass., voters pass ban on PET water bottles ")

I enjoyed hearing what Hill has to say -- it's the first time I've seen her on camera. Her message is that the bottle ban in Concord is a big deal, and the media's coverage has been shallow.

She's absolutely right about that.

Velez-Mitchell is a little over-the-top, literally applauding Hill and saying "Thank you for leading the crusade against plastic bottles." But that's her opinion, so it's OK.

But then the story stumbles by using some discredited information.

Velez-Mitchell describes the garbage patch as "a giant mound of garbage ... bigger than Texas in the Pacific Ocean." That's hyperbole that's been discredited by ocean researchers.

She also cites a website (thinkoutsidethebin.com) that says plastic debris kills 100,000 marine animals a year. Remember that one? I wrote last year about how Harold Johnson, a Saco, Maine, journalist and author of "The Flotsam Diaries" blog, researched and discredited the oft-cited number.

Note to CNN: Interesting story, but don't believe everything you read on the internet.

The plastic debris problem in the ocean could be worse than some studies have estimated, according to a new report.

University of Washington oceanographer Giora Proskurowski and Tobias Kukulka of the University of Delaware say they found that high winds push lightweight plastic particles deep below the ocean surface -- deeper than previous studies had realized.

That meant decades of research on plastic marine debris may in some cases vastly underestimate the true amount of plastic debris in the oceans, Proskurowski said in a news release from UW.

Proskurowski's data came from a 2010 North Atlantic expedition, where he and his team collected samples at the surface, plus an additional three or four depths down as far as 100 feet.

"Almost every tow we did contained plastic regardless of the depth," he said.

Proskurowski said more research is needed, because at this point oceanographers just don't have a good handle on how much plastic is in the ocean.

He added: "On this topic, what science needs to be geared toward is building confidence that scientists have solid numbers and that policy makers aren't making judgments based on CNN reports."

Research for the report included data from the Sea Education Association's Plastics at SEA program.

Here are some short takes on plastics headlines from the past week:

"Lego gets snapped at over girls' line of toys," from the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate.com. According to the story, "a pair of feminist activists" is unhappy with the new Lego Friends line of toys designed for girls.

Characters in the Lego Friends line include Mia, an athlete; Olivia, an inventor; Stephanie, an animal lover; Emma, who enjoys fashion; and Andrea, who likes to sing and dance.

The activists, Stephanie Cole and Bailey Shoemaker-Richards, started a petition on Change.org protesting Lego's marketing strategy.

And more than 55,000 people have signed the petition.

OK...

"Plastic remains No. 1 pollutant on Jersey coast," from the Greater Media Newspapers chain in Manalapan, N.J.

The story notes that according to Clean Ocean Action, 7,500 people participated in 2011 Beach Sweeps on the New Jersey Shore, and they collected 452,698 pieces of marine debris that had washed up in 65 locations.

Some 83 percent of the total was plastic.

There was some good news -- for the first time in 19 years, cigarette debris (filters, packaging, lighters and cigar tips) were not in the top three pollutants.

So perhaps there's hope after all for changing consumer behavior.

Thanks to all the volunteers who participated in the Beach Sweeps. Were there any Plastics Blog readers in the clean-up crews?

It's not surprising that the auto industry is taking the looming shortage of nylon 12 resin seriously.

Remember, this industry has first-hand experience with what a fractured supply chain can do to OEMs and suppliers alike, following natural disasters in Japan (earthquake and tsunami) and Thailand (flooding) last year.

I've been watching coverage of the nylon 12 situation -- triggered by a March 31 explosion and fire at an Evonik Industries AG plant in Marl, Germany. So far the best story came from David Vink, who wrote "Evonik warns customers about nylon 12 supply constraints," which Plastics News posted on April 15.

If you want to bring yourself up to speed on cyclododecatriene feedstocks, nylon 12, competitors to Evonik, potential replacement materials, plans to rebuild the Marl factory and the supply-demand picture prior to the explosion, you should start with Vink's story.

To help fill in the blanks with information since that report, here are some important additions:

Paul Blanchard from IHS Chemical noted that Evonik and Arkema SA -- which buys cyclododecatriene from Evonik -- together account for about half the world's supply of nylon 12. So if it wasn't clear before, that number should drive home the point that this isn't just a problem for Evonik.

Despite that, Dustin Walsh, a staff reporter for Crain's Detroit Business, noted today that automakers have not announced any planned shutdowns or cutting forecasts as a result of the anticipated shortage.

Walsh wrote in his "Shifting Gears" blog: "Mike Goss, general manager of external affairs for Farmington Hills-based Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., said in an emailed statement: 'The material provided by Evonik is in our North American supply chain, but until we complete an assessment with our suppliers, the impact is unknown. At this time, there is no need to adjust production, and we will continue to work closely with our suppliers to ensure ongoing production.'"

Walsh also wrote that hundreds of auto industry executives are meeting in Troy, Mich., this afternoon to discuss the situation. Their goals:

• Help the industry understand and quantify the current state of global nylon 12 inventories and production capacities.
• Collaboratively brainstorm options to strategically extend current nylon 12 capacities and/or identify alternative materials or designs to offset projected capacity shortfalls.
• Identify/recruit the necessary industry resources required to technically vet, test and approve such options.

We'll continue to stay on top of this story, so watch PlasticsNews.com for updates.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has put a lot of muscle behind its sustainability campaign -- global plastics companies are well aware of the company's supplier scorecards.

But the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance is questioning the retailer's committment to the cause in a report released today -- Earth Day -- called "Walmart's Greenwash: How the company's much-publicized sustainability campaign falls short, while its relentless growth devastates the environment." (PDF)

There's only one mention of plastics in the report, and it's not critical. Wal-Mart's plastics recycling record is held up as an example of a project that the company wants environmentalists -- and the public -- to notice:

Walmart's sustainability campaign is not your typical corporate greenwash. It is more complex and clever than that. It has enough substance mixed in with the spin to draw you in. It's easy to get swept up in the big numbers Walmart can roll out -- like the 30 tons of plastic hangers it recycles every month -- and to be charmed by the very fact of this giant company, with its hard-nosed corporate culture, using a word like 'sustainability.'

More than a few environmentalists have been won over. With their endorsements and the flood of positive press that seems to follow each of Walmart's green announcements, the company has managed to turn around flagging poll numbers, shift its labor practices out of the limelight, and, most crucially, crank up its expansion machine.

ILSR takes the company to task for failing to take action on climate change, and falling fall short of a goal set seven years ago to use more renewable energy.

Some more materials-related items, potentially of interest to Plastics Blog readers:

• The report criticizes Wal-Mart's sale of shoddy products, like $6.24 toasters and clothing that doesn't last.
• It question's the company's Green Product Rankings, an "ambitious project" that "doesn't have much to show for itself."

The report says:

In the first year or two after its founding in July 2009, the Sustainability Consortium was closelipped about its progress. In the last few months, the consortium has finally said that it is not in fact developing a rating system or even product-specific information. It is assembling general lifecycle data for types of products - a typical environmental footprint for orange juice or detergent, say, but not for specific brands within those categories.

Spokesperson Jon Nicol says this data could be a starting point for a rating system should a company wish to develop one. So far, the consortium has finished just 10 assessments.23 A Walmart supercenter carries roughly 140,000 items across thousands of product types.

Was Walmart woefully naive about what it would take to create the kind of Sustainability Index it promised? Was it a miscalculation to have corporations play a big role in developing environmental standards for their own products? Should Walmart have put its efforts instead into refining and adapting an existing rating system, one not controlled by industry, such as GoodGuide? Was the index just a PR ploy from the start?

The auto industry is getting serious about using plastic composites to reduce weight and improve fuel economy.

Every week, it seems, we're seeing stories about automakers and suppliers using or studying ways to use plastics and/or composites to make vehicles lighter.

Today the headline came from Ford Motor Co. and Dow, which are teaming up to investigate ways to bring carbon fiber into high-volume auto production.

The project is part of Ford's goal of cutting average vehicle weight by 750 pounds.

For some additional insight into this issue, check out this video from our sister publication Automotive News. It features Plastics News' own auto industry beat reporter Rhoda Miel.

For some additional context, check out these stories on automotive weight savings, all in the past three weeks:

Teijin building $7.9 million composites center in Michigan

Magna and Zoltek team up on carbon fiber SMC

MuCell helps lighten VW Golf instrument panel

Partners developing auto parts reinforced with steel

When I attended Plastics News' last "Plastics in Lightweight & Electric Vehicles" conference, I was impressed with what the plastics industry people were saying about the potential weight savings they could bring to the table.

But at the time, I got the feeling that many automakers felt they could hit aggressive fuel economy goals through other means, like powertrain improvements, and slightly cutting the size of vehicles.

Now it's beginning to look like automakers are more serious about the potential of plastics and composites.

Is that the result of federal MPG mandates, or consumers who are starting to believe that they're never again going to see $2 per gallon gasoline?

A funny thing happened on the way to Orlando airport. At 6:30 am today, on the day after the NPE2012 show wrapped up at the Orange County Convention Center, Plastics News' Robert Grace piled into a metered taxi at the Rosen Centre Hotel.

Here's his first-hand report:

The first thing the driver said to me was how happy he was that our show, meaning NPE, had taken place here this week. "This city really needed it." He said it was the biggest show ever at the OCCC, and that he'd never seen anything like it. He met a lot of nice people this week, he continued.

I started to explain how that this was the first time for NPE in Orlando, and that previously it had been held ... "in Chicago", he said, finishing my sentence. He knew the back story about the NPE show! Go figure.

My driver was a Haitian-born resident of Orlando for the past 20 years. About a year ago a lack of work caused him to be laid off from his construction job, where he had helped to build some of the longest bridges in Florida and Mississippi. He had been driving a cab for only 10 months, but he likes it. He meets interesting people.

I shared with him some of the background about why the show moved from McCormick Place, saying how many exhibitors were really fed up with the strict union rules that made logistics expensive and frustrating. He was incredulous, and said "that won't happen here."

He thanked me for being here, flashing a gold-toothed smile, and said that NPE had "helped put food on the table for a lot of families." I gave him a healthy tip and he appreciatively said he was really looking forward to NPE returning to his home town in three years.

Unbelievable. But it was symbolic of the sort of warm reception that many show attendees experienced throughout the week at NPE. It's nice to feel wanted, and to be respected. And that bodes well for all of us in 2015.

Jean Hill, the 84-year-old Concord, Mass., grandmother of six, is at it again -- trying to ban sales of single-serve plastic water bottles.

According to the Boston Herald, Concord residents will vote at an April 25 town meeting on a bylaw that would ban sales of bottled water in sizes of one liter or less, except in an emergency.

Concord is a historic town -- site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War. If the bylaw passes, it apparently would be the first of its kind in the United States.

This isn't Hill's first attempt to ban single-serve water bottles. Last year the town narrowly defeated her measure, by a 272-265 vote.

"I'm coming back next year. I'm 83 and I'm tough. I don't give up," Hill said at the time.

While local retailers are worried that they'll lose business to competitors in nearby towns, Hill says they have nothing to worry about.

"If the ban did pass -- and I'm quite optimistic that it will -- I believe that any loss of revenue would be ... more than made up if they sell Thermos bottles, refillable bottles," she told the Herald.

I'm not a big user of single-serve water bottles. I prefer tap water, at home and at work. And I acknowledge that the recycling rate for these containers is way too low -- Plastics News has editorially supported bottle deposit legislation for years.

That said, I think there's something wrong with allowing voters to decide which legal, safe and convenient products stores can sell.

If Hill wants to discourage residents from buying single-serve bottled water, I've got no problem with that. But making it illegal doesn't mesh with the concepts of freedom and liberty that are synonymous with the name Concord.

Add actress Kyra Sedgwick to the list of celebrities who are crusading against single-use plastics.

Last week Sedgwick, star of TV's "The Closer," moderated ""A Global Call to End Plastic Pollution" at the United Nations in New York.

Lisa Kaas Boyle, an environmental attorney, co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition and a board chair at Heal the Bay, posted a blog item about the talk over the weekend on The Huffington Post.

The post, "Kyra Sedgwick Leads Global Call to End Plastic Pollution at United Nations," quotes from her remarks at the UN event:

"When I became aware that plastic trash like the disposable plastic water bottle would survive not only my lifetime but my children's and their children's lifetimes, I knew that we, as a society, had a major problem. When I learned that in developed countries like the U.S., we recycle at best around 30 percent of the plastic we use and that even then, we turn the plastic into relatively useless items like plastic ashtrays, I became obsessed with the waste. I can be thrown into a severe anxiety attack at my neighborhood spinning class as I see mothers whom I know to be intelligent responsible parents go through a jumbo size water and then throw it 'away.'

There is no 'away,' and much of the plastic packaging we use could end up in one of the five Gyres -- swirling areas of the world's ocean current where trash is concentrated. Plastic pollution kills and injures wildlife. Tiny plastic pellets in the water absorb toxins, and studies are now being done to learn whether it is poisoning fish, which is globally the most important source of protein for humans.

I have done my best to alter my lifestyle to help solve this problem; avoiding plastic whenever possible and spread the word about its damaging effects. But I can only do so much. This is where the government must step in. There is a real solution that can be implemented now.

Increasing availability of natural gas in North America has the potential to make a big difference in the plastics industry in the next decade. But how exactly will it change?

North American processors may be salivating over the prospects for plentiful, inexpensive polyethylene. But will that perception of shale feedstocks become reality?

Speakers at the IHS World Petrochemical Conference in Houston touched on the topic this week, and Alex Tullo, senior editor for Chemical & Engineering News, wrote about it in his "The Chemical Notebook" blog.

The post, "Petrochemicals, Front And Center," notes that "petrochemical executives may be exuberant about the prospects of feedstocks from shale, but they are also realistic."

Plastics News has reported on expansion plans related to shale gas from Formosa Plastics Corp. USA, Nova Chemicals Corp., Chevron Phillips, Dow Chemical Co., Shell Oil Co. and Westlake Chemical Corp.

But announced projects don't always get built. That's typical in the boom-and-bust cycle of the chemical industry.

Tullo quotes two executives at the conference who say that not all of the crackers that are currently on the drawing board will get built -- at least not on their current schedule. That makes sense.

The location of some of the new capacity also has the potential to change the North American plastics industry. Shell Chemicals, for example, is looking at Monaca, Pa., for its new capacity.

Tullo cites comments on the topic by Ben van Beurden, executive vice president of Shell Chemicals Ltd. Tullo writes that there is "a big advantage being close to the converters -- customers would enjoy quicker delivery and less working capital tied up in inventory."

That seems likely. I asked Frank Esposito, Plastics News' senior reporter who covers materials suppliers, and he pointed out that there is a large number of packaging and rotational molding firms in the Midwest that could benefit from lower PE shipping costs from western Pennsylvania, compared to current suppliers in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

And even if new capacity doesn't necessarily result in lower resin prices, Esposito said the new North American PE capacity would mean more reliability of supply.

Consider the short-term impact on pricing of Gulf Coast hurricanes, for example -- wouldn't new capacity in the Midwest temper those fluctuations?

I expect to hear more comments from the materials sector on shale feedstocks next week at NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla. Probably not any new capacity announcements, but certainly more talk about what the future holds for plastics processors.

Take this as a sign of Orlando, Fla.'s interest in the plastics industry -- specifically NPE.

The Orlando Sentinel posted a story last night about NPE2012, saying North America's largest plastics show "could become the next undisputed heavyweight champion of the region's convention industry."

Sara K. Clarke's story, "Orlando faces test with huge plastics trade show," looks at the latest numbers and makes the case that NPE2012 could "initiate Orlando into the ranks of those very few travel destinations capable of handling even the largest industrial trade shows."

"Other manufacturing, other heavy-equipment trade shows will see the success of [NPE] and, I believe, based on that success, Orlando will be in a stronger position to compete for that business for years ahead," Gary Sain, president and CEO of Visit Orlando, the local convention-and-visitors bureau, told the Sentinel.

The story does a nice job of framing what NPE means to Orlando -- and what the new location potentially means to the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., the show's owner.

"Part of the challenge will be convincing the trade group that the show will continue to draw the industry's Midwest-based crowd despite the added travel distance to Orlando, compared with Chicago," Clarke wrote.

SPI is counting on Orlando to help draw an international crowd -- but she's absolutely right about the importance of keeping the tried and true Midwest attendees, too.

The story quotes Gene Sanders, SPI's senior vice president of trade shows and conferences, saying that this year's show registration may approach 60,000. If so, that certainly would be a sign that the new show location is a hit.

There are a few paragraphs at the end of the story that may give readers pause.

The story notes that SPI "hasn't signed a contract for its 2015 show," but "wouldn't object if Orlando became the event's new long-term home."

"We hope that the show just knocks it out of the park and we'll be back there in '15 and '18 and '21," Sanders said. "That's our goal."

When I first read that, I thought it was odd that SPI has not signed a contract for 2015. SPI has been saying for three years that both the 2012 and 2015 shows will be in Orlando.

But it would go too far to assume that means SPI will be looking for a new home for NPE in three years.

In fact, I've been assured by SPI that nothing has changed -- the group still plans to hold the 2015 show in Orlando. The final agreement just hasn't been signed yet.

So Orlando can feel free to "knock it out of the park," as Sanders put it, without worrying to much about being pulled from the lineup in 2015.

As far as 2018 and 2021 are concerned ... well, it's a little to soon to worry about that!

Who's Emily Utter? She's an anti-plastics activist who helped pass a ban on plastic bags in San Francisco, and now she's working to help other cities and towns do the same.

Utter is making "huge progress ... in spite of the plastic and chemical industries millions of dollars and best efforts," according to a Q&A interview with her that's making the rounds in environmental blogs.

The original interview, in Linda Rubright's "The Delicious Day" blog, is headlined "The Woman the Plastic Industry Can't Beat."

The interview has a David vs. Goliath tone, which is understandable given the subject matter.

To help balance that, I'll mention here that the U.S. plastics industry traditionally doesn't rank all that high on lists of most influential trade groups.

Also, let's assume that the plastics industry is correct -- how would you expect it to respond to numerous efforts across the country to ban or tax legal products? It's one thing to urge consumers to use less plastic, and quite another to make them illegal.

Here are a few snippets from the interview:

How would I go about getting a plastic bag ban in my town?

If it is just an individual that wants to get involved I always recommend people look for other groups in their area that are either interested in doing it or are currently doing something about the plastic bag problem - a Sierra Club Chapter, a Surfrider chapter or an environmental club are good places to start. Once people do the research they often find there are already groups in their area working on the plastic bag issue.

Then, once a group has formed they should check out the city council to determine the environmental leader within the council that would sponsor plastic bag ban or fee legislation and set up a meeting to see if the council person identified is interested in sponsoring legislation.

Are there are general challenges that everyone is facing regardless of town size or structure in passing plastic bag legislation?

The plastic industry. They are extremely well funded and they will send their representatives all over the country to fight the legislation.

How are people overcoming the challenges the plastic industry is creating?

Perseverance. We see the impact of plastic on our health and on our environment. There is a lot passion and understanding about this issue now. We see the plastic bags in our neighborhoods, in our parks and on our beaches. People know there are practical and easy ways to take care of this problem. We have seen this in Europe for years and now the US is finally starting to catch up. With all of the global examples, we are also seeing global momentum for this issue. It gives us the mental support to keep at it. It is not like we are proposing something totally out of the blue. Everything we are proposing is practical and it has a really obvious impact that we can see immediately.

It seems like the plastic industry would be kind of scary, especially to little towns.

I think for some of the smaller towns the plastics industry just kind of says, 'We are not going to bother.' They are focused on bigger targets and being strategic about it. Everyone looks to California for environmental legislation and the plastic industry is really trying to battle us here. Given the focus on suing California cities, some of the non-Californian cities have had an easier time because all of the plastic industry resources are going to California. I think if Denver brought the plastic bag issue up again you would see the plastic industry bringing in the big guns again. I know Chicago is starting to work on legislation and we will see the plastic industry come out in force. This is also why the plastic industry shows up to the smaller towns outside of Chicago because they see when a smaller town outside of a bigger city does it it spurs other cities around them to do it.

Anecdotal evidence continues to pile up that some manufacturers are "reshoring" -- bringing work back to North America.

The story is becoming familiar. Companies say the advantages of bringing work back from places like China are the shorter supply chain, reduced lead time and stable pricing. With prices rising in China, and North American manufacturers becoming lean and more efficient, the cost difference that started the offshoring trend in the first place isn't as significant.

In the past few days, Plastics News has covered Whirlpool Corp.'s KitchenAid brand is bringing production of its hand mixers back to the U.S. from China, and Readfield, Maine-based Saunders Manufacturing Co. Inc. relocating some plastics work from China to LC Industries in Jackson, Miss.

In the KitchenAid story, staff reporter Rhoda Miel writes from the International Home + Housewares Show that the company is in the process of moving production now to Greenville, Ohio, which is already home to KitchenAid's larger stand mixers.

That shift will mean new business for suppliers of the mixers injection molded parts, said Larry Simpson, global business development manager for KitchenAid Small Appliances. Among other parts, the mixers' bodies are injection molded plastic, some of them painted and some using a molded-in-color process.

In the Saunders story, PN intern Brandi Shaffer writes that Saunders President and CEO John Rosmarin said the company is "committed to produce as many of our products as possible here in the U.S.A."

The company started a "Made in USA" product line in 2008.

And speaking of "Made in USA," here's a story for readers who want to jump into the trend with both feet.

The story, "Made in the USA: Ann Arbor firm constructing homes with products made in America," reports on a Michigan company that's building homes using American-made goods.

"Except for the granite countertop, the microwave oven and the recessed lighting, everything will be made in America, down to the nails," writes Janet Miller from AnnArbor.com.

For all the consumers who claim they can't find American-made products, this should be an eye-opener.

In keeping with my "countdown to NPE" theme, I spotted an item today with good tips for exhibitors at any trade show.

The source is Mike Thimmesch, director of industry relations for Skyline Exhibits, who wrote "18 Hidden Rules of Trade Shows" for Trade Show News Network.

Some of my favorites:

• The larger the crowd of people already in your booth, the more other people will want to visit your booth.
• The person who complains the most about the value of trade shows is usually the one who knows (and tries) the least.
• The more fun trade show attendees have in your booth during the show, the more serious business you will do after the show.
• The more years you exhibit at the same show, the more you will have repeat customers visit you in your booth.
• The faster you follow up your trade show leads, the greater the sales you will generate from that show.

Seems like common sense, right? But why do so many exhibitors ignore these tips?

I know a lot of marketing specialists read the Plastics Blog. Please share your thoughts about Thimmesch's tips, and offer a few of your own.

On top of the rest of the plastics industry's marine litter problems, get ready for a new twist. Experts say debris from last year's tsunami that devastated parts of Japan are headed for the West Coast of the United States and Canada.

According to a "West Coast officials agree on plan to deal with tsunami debris" from The Canadian Press, the tsunami swept 5 million metric tons of debris into the ocean.

The experts say the debris will hit North American beaches later this year or in early 2013.

And given the nature of marine trash, the most visible products are going to be plastic.

I've heard people argue that marine litter is an education problem, not a plastics problems. But this tsunami debris is pretty clear proof that the issue isn't quite so black and white.

We're not talking about people intentionally failing to dispose of or recycle their plastic trash -- this was unavoidable.

Unless the industry gets out in front of this issue, it's got the potential to be a black eye.

Attendees to the China Plastics in Automotive 2012 conference in Shanghai on April 17 will gain insights into Ford Motor Co.'s vision for creating greener, more lightweight and fuel-efficient vehicles globally when they hear from keynote speaker Jennifer Gilhool.

She's Ford Asia Pacific & Africa's Shanghai-based director of sustainability, environment and safety engineering.

Gilhool has a law degree from the University of Michigan. she started in Ford's legal department, then moved to the regulatory side of the business, working on safety and compliance matters.

Other topics to be covered at the conference include vehicle design trends, and the role plastics and advanced polymer composites will play in interiors, seating, powertrain and under-the-hood components, as well as in electrification and hybrid technology.

Check the agenda for a list of other speakers.

The bilingual event is being organized by Plastics News at the Kerry Hotel on the day before the huge Chinaplas 2012 trade show. See full event details at www.pnchina.com/cpa2012.

A few months ago I wrote about the potential for viewers to take away an anti-plastics message from "The Lorax," a Dr. Seuss-inspired film that opened today.

But the tone of that post, "'The Lorax' pits kids against plastics," wasn't quite right.

Upon further review, I think the American Chemistry Council's response is more on target.

ACC knew the film was coming, so it prepared a website designed to capture kids' enthusiasm for the film and its central message around making a difference.

ACC's "Plastics and the Lorax" isn't about fighting back against anti-plastics stereotypes (you may recall that the film's protaganist lives in "Thneedville," a town made of plastic).

Instead, ACC is focused on how kids can help recycle more plastic. The site educates visitors about what plastics can be recycled and how they are used.

ACC's Jennifer Killinger, the senior director of sustainability and public outreach, says the site went live yesterday. ACC is taking a low-key approach to the film -- after all, the audience is children.

The intent of the site is to promote recycling and give them simple tips to get more plastics in the bin.\

But ACC's not picking a fight with Dr. Suess -- which seems like the right approach.

Have you noticed any of the new package recycling labels?

Some manufacturers are voluntarily using the labels in an effort to make recycling easier. One of the biggest problems with the status quo labels is related to plastics -- specifically, complaints from consumers and recyclers who say many people don't understand the chasing arrows resin ID codes.

The new Package Recovery Label System was developed for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Mike Verespej, Plastics News' staff reporter in Washington, has written a few stories about the project, including "Recycling campaign kicks off as OEMs launch label system," and "New package labels aim to simplify recycling." Check those links for background on the project.

Today, thanks to a tweet from the American Chemistry Council's "Recycle Plastic" feed, I found a handy website that's supposed to help the public navigate the new labels.

The labels are being called "How 2 Recycle Labels," and the site is www.how2recycle.info.

Check it out for more information, and to better understand exactly what the labels mean.

Meanwhile, to help you recognize them when you see them, here's an example of one of the new labels:

Ever have one of those moments where you think you remember something, but your memory plays tricks on you?

I had that today when I noticed a story in The Port Lavaca (Texas) Wave about Inteplast Group's 20th anniversary.

I remembered that Plastics News wrote the very first stories about Inteplast's plans to build a massive extrusion plant in Lolita, Texas.

Now 20 years ago is pre-Internet, so I had to research this blog post the old-fashioned way -- I looked up our back issues from 1991 and 1992.

When I found those early stories about the plant, I discovered that my memory was mostly correct.

But I was surprised to see my byline on one of the first stories -- a Page 1 story on Oct. 19, 1992, about how the plant had started production.

How in the world did I forget one of my own stories?

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to look at what that first story predicted, and to compare it what actually happened.

The initial story said the plant would eventually have capacity to make more than 150 million pounds of film annually, with sales greater than $100 million.

Pretty big numbers. But they're dwarfed by what Inteplast is today.

According to the Wave's story, Inteplast now has 21 plants and 2011 sales of more than $1.3 billion. That resin throughput figure is a bit higher too -- now it's more than 1 billion pounds.

The company ranked No. 6 among North American film & sheet manufacturers in Plastics News' most recent survey, with estimated 2010 sales of $1.09 billion.)

Back when Inteplast opened its doors, I remember some sources in the industry predicted it would be a game-changer in several markets -- T-shirt bags, BOPP film, extruded profiles and more.

Those predictions, in this case, turned out to be true.

Here's a suprising fact: It has been five years since Procter & Gamble Co. launched a brand in the United States, and that product was niche probiotic Align.

Is P&G, which has a long history as a creator of innovative products, slipping?

Jack Neff at our sister publication Advertising Age takes a close look at P&G this week with this story: "Why Some Think P&G's Innovation Is Slipping."

Some analysts "doubt the power of P&G's innovation machine and voiced concerns that the company is too big and too complacent," Neff writes.

Chairman and CEO Bob McDonald is aware of the criticism and he's working on rebuilding the company's image. P&G spent more than $2 billion on R&D in the past two years, and it has projects in the pipline, he said.

What's the view of plastics suppliers to P&G?

We know on the packaging side that the company has been undertaking significant materials-related changes -- first disclosed in 2010 ("P&G outlines broad sustainability plans").

More recently we saw a small step toward that goal, when the company revealed its new Gillette Fusion ProGlide packaging.

Does P&G have more plastics-related innovations ready to hit the market? Neff's story hints at one: a product named T@U, a patch for removable or temporary tattoos.

I confess, the Plastics Blog enjoyed having a favorite son candidate in the 2012 presidential race.

I know people say Mitt Romney has a plastic personality, but it's just not the same.

But now Jon Huntsman Jr. is out of the race, and he's even -- sort of -- returning to the plastics industry. In the past week we've had stories on him joining Huntsman Corp.'s board of directors and, more recently, agreeing to give the keynote speech at NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla.

But don't expect Jon Jr. to come knocking on your door selling polyurethane resin.

One reason people run for president is for the publicity. Let's put it this way: How many people outside northeast Ohio knew Dennis Kucinich before 2003?

Before announcing his candidacy in June, Jon Huntsman Jr. was a "who's he?" candidate.

Now, after campaigning in the population-light states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Huntsman is a household name all across the country. His gig speaking at NPE even got a mention today in The Washington Post's "In the Loop" politics blog.

The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. often gets big names to speak at NPE, but it's rare to recruit one who gets a mention in the Post.

I fully expect that Huntsman's speech in Orlando will be a rehearsal for a primetime spot on the podium at August's Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Conventional wisdom says Huntsman isn't a natural choice for vice president. Utah's not packed with electoral votes, and if Romney is the nominee, I don't think the Republicans will be pushing an all-Mormon ticket.

But, depending on the results in November, Huntsman could be on his way to a nice head start on the GOP primary race for 2016.

I've described the proliferation of bag bans and taxes around the country -- indeed around the world -- like a Whac-a-Mole game.

For the industry, they're always popping up in different places, always requiring an urgent response.

For a while, all the action was in California. Now we've got bans and taxes on both coasts, and proposals in Texas, Ohio, Illinois -- just about everywhere.

Wondering how to keep up? There are several websites devoted to plastic bag laws. One I rediscovered this morning, thanks to Susan Freinkel's blog, is called plasticbaglaws.org.

Jennie Roemer, a San Francisco Bay-area lawyer, started the site as a resource for her own research, writes Freinkel, author of "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story."

In addition to keeping up with bag bans and taxes, the site also includes a links section with descriptions of all the sites.

Impressive collection -- although I wonder why there's no link for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition.

After a slow start, it seems that more people in the plastics industry are getting interested in social media. But where to get started?

Quite a few blogs offer advice, and I've linked to some in the past. Today I received a note about a new site that specializes in social media for the business-to-business audience.

The site, by Global B2B Communications, is aimed at a non-marketing audience -- for example, engineers and technically-oriented managers.

My favorite post so far: "What happens when engineers use social media," by Amy Munice of Global B2B.

Other than LinkedIn groups, she writes, there's little in social media for engineers to get excited about.

"I've yet to speak to an engineer who is enthused about Tweets," she wrote.

Watch PlasticsNews.com for more on social media next week -- you may even learn more about why you should be using more than LinkedIn, and what Facebook and Twitter have to offer to the B2B audience.

Here's a good link for all the environmentalists in the plastics industry -- as well as those who realize that it's in the industry's best interest to irmprove its recycling record.

Today the American Chemistry Council sent a link to RecycleYourPlastics.org, a web site created to help communities recycle more plastics.

The portal includes information on different types of plastics, recent news releases recycling rates for film, containers and non-container rigid plastics.

It also includes tips, tools, best practices, case studies, and a section where readers can submit questions to experts.

The new report on plastic film and bag recycling is encouraging, but it's not going to end the debate on grocery bag taxes and bans.

Plastics News' Mike Verespej reported today that film and bag recycling in the United States jumped 14 percent in 2010 to 971.8 million pounds -- the first annual increase of more than 3 percent since 2006.

But Mark Murray, executive director of the Sacramento, Calif.-based Californians Against Waste, still feels that bag recycling has been a "failure."

Is recycling the last word on the bag issue? The National Center for Policy Analysis doesn't think so.

Today our sister publication Waste & Recycling News posted a column by H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at NCPA, arguing that plastic bag bans hold hidden costs, and result in "little or no benefit for the environment."

"Contrary to the myth propagated by environmental lobbyists and other plastic bag opponents, plastic bags are rarely single-use items," Burnett wrotes. "Rather, long after plastic bags transport the groceries, people find a variety of ways to reuse them. They are used as lunch bags, car litter bags, to line bathroom trash bins, to collect dog waste and to seal soiled diapers. Other uses include carrying donation items to goodwill, transporting laundry to the cleaners and securing items in the garage and attic. Some people carry bags on walks to pick up stray trash.

"Without them, we will likely buy more trash bags and baggies to compensate. In stores that ban plastic grocery bags, shoppers have become creative, using thin plastic bags from the fresh vegetable sections of stores to carry out groceries -- double- and triple-lining them to make them work. Now that´s a waste nightmare and a sheer waste of resources."

How appropriate -- a day after the Super Bowl, Forbes.com has a Q&A interview today with the "other" Tom Brady -- you know, the plastics guy.

Of course I'm talking about Tom Brady, the founder of Plastic Technologies Inc., the packaging and recycling specialists in Holland, Ohio.

Gregg Fairbrothers interviewed Brady for a Forbes section on leadership. The interview covers his background at Owens-Illinois Inc., including his role in the company's efforts to commercialize PET containers, plus insight into his decision to leave the company and form PTI.

"Like many entrepreneurs, I began as a company of one person. I was Chairman, CEO, President, Chief Engineer, and Customer Service Manager; I was also the accountant and the janitor," Brady told Fairbrothers.

"The PTI family of companies now includes two manufacturing companies, two technical development and engineering service companies and three joint venture companies that license technology or sell specialty services to the packaging industry. We have more than 200 employees worldwide and many of the products you buy every day are sold in plastic containers designed by one of our companies.

"Interestingly, all of the other PTI companies were the "brainchildren" of PTI employees. Today we remain a private, employee-owned company and only a handful of professional employees have left us over our 26-year history," he said.

Check out the link for the full interview. Unlike that other Tom Brady, this one should be feeling pretty good about his team's performance today.

On top of the Forbes interview, I discovered just minutes after I posted this today that Brady is a new member of the Plastics Hall of Fame. He's one of 10 new inductees who will join the hall on April 1 at NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla.)

Here's the full list:

Thomas E. Brady, PhD. A pioneer of today's PET industry, Dr. Brady did fundamental research on polymer and packaging technology, founded Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI) and six other packaging-related companies, and received patents relating to PET and packaging.

Lawrence J. Broutman, ScD. A prolific researcher, Dr, Broutman has developed techniques for the analysis and characterization of polymer materials that have spurred further research and generated innovation in many plastics sectors. He has written nearly 170 technical publications and two textbooks, been awarded four patents, and received five best paper honors from the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).

Jay L. Gardiner. A tireless volunteer for plastics causes, Mr. Gardiner has been continuously active in service to the industry for more than two decades and has held leadership positions or board memberships with many plastics organizations.

Jobst U. Gellert. One of the most prolific inventors in Canadian history, Mr. Gellert has been awarded hundreds of patents. He patented the first commercially viable hot runner system in 1965 and built Mold-Masters Limited, a leading worldwide supplier of hot runner systems.

H. Gunther Hoyt. Mr. Hoyt has played important roles in the internationalization of the plastics industry and in the progress of SPI and the NPE exposition. He has also been a technological leader in the field of machine components.

Robert P. Kittredge. An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mr. Kittredge founded Fabri-Kal Corp. in 1950. It is now the eighth-largest thermoformer in North America, serving the packaging market. Mr. Kittredge also established the Fabri-Kal Foundation, which has provided millions of dollars in scholarships and community grants.

H. Richard Landis. An inventor and entrepreneur, Mr. Landis has been a pioneer in injection molding. His company, Landis Plastics, grew from a one-machine operation in 1956 to an enterprise with six U.S. locations employing more than 2,100 people. He has been awarded 16 patents in the design of plastic parts. He participated in SPI's development of the resin identification code for the "chasing-arrow" recycling symbol.

Robert A. Malloy, PhD. An educator, researcher, and author, Dr. Malloy chairs one of the leading U.S. plastics engineering departments and has trained many engineers who have gone on to make an impact on the industry. He holds 16 patents, has been a principle investigator for more than 70 funded research projects, and has authored or co-authored more than 60 conference and journal papers in the field of plastics engineering.

Daniel W. McGuire, Jr. Dubbed "the father of resin distribution," Mr. McGuire founded the first plastics distributor in North America. His vision was to create an organization to fill in the gap between resin producers and small or medium-size processors. This became the mission of his company, General Polymers.

Timothy W. Womer. A widely recognized authority on plasticizing screws, Mr. Womer has designed thousands of these components. He holds 15 patents and is a prolific author and lecturer. He has been extensively involved with industry associations, held a number of leadership positions, and received several of the industry's most prestigious honors.

We've seen this story hundreds of times -- which type of bag is better, paper or plastic? Frequently the coverage is not complimentary to plastic.

Toronto's The Globe and Mail deserves credit for bringing some balance to its Feb. 1 report, "Which is greener, paper or plastic? You might be surprised."

The story focuses on what types of bags local retailers use, and how some of them explain the decision to their customers.

The story isn't entirely pro-plastic, despite what the headline may imply. But Augusta Dwyer covers both the pluses and minuses of the different options in a balanced way.

That's good for consumers, who need facts to help make decisions -- not one-sided lectures.

Toronto retailers have been using fewer plastic bags since 2009, when they were required to start charging consumers 5 cents per bag.

That's resulted in a 75 percent drop in plastic bag use, according to the story.

Forget about moon colonies. A new thermoset composite, developed in part by Owens Corning through a joint development program with Lockheed Martin under the name Applied NanoStructured Solutions LLC, provides electrical magnetic interference shielding for vital components on the Juno satellite, which will orbit Jupiter to provide the best view yet of that planet.

The hybrid composite includes carbon enhanced reinforcements, produced by ANS.

Lockheed Martin describes the part as providing: "contoured supports to prevent thermal blanketing from interfering with the three solar array support mechanisms. The supports also provide an electrostatic discharge path. During its 5-year journey to Jupiter, the Lockheed Martin-made Juno spacecraft will rely on solar energy to power it computers and instruments."

Thanks to Plastics News staff reporter Rhoda Miel for today's post -- she discovered the project at the Society of Plastics Engineers Topcon event in San Antonio, Texas.

I'm praising one company today for its sustainability message, so forgive me for going negative on two others.

My targets -- Repurpose Compostables Inc. and Bed Bath & Beyond stores, for their misleading messages about line of compostable cups made from polylactic acid.

A few weeks ago PlasticsNews.com posted a story about the cups from our sister publication Waste & Recycling News.

The original WRN story said: "Repurpose cups are made from polylactic acid -- made from corn -- and require 65 percent less carbon dioxide to make than plastic, the company said. The lids also are compostable, and no plastic means the cups are nontoxic."

Plastics industry defender and consulting engineer Allan Griff spotted that paragraph and sent me a quick note: "I assume the cupmaker said this, but PLA is a plastic, isn't it?"

Absolutely right, I replied, so I quickly corrected the story.

But Griff wasn't finished. He did some research on what else Repurpose and Bed Bath were saying about the cups, and he found more misleading information.

Both companies were openly contrasting their PLA product with "plastic," he said, feeding the public's fear of the plastics industry.

Griff found this on the Bed Bath & Beyond site:

The plant-based cup is made from corn, not oil like traditional disposable cups, so it's non-toxic and BPA free. It also lowers your carbon footprint, and uses soy based inks, so it is compatible with a zero waste program. Includes set of 12 cups and 12 lids.

As Griff points out, mentioning BPA in a commercial message about foam cups is like putting "no trans fats" on a water bottle label. Of course there's no bisphenol A. There's none in polystyrene cups, either.

So he added this review to the company's website, in the consumer comments section:

BB&B misinforms us. The cup material may be compostable, but who does this at home, and how many cities do it? As for petroleum, it takes plenty of petrobased energy to grow the corn and convert it to the compostable plastic (yes, plastic) PLA. As for carbon dioxide, by far the biggest producers are heating, cooling, lighting and transportation, and all this greenwashing is really a distraction from having to deal with room temperatures, lighting waste, and capricious car use.

He did some more checking and found that the cup maker, Repurpose, said this about itself:

Repurpose was founded in 2009 by a group of young environmental entrepreneurs, looking for quality solutions to the problem of single-use petroleum-based plastic products ... its mission [is] to replace all single-use disposable plastics with high quality, innovative, plant-based alternatives. Repurpose makes products from plants, not petroleum, using Ingeo resin.

Its FAQ section sometimes calls the cups polymers, but stresses the differences between PLA and plastic. For example, it says: "Repurpose products are now available to consumers and to businesses allowing everyone the opportunity to lessen their dependence on oil, lower their carbon footprint, and find non-toxic, safe alternatives to plastic."

Looking further, Griff found more information that he considered misleading.

One section says: "The revolutionary new insulated cup requires no sleeve, uses 65 percent less CO2 than a traditional cup to produce, and can be composted in 90 days."

Griff wrote to me: "But what are they talking about? We don't use CO2 to make cups. And we want to get it out of the atmosphere, not leave more in!

"What's a "traditional cup" now? Do they mean the foam cup, or the Starbuck Standard -- a paper cup with PE coating and a paper sleeve? If they mean that the manufacture of the cup uses less energy and production of energy creates CO2, that's creating less, not using less! And if they compare with paper as traditional, doesn't paper degenerate in composting as well?

"And if they compare [Repurpose cups] with foam cups, I'm not sure it takes more energy to produce them. The biggest energy impact of the foam cups arises from their lightness and volume, which means fewer cups per truck and thus more truck fuel per cup to ship it to its point of sale/use. I don't think they think that way. They got the words "less CO2" together, that sounds green and that's enough for them."

Did I mention that Griff is a pit bull when it comes to defending plastics against misinformation?

What's the next step? Griff is sharing his correspondence with the American Chemistry Council's plastics division, and he's also including it in his file of topics to discuss in a course he teaches at the University of California Berkeley Adult Extension program, "Plastics in the Environment."

That's not a typo -- Griff is teaching a course on plastics in the environment at Berkeley. Plastics Blog readers in California should consider enrolling -- it's sure to be both informative and entertaining.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to share Griff's efforts to shine the light on some companies that are using "bolonium" [one of his favorite terms] to prey on public plastophobia.

Well done, Allan Griff. Keep up the good work.

I don't expect to see commercial messages that reference plastic resin consumption during an NFL game.

But in commercials that ran last weekend during the football playoffs, Glad Products Co. chose to highlight source reduction achieved by its its Tall Kitchen trash bag line.

According to the ads, the bags are stronger, yet use less plastic, allowing the company to save 6.5 million pounds of plastic per year.

Or as the company puts it, the equivalent of keeping 140 million extra trash bags out of landfills annually.

Seems like a simple, clear message. But will the public understand? Can consumers be convinced that source reduction is a legitimate path to product sustainability?

It might be a tough sell, since many consumers are pre-programmed to think that the only way for a product to be sustainable is for it to be biodegradable or contain recycled content.

But Glad Products deserves credit for this very high profile attempt at educating customers about source reduction -- a strategy that's widely used by plastics processors.

The Bank of Canada promotes its new plastic currency as being durable, secure and innovative -- but just how durable are they?

CTV News in Winnipeg claims the currency -- specifically the new $100 bills -- are not as durable as old-fashioned paper money.

The report cites Charles Shepard of Brandon, Manitoba, who noticed that when the bills are folded, they can develop cracks that can turn into rips.

Shepard ... put a full can of Coke on top of a new $100 bill.

When he pulled on it, he said the plastic bill ripped in half.

"It's similar to thin tin foil or plastic food wrap. "You pull on it but as soon as it's got a mark or tear on it, it just peels apart," he said.

I'd like to think a $100 note can stand up to a can of Coke. And the next time I find myself with a wallet full of hundreds, you can be sure I'll give it a try.

Political news junkies in the plastics industry got more than their share of interesting headlines this weekend.

The big new is that Jon Huntsman Jr. decided to drop out of the race for the Republican presidential campaign.

Huntsman, son of plastics Hall of Famer Jon M. Huntsman, entered the race six months ago, putting his efforts into the New Hampshire primary. But he finished third, and today he endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination.

Insiders don't expect this will end Huntsman Jr.'s political career. Perhaps we'll see him on the presidential campaign trail again in 2016.

The other big plastics-in-politics news comes from Missouri, where Dave Spence, the former president and CEO of St. Louis blow molder Alpha Packaging Inc., is running for governor.

Jake Wagman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this weekend that Spence's website contained some misleading biographical information.

The site said Spence earned a degree in economics from the University of Missouri. But he actually earned a bachelor of science degree in home economics.

Spence has changed the website, and he deflected the story with a bit of humor about his academic performance in college.

Is this all just a tempest in a teapot? Stay tuned to see how voters respond. Spence faces an opponent in the GOP primary.

The future of bioplastics is a little fuzzier today, following Archer Daniels Midland Co.'s decision to drop out of its alliance polyhydroxyalkanoate resin company Metabolix Inc.

I included some insight into the news in the story posted on PlasticsNews.com last night:

• Metabolix reported a loss of $29.2 milliion for the nine month period that ended Sept. 30, on sales of $567,000. ADM considered the business one that was "not delivering sufficient results now," and it was "not expected to deliver sufficient results within a reasonable timeframe."
• Despite the steady news coverage of biopolymers in recent months -- remember Coke's commitment to using more bio-based resins? -- I differentiated the activity in making conventional resins made from plant materials vs. making corn-based polymers like PHA.

This morning I asked PN's two authorites on plant-based polymers, Frank Esposito and Mike Verespej, for their thoughts on the news. Here are some of our additional observations:

Metabolix and ADM started production of their Telles-brand PHA last year at a 110-million-pound-per-year plant in Clinton, Iowa. Typically that's the point where a resin takes a big step forward, when high-volume production brings down prices.

But PHA is still substantially more expensive than polylactic acid -- its main competition in plant-based resin. And lower prices for conventional plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene hurt prospects for bio-based materials, too.

Metabolix's stock price has fallen more than 40 percent today, to about $2.60 per share, following ADM's announcement.

Metabolix said it is conducting a strategic review of its business plans for 2012, and that it will restructure its bioplastics business and downsize its operations. CEO Richard Eno said the company is still "committed to successfully commercializing PHA bioplastics."

Going forward without ADM will require a major change in strategy, though.

I don't tend to spend a lot of time trying to correct news reports in other media, but I'll make an exception today.

Earlier today, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" did a report on Shell Oil Co.'s plan to build a new petrochemical cracker in Ohio, West Virginia or Pennsylvania.

(As an aside, my guess is they'll pick West Virginia).

The report quotes a Case Western Reserve University geologist about the importance of the cracker to the domestic plastics industry. Unfortunately, the interview is boiled down to a point where it sounds like she believes plastic resin is no longer made in the United States.

"Plastic was made overseas, and that's because there wasn't enough natural gas," Beverly Saylor said. "But now with all the shale gas development, the price has come down on that, and so it's now worth it."

NPR tends to do good work, but I think they left listeners with the wrong impression on this story.

What they meant to say is that until recently, when companies started to tap into natural gas in the Western Marcellus and Utica Shale regions, there have been few investments in new polyethylene capacity in the United States.

Plastics News said as much last month, in a story by senior reporter Frank Esposito that started: "Cross this one off the list of things that were never going to happen again: New polyethylene capacity is headed for the U.S."

But that doesn't mean that no one has been making resin in the United States for the past decade. The truth is that the U.S. is consistently a net exporter of plastic resin. Even as the U.S. has racked up big trade deficits, plastic resin has been a rare bright spot.

For a while it has looked like at some point in the future the U.S. would become a net importer of resin. The experts had predicted that low-cost feedstocks in the Middle East would encourage manufacturers to make resin there and ship it around the world.

But the new natural gas discoveries in the United States seem to be giving new life to the domestic industry.

I hope this helps to set the record straight. Shell's new cracker will be big news. But it would be hyperbole to imply that it marks a return of resin manufacturing to the United States. Because it never really left.

What's actually returning is the investment in new capacity.

What makes a package sustainable -- and can plastics packages qualify?

Our friend JoAnn Hines -- the Packaging Diva -- answers those questions and more in a blog post today by Jim Tierney on MultichannelMerchant.com.

Here are a few highlights from 6 Myths and Facts about What's Green Packaging -- check the link for the full list.

And remember, these are myths!

• Recyclability is the only answer. Unfortunately although recycling packaging makes sense, in many cases the infrastructure isn't in place to make it a widespread practice. Consumers have to want to recycle too. In many cases it's simply too much trouble to save and dispose of in a recycling facility. Another quandary, washing out containers to recycle (you are using energy and water so where's the eco win?)
• All plastic packaging is bad. Not true. There are so many new compounds and formulations that have been introduced. Companies are seriously looking at ways to not only reduce the amount of plastic used but alternative methods for disposal and reuse. I might mention here too that in many cases the eco plastic alternatives use more energy to manufacture and have disposal issues of their own.

Check out JoAnn Hines' website for more on sustainable packaging, plus a link to her blog.

Journalist and author Harold Johnson has posted a column on the perils of plastics pollution that's worth a look, even for readers who are unapologetically pro-plastics.

You may remember Johnson -- he's the writer who researched and debunked the oft-cited statistic that plastic debris kills 100,000 marine animals a year.

He's also author of The Flotsam Diaries blog, where he records all the trash he picks up on a quiet beach in Saco, Maine..

Johnson's latest column appeared in The Portland Press Herald's "Maine Voices" section,

The headline: "In Maine and around the world, oceans, shores filling with plastic." Obviously he's not a big fan of single-use disposable plastics.

"We have filled our households and our lives with stuff we use for a month or a day or five minutes, but which persists for a dozen lifetimes," he writes. "The average American goes through 220 pounds of plastic a year."

He anticipates the argument that plastic pollution is a result of improper disposal, saying: "Garbage has always escaped from the waste stream. (Not to mention from windstorms, floods and worse disasters.) It always will. Despite our best efforts. Now that most garbage is plastic, every escapee adds to the persistent fouling of our shores and waters."

Johnson has a point. Remember the dramatic video footage of the tsunami striking Japan last year, sweeping away everything in sight?

Plastic pollution is already a serious problem -- Johnson knows from his own beach clean-up routine, and he also cites Columbia University research that estimates at least 73 million pounds of plastic now floats in the world's oceans.

Johnson's solution to the problem is simple -- he's an advocate of the philosophy that I'll call "use less stuff."

"Plastics certainly have their benefits and their place. But our gross overuse of them has polluted nearly every last pristine, remote place left in the world, as well as our own backyard. It's time to change the game," he writes.

Could there be another solution? Truly biodegradable plastics could help, although I don't expect them to be more than niche materials for the foreseeable future.

And I believe stepped up efforts to recycle single-use plastics can help. In the United States, at least, there's a lot of room for improvement in recycling nearly all plastic products. As Johnson notes, that wouldn't completely put a stop to the plastics litter problem.

But it would be a good start.

Here's a fun plastics-related headline: the Occupy Seattle movement is banning plastic sporks (and paper plates) from their encampment's food service.

The news comes from Real Change, a Seattle, Wash., organization focused on providing opportunity and a voice for low-income and homeless people and taking action for economic justice.

Amy Roe, editor of RealChangeNews.org, reports:

They may not be clean, but they're green. Faced with criticism for alleged violence, drug use, and an insufficient political agenda, organizers of the leaderless movement known as Occupy Seattle are touting the "sustainability" of their Seattle Central Community College encampment.

Residents have banned plastic cutlery and paper plates from the encampment's meal service as part of a sustainability initiative, the campers said in a statement.

If they're going to be using traditonal metal forks and spoons, let's hope the encampment is clean, and not just green. No need to invite food poisoning to the Occupy movement.

Too bad they couldn't have found someone willing to recycle those used sporks.

In case you haven't been paying attention, not everyone thinks plastic bag bans are a bad thing.

Last week, Greenbiz.com senior editor Marc Gunther wrote a post in defense of plastic bags. Today, Stiv Wilson offers a counterpoint, "In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans."

Wilson works for the 5 Gyres Institute, which is focused on plastic pollution. Close readers of Plastics News will also remember his name for the petition he started on change.org to encourage the National Park Service to ban single-use water bottles from at the Grand Canyon.

It's clear that both Wilson and Gunther have a strong grasp of the issues related to plastic bags -- yet they come to opposite conclusions.

To Wilson, the bottom line is that plastic does not biodegrade.

What's at issue is this: Plastic does not biodegrade in a meaningful if even comprehensible timeframe. Thus, some portion of it accumulates in the environment. The more we produce, consume, and recycle plastics, the more plastic will come into the world and accumulate in landfills, on land, in rivers, and the sea. Plastics at sea concentrate incredibly dangerous chemicals, fish eat plastic, and we eat fish.

It's really that simple. This is why we care. It sure as hell isn't for the paycheck.

But wait -- is biodegradability a good thing? We've heard from recyclers concerned that increasing use of biodegradable plastics and additives would hurt their business.

Wilson points out that -- at least when it comes to plastic bags -- recycling isn't an issue. He estimates that the recycling rate for single-use plastic bags is about 1 percent.

That figure might be low -- Plastics News estimated the bag recycling rate at 2 percent in 2008, and it's likely to have grown since then. But that's not a record to crow about. So what we've seen the past few years is instead of running on its record of bag recycling, the industry has been forced to respond to bans by talking about the potential to recycle more bags.

Wilson knows that, and writes: "That plastics bags are 100 percent recyclable isn't the issue. It's that by a massive percentage they are not recycled. ... Furthermore, why are we investing in a system that has to fabricate bag recycling rates to trend positively, even though the fabricated trend still amounts for next to nothing? What society accepts a 4.3 percent efficacy rate in any system without abandoning it and going back to the drawing board?"

Wilson's post won't be the last word -- but it's required reading for anyone interested in the bag ban debate.

Care to guess the topic of the most-read story on PlasticsNews.com in 2011? Was it about resin pricing? A major industry acquisition? A hot trend like sustainability?

Take a guess -- I'll give the answer later in this column. But first, let's look at the biggest Plastics News stories from the second half of 2011, measured by web traffic.

Again, these are only the stories posted after July 1. Let's look at the top 25:

1. Braskem buying Dow's PP business Brazilian plastics giant Braskem SA made another big move in the polypropylene market in 2011, this time acquiring the PP business of Dow Chemical Co. for $323 million.
2. Prices fall for PP, PE, PVC, PS and ABS This story from early November reported that commodity resin prices were tumbling, with polypropylene experiencing the steepest drop -- a 14-cent dive since Oct. 1.
3. Neil Kruschke Jr., former Stopol owner and CEO, dies in chainsaw accident PN was the first to report the sad news that Neil Kruschke Jr., former owner and CEO of plastics equipment dealer Stopol Inc. and its auction business, Stopol Auctions LLC, had died in a tragic accident on Aug. 26 at age 44.
4. Prices fall for polyethylene, polypropylene and PET resins Another resin pricing story -- this time it was polyethylene, polypropylene and PET bottle resin that were taking a tumble.
5. Sabic's Charlie Crew retiring, DuPont's Keith Smith on board In the afternoon of Nov. 23, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Sabic Innovative Plastics announced that long-time executive Charlie Crew would retire on Jan. 1, and that he would be replaced by Keith J. Smith, most recently DuPont Co.'s vice president for sourcing and logistics.
6. Polypropylene resin prices dive, trailed by less-volatile polyethylene Another resin pricing story? Yep. This one was from late October, reporting that PP prices had plummeted an average of 14 cents per pound since Oct. 1, while PE prices had fallen 3 cents. Notice a trend?
7. Fortis Plastics announces shutdown One of the three stories in our top 25 on problems at a major Indiana-based custom molder.
8. Former PolyOne sales rep sentenced for embezzling Worker falls for the phony inheritance scam, steals company funds, ends up in prison.
9. Rubbermaid Home Products closing Greenville, Texas, molding plant Molding plant with 490 workers will close by the middle of 2012.
10. ConAgra chief talks sustainability A Q&A interview with Robert Weick, vice president of packaging and sustainability at ConAgra Foods Inc.
11. PET thin film shortage over; glut's now the potential problem The biaxially oriented PET thin film shortage of 2010 has turned into the glut of 2011 -- thanks in part to 29 judges in New Delhi and a concoction called gutka.
12. ConocoPhillips splitting in two, fate of plastics operations undecided In July, ConocoPhillips Co. announced it was splitting itself into two independent companies -- but the fate of its plastics joint venture was not clear.
13. China's new regulation shakes up plastic recycling industry In November we reported that plastics scrap imports through China's Guangzhou customs fell by more than 80 percent in the past two months, as the local customs stepped up enforcement of a new regulation on solid waste imports.
14. Markets shift, struggles persist Resin supply and demand is in the spotlight again -- this time it's our annual report on the outlook for commodity materials.
15. Kraft pushes innovation, sustainability How does Perfecto Perales, senior director of packaging research for Kraft Foods Inc., feel about the sustainability of plastics packaging? Not surprisingly, a lot of you wanted to know.
16. Fortis closing Fort Smith, Ark., plant This was our first story that hinted at problems at Fortis Plastics LLC. Within a matter of weeks, most of the company had shut down.
17. Bemis Co. to close 3 film plants Big news from one of the largest plastics processors in the world.
18. Sonoco buys Tegrant for $550 million A major acquisition that makes Sonoco a much bigger and more diverse player in plastics packaging.
19. Dow ramping up molding of solar shingles We've been writing about Dow Chemical Co.'s foray into solar shingles since 2008. Quite a few Plastics News readers are paying close attention.
20. Berry Plastics closing Henrico, Va., plant Berry announced plans to close a former Captive Plastics plant.
21. Phillips Sumika closing Texas PP plant As polypropylene prices fell in the second half of 2011, this supplier reacted to the news by shutting down capacity.
22. Prolamina's 3rd plant ready to roll The packaging industry is keeping a close eye on Harold Bevis' new company, Prolamina Inc.
23. Fortis Plastics to auction off equipment The New Year will bring a giant auction -- more than 130 injection presses and 20 extruders -- from four closed-down plants of Fortis Plastics LLC.
24. Flooding in Thailand does major damage to local plastics processors Steve Toloken, our Asia bureau chief, reported that flooding in Thailand was causing signficant damage to the country's injection molders.

Now, about that top story from 2011 -- how many of you guessed that it was a major packaging sector scoop?

We posted the story on our website in April: Coke joint venture shuts down food-grade PET recycling plant (This link takes you to the story as it appeared in our April 25 print edition).

Our coverage of the problems at the Coke joint venture recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C., generated big reader traffic in the first half of this year.

Marc Gunther, senior writer for GreenBiz.com, posted a long defense of plastic bags on his website today. But judging by other headlines in recent weeks, I wonder if anyone will pay attention.

Gunther's blog post, "In Defense of the Plastic Bag," compiles and summarizes a lot of points we've already seen:

• Bag bans aren't based on science.
• Plastic bag litter is not as bad as some critics have implied.
• Recycling is a viable alternative to bans.

He concludes: "The truth is, we don't really have a clear answer to the age-old question of 'paper or plastic,' now amended to say 'paper, plastic or reusable?' Too many variables are at play.

"My own answer? I carry several reusable bags in the trunk of my (hybrid) car and bring them into the grocery store when I remember. When I don't, I take plastic and bring it back to be recycled. I don't feel bad about that. Neither should you," Gunther wrote.

But is it too late for debate and reasoned arguments? Recent headlines suggest to me that the pace of bag bans and taxes will accelerate in 2012.

Seattle passed a bag ban on Dec. 19. The law may face a challenge -- although Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat thinks that's unlikely. He opposed Seattle's previous effort to tax bags, but he says this attempt is "reasonable."

Hawaii's Big Island also approved a bag ban -- that news came yesterday. Mayor Billy Kenoi could still veto the bill. But there's momentum for eventual approval of a bag ban or tax that would cover all of Hawaii.

For more background on the plastics industry's strategy for fighting bag bans, check Plastics News staff reporter Mike Verespej's recent story.

He explains how the Society of the Plastics Industry is taking charge of fighting local efforts to tax or ban plastic bags, while the American Chemistry Council is putting its muscle behind an effort to improve film and bag recycling.

It seems like a reasonable plan. But the question remains, is it too late?

How would you like your heirs battling over your estate, in court, through press releases and social media?

That's what's happening with the heirs to Yung-Ching Wang, multi-billionaire founder of Formosa Plastics Group. I wrote about the battle in August 2009, and now things are starting to heat up.

Today global business advisory firm FTI Consulting sent out a news release headlined: "Dr. Winston Wong Files Lawsuit in Hong Kong Seeking Return of Assets Belonging to His Late Father, YC Wang."

According to the release, Winston Wong -- YC Wang's oldest son -- believes certain defendants named in his claim have siphoned off assets that are part of YC Wang's estate.

"Since my father's death more than three years ago, I have sought a full and transparent global accounting of all assets that should have been included in his estate. What I have found, through an extensive independent international investigation, is a web of deception intended to conceal his assets and deny the majority of his heirs, including my brother and sisters, their rightful legacy. The results of this international investigation have brought me to Hong Kong," Wong said in the release.

"My legal team and I intend to show the Hong Kong court how businesses and assets belonging to my father were wrongfully diverted into shadow corporations, bank accounts and secretive off-shore trusts. We have a very strong case in Hong Kong. As Y.C. Wang's eldest son I will carry this fight to other jurisdictions wherever necessary, until justice is done. My cause is just and my fight continues."

The news release refers readers to this video, posted on YouTube and at www.ycwangtruth.com.

Formosa Plastics Corp. USA is a major PVC and polyolefin supplier, and the company has other major U.S. affiliates.

I wrote back in 2009 that this case promised enough personal intrigue to keep a team of soap opera writers busy for the next year.

It looks like I underestimated how long it would take to play out.

Coca-Cola Co. is taking a leading role in advancing bio-based plastics. That's been obvious for about two years, since the company introduced PET bottles made, in part, from renewable monoethylene glycol.

Now the company is working on the next step, to make large quantities of its bottles from 100 percent plant-based plastics.

Plastics News' staff reporter Mike Verespej reported yesterday how Coke is making multi-million dollar investments in three bio-based companies: Virent Inc., Gevo Inc. and Avantium Research and Technology.

Mike's story was one of the first on the announcement, but more importantly it was probably the most thorough. That's because he was already quite familiar with all three of Coke's new partners and the technology that they bring to the table.

Mike wrote in detail about Virent and Gevo earlier this year. I encourage PN readers who are interested in more information about bio-based plastics to re-read that story: "Cost, viability will determine bio-winners."

And while you're mining our archives, check out my April 25 column on Coke's PET recycling problems.

I noted at the time:

Coke is making a big push into bio-based materials this year. The company has said it expects to convert all of its PET packaging to PlantBottle materials -- made from sugar-cane ethanol -- by 2020.

We could be headed for a debate on the merits of recycled vs. bio-based content in plastics packaging. If so, there will be winners and losers -- and I doubt Coke will be on the losing side.

I got some criticism from readers for that comment. And it may be that Coke will stay committed to both goals: using more recycled content and using bio-based plastics.

But I feel it's still worth watching.

Finally, let me highlight a comment from Mike's story yesterday. He wrote that Rick Frazier, Coke's vice president of commercial bottle supply, said moving to bottles made entirely from plants is imperative because of Coke's goal is to double the daily serving from Coca-Cola beverages to 3 billion by 2020.

"To double our business in a sustainable way, we must find a new way to do more with less," he said.

At the risk of repeating myself: Coke has some big goals that are related directly to plastics packaging. This is a company that looks further ahead than most OEMs.

I would argue that even companies that don't supply Coke -- even companies that aren't in the packaging sector -- are going to be impacted by this decision.

Do strangers notice you checking the bottoms of containers in the supermarket?

Most normal people aren't curious about who made the container, or the tool, or what kind of resin they used.

But if you're like me, you can't resist checking out unusual packages.

In fact, I'm sure that the real hard-core plastics packaging fans who read the Plastics Blog are thinking, "Why doesn't he start taking pictures and sharing them in the blog?"

Right?

It's a sickness.

I bring this up because I spotted a delightful story today from Window Film magazine by its editor, Katie Hodge.

Hodge writes about how she took her soon-to-be husband to the SEMA trade show in Las Vegas, where he learned about her business: covering manufacturers of window film and tinting.

Later, while they were honeymooning in Costa Rica, he pointed out some "terrible" tint jobs.

"The film is bubbling and in some places has totally peeled off. Plus, it definitely has that purple color," he told her.

Hodge writes: "I agreed and we chatted for a minute about window film. Then I sat in silence and wondered how I managed to find a way to discuss window film while on my honeymoon. At first I thought maybe I am just contagious and the week spent in Vegas at SEMA infiltrated his brain. Then it hit me. Window film is everywhere. It's not that we are obsessed with window film (really, I'm not!), but you can't escape it. It's a worldwide product with global appeal."

Can you relate? I'm not sure I've ever consciously noted a bad window film before. But now that she put the idea in my head, I'll probably start.

Remember a couple of years ago, when we rarely saw stories about U.S. molders buying more than a press or two?

I could go on, so I will.

Rememer when most of the M&A stories were about distressed companies, and many had a "Chapter 11" in their history?

When a lot of the Page 1 and Page 3 news in each week's Plastics News were about plant closings? It got to the point where layoffs alone weren't really newsworthy -- almost everyone was doing that.

I bring it up because lately it seems like we're being buried in good news stories, and I'm hoping that PN readers have noticed the trend.

Today we have two stories about machinery company expansions in the United States -- and that follows a string of others in recent weeks. That would have been unheard of in 2008 or 2009.

After hearing whispers and rumors for months about processors bringing back work to the United States from China, we've had several stories about specific projects -- including one more today. A lot of these stories have been about small projects, but it's still a promising trend for U.S. molders.

We've even got a $6 million investment by a start-up construction sector company today. I don't know if that market is going to start to show signs of life, but this is a good start.

And, as we've noted in numerous stories this year, the U.S. resin sector is starting to re-invest in production, thanks to the anticipated in natural gas boom.

A year ago, a lot of companies were unsure about their prospects for 2011. It's nice to think that managers are more confident going into 2012,

Every once in a while, I come across something unusual from ASTM International.

The latest example: A new guide for terms used to describe defects or abnormalities found in different types of polymer pellets.

ASTM D7711, Guide for Description of Polymer Pellet Defects, is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee D20.92 on Terminology.

Diane Todd, senior chemist, quality control laboratories at Westlake Chemical Corp., said a survey of D20 members found that many did not have a written procedure for identifying pellet abnormalities.

So members were surveyed and asked to list terms used by their organizations, and these terms formed the initial list used to develop ASTM D7711.

"Anyone who is in contact regarding polymeric pellets will now be able to communicate with the same terminology to anyone else," said Todd, the chairman of D20.92, as well as the chair of the task group that developed ASTM D7711.

"This will hopefully help polymer manufacturers, sales personnel, technical service representatives, quality control/quality assurance personnel and buyers/users identify issues with the pellets the same way, thereby expediting assistance with the issues."

I have to believe the subcommittee had some fun developing this standard. Couldn't we come up with amusing names for undersized, bloated or oddly shaped pellets?

And think of the revenue-generating opportunities. Having an abnormal pellet named after you could be the equivalent of naming a star.

This one is short but sweet. Apparently plastic bags are getting tired of all the attention they've been getting in the news media.

This bag carefully planned its revenge and made the most of its moment in the limelight.

No word on whether it was recycled. Perhaps, as punishment, it was sent for "reuse" to a home with multiple dogs.

The Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association and its members have long been trying to get people to pay attention to the decaying water infrastructure. Now they're trying a new approach.

The group is encouraging its 9,000+ Facebook followers to shoot pictures of water main breaks or repairs in their local communities and submit them as contest entries to win an iPad.

The goal is to create more awareness of our nation's decaying water infrastructure. According to Uni-Bell:

• More than 850 water main breaks happen each day in North America, the majority from corrosion-prone iron pipes.
• The corrosion epidemic costs U.S. drinking water and wastewater systems more than $50.7 billion annually.

Submitted photos will be posted on the association's Facebook page on Feb. 1, and the winner will be determined through voting by the followers. The deadline for entries is Jan. 30.

Interesting use of social media. Given what people will do for an iPad these days, I imagine this will help Uni-Bell attract some new "followers," and possibly raise the awareness of the nation's leaky drinking water infrastructure.

Remember the story about the antique cannon that was stolen from a Michigan plastics fabricator? Good news: it's been recovered.

Edston Plastic Co. in Romulus, Mich., was making a plastic replica of the cannon to be used as a donation container at a museum, but it was stolen in November, probably by thieves who expected to sell the 225-pound bronze item for scrap,

According to the Detroit Free Press, Detroit police found the cannon on Tuesday after receiving a tip about its whereabouts.

And I was waiting for it to show up on Pawn Stars.

If you're planning to see some movies over the holidays, get ready for a glimpse of "The Lorax," a film that may have an anti-plastics message.

The movie trailer was released today. One website for film buffs headlined the release: "New Trailer for 'The Lorax' Pits Kid Against Villainous Plastic Industrialists."

"In this new trailer, we get a little more than just a boy who falls in love with a girl kind of story," Mike Lee writes for FusedFilm.com. "It is revealed that there are villainous industrial tycoons who will try to do anything to stop our hero from successfully growing a tree in a world of plastic. Fox News is going to have a field day with this one when the movie is released. "

Check out the trailer below. Celebrity voices include Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Ed Helms, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, and Betty White.

The film is scheduled for release in March.

Hewlett-Packard Co., leads Greenpeace International's new list of electronics companies ranked by energy usage, green products and sustainable operations.

Jeremy Carroll, a colleague at Waste & Recycling News, wrote about the report today. He notes new criteria this year also challenged the companies to reduce their carbon footprint in manufacturing, in their supply chain and through the end-of-life phase for their products.

Here are some materials-related highlights, directly from the Greenpeace reports. In addition to the details about phasing out certain materials, processors may note that Greenpeace now is looking favorably about companies that are using post-consumer plastics.

"[HP] scores the least points in the Products category; although it scores comparatively well for its progress on phasing out the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from its product range and is on track to achieve 90 percent of its new goal to phase out BFR and PVC in newly introduced personal computing products in 2011. HP needs to report on the amount of post-consumer plastics it uses as a percentage of all plastics and publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines, as well as show more innovations to extend product life. HP does not provide a summary of the energy efficiency of its products by giving
a percentage of its products that meet the latest Energy Star standards (or other relevant international standard for external power systems); this should be published on its
website, for each product range. However, HP risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of trade associations that have commented against stringent
energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"Dell scores poorly on all the other Products criteria. Although it reports on the quantities of post-consumer recycled plastics used, this is not given as a percentage
of total plastics use and there is no target and timeline for increasing its use. Dell needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product
lines in order to score any points for extending its products life cycle. Dell does not provide figures on the percentage of its products that meet and exceed the latest Energy Star
standard, although it offers tools for users to optimise energy efficiency. Dell also risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of trade associations that
have commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"On Products [Nokia] scores no points for the use of recycled plastics; although it now reports that the Nokia 700 is its first smartphone to use recycled plastics which make up 33 percent of the plastics used, it needs to expand its use further and report total use as a percentage of all plastics used in order to score points. To score on the products life cycle criteria it needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines. It scores close to maximum points on the new criteria for hazardous substances in products, with all of its products free from almost all the specified hazardous substances, missing the target because it does not include all antimony compounds in its restrictions on hazardous substances. It continues to score maximum points for the energy efficiency of its products; it has achieved its target of reducing no-load power used by its chargers by 50 percent from 2006 to 2010 and has set a new target of 75 percent by 2012. However, Nokia risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of trade associations that have commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"[Apple] continues to score well on the Products criteria; all Apple products are now free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), with the exception of PVC free power cords in countries where their safety certification process is still ongoing; however, it does not mention plans to phase out antimony or beryllium. Apple scores a point for its information on battery life for the product life cycle criterion, but it needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines. It provides no information on its use of post-consumer recycled plastics. It gets maximum points for reporting that all of its products meet or exceed the latest Energy
Star standards for energy efficiency, however, it risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of a trade association that has commented against stringent
energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"On Products [Philips] has brought a number of product ranges onto the market that are free from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), as well as six phthalates and antimony, to add to the industry's first PVC/BFR free TV, the Econova LED TV, as part of its commitment for all new products to be free from these substances from 2011. It needs to commit to phase out exempted uses of beryllium and all phthalates. Philips has a target to double its use of recycled plastics by 2015, but needs to specify if this is post-consumer recycled plastics; it also needs to report the percentage of post-consumer plastics it uses currently. To score points on the product life cycle criteria Philips needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for their main product lines. It also has targets to increase the energy efficiency
of its products but needs to update its information on the percentage of its products that meet and exceed the Energy Star standards. Philips risks a penalty point in future
Guide editions as it is a member of a trade association that has commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive
positions with a strong statement."

"Sony Ericsson takes 6th place in the re-launched Guide. It is one of the top scorers in the Products category, scoring maximum points for the energy efficiency of its
phones, its advice to users and its targets to increase their efficiency. It is close to scoring maximum points for its avoidance of hazardous substances in its products, with only a few exemptions for uses of antimony and some types of phthalates remaining. It reports the recycled plastics content for several of its phones but still needs to report the amount of recycled plastic sourced as a percentage of all plastics used. To score on the product life cycle category it needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines."

"Samsung takes 7th position in the re-launched Guide. The penalty point which was first imposed in v.14 of the Guide for backtracking on its commitment to eliminate
brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in new models of all products by January 2010 and PVC vinyl plastic by end of 2010 has been lifted. It now has notebooks, mobile phones
and MP3 players that are free from these substances, but its commitment to phase out hazardous substances now only covers some product groups - TVs and household
appliances are no longer included. Samsung does reasonably well on other Products criteria - it is one of the leaders on the new product life cycle criteria for providing
information on its warranties and provision of spare parts as well as details of innovations. Samsung also scores well for the energy efficiency of its products, but it risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of a trade association that has commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"Lenovo takes 8th place in the re-launch of the Guide; it benefits from the removal of the penalty point that was imposed for backtracking on its commitment to eliminate PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in all its products by the end of 2009. While its current goal for new products in 2011 to be PVC/BFR free has not been completely met, Lenovo has launched a number of PVC/BFR free products, including notebooks and a desktop and many components are PVC/BFR free. On other Products
criteria it scores well for its use of recycled plastics, where a slightly higher percentage of post-consumer plastics use would earn Lenovo maximum points. However, to score any points on product life cycle it needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines. It reports on the percentage of products that meet and exceed the Energy Star standard, although this needs to be a higher percentage for more points. Lenovo risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of a trade association that has commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"Panasonic is one of the top scorers on Products, scoring well for product life cycle as it provides information about its warranties and replacement parts, as well as many examples of innovation to make its products last longer. It has many products that are free from polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC), and plans to eliminate PVC and brominated
flame retardants (BFRs) from its notebooks and mobile phones by the end of 2011, but this commitment does not extend to all of its products. It reports on its use of recycled plastics but does not specify whether this is post-consumer plastic. It scores maximum points for the energy efficiency of its products for reporting that 100 percent of its TVs meet the latest Energy Star standards and exceed the standby power requirement. However, it risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of trade associations that have commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"Sony also risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of trade associations that have commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement. On Products its performance on the energy efficiency of its products earns top marks; all of its TVs meet or exceed the latest Energy Star standards. It uses comparatively high quantities of post-consumer recycled plastics but no longer provides information on its use of recycled plastics as a percentage of total plastics used. It is less impressive on the other products criteria; it scores no points on product life cycle as it does not report on the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines. Although it has phased out polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) from many of its products the scope of its phase out of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) is limited."

"[Sharp] scores most of its points on the Products criteria for the energy efficiency of its products, reporting that all of its TVs meet the latest Energy Star standard, with 90 percent of them exceeding the requirements for sleep mode. However, it risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member of a trade association that has commented against
stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement. Sharp has many products that are free from polyvinyl
chloride plastics (PVC) but its phase out of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) is mostly limited to casings and it has not met its commitment; it it needs to communicate the
dates when new products will be free of PVC, phthalates, BFRs and antimony. It reports on its use of recycled plastics but not as a percentage of total plastics used. Sharp provides some examples of extending product life cycle but does not publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines."

"Acer takes 12th position with a score of 2.9. ... However, it does report on the use of post- consumer recycled plastic in monitor casings of seven families of EPEAT Gold models. It has also launched many new models of products that are free from polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and it has informed Greenpeace that the majority of its products will be PVC/BFR free in the near future. A higher percentage of its products need to meet or exceed the latest Energy Star standards
in order for it to score more points on product energy efficiency."

"LGE scores 2.8 points and takes joint 13th place, together with Toshiba. It benefits from having a penalty point lifted, imposed for backtracking on its commitment to have all its products free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by the end of 2010. All of LGE's mobile phones are now free from PVC and BFRs as well as phthalates, antimony trioxide and beryllium oxide; other products such as TVs and notebooks have many PVC/BFR free parts and LGE aims to phase these substances out
from TVs monitors and PCs by 2012 and household appliances by 2014. On other Products categories LGE scores best for its product energy efficiency; it regains points that it lost in the last edition by making a strong statement in support of more stringent Energy Star verification standards. LGE reports on the quantities of post-consumer plastics that it uses and gives an example of a product with recycled content, but does not have a target to increase its use of recycled plastics. It does not yet score on the product life cycle category, as there is no information on product warranties or replacement parts availability."

"Toshiba scores 2.8 points and takes joint 13th place, together with LGE. It also benefits from having its two penalty points lifted, which were imposed for backtracking on its commitment for all new consumer electronics products to be free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by 1 April 2010 and for misleading its customers
and Greenpeace by not admitting that it would not meet its public commitment. It released a PC in March 2011 which is PVC and BFR free. It has also made a new commitment
to phase out PVC, BFRs, antimony and compounds, beryllium and compounds and phthalates by FY2015 from ALL its consumer products; the timeline is unreasonable, however, the fact that it covers all products and a range of hazardous substances is welcome. It also scores poorly on other Products criteria; it provides some information on extending product life but does not publish information on its warranties and availability of spare parts. The quantities of recycled plastics it uses have also gone down. It needs to report on the percentage of its products that meet and exceed Energy Star standards for each product range. However, it risks a penalty point as it is a member of a trade association
that has commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement."

"RIM makes its first appearance in the Guide in last place, with 1.6 points. ... For Products it only scores points for the energy efficiency of its products, for reporting that its Blackberry charger gets the European Commission IPP 4-star rating, although it does not report on the energy efficiency of its chargers as a percentage of all its external power devices. It also risks a penalty point in future Guide editions as it is a member
of a trade association that has commented against stringent energy efficiency standards; it needs to distance itself from such regressive positions with a strong statement. For hazardous substances, RIM should set timelines to phase out their use in all of its products. It needs to publicly disclose the length of warranty and spare parts availability for its main product lines to score points on the product life cycle criteria."

Would the phrase "Make it work" be appropriate here? Lexus had four designers -- jewelry, shoes, eyewear and clothing -- create something from parts from its CT Hybrid.

Final products included:

• "Nomadic Sanctuary"--A sleek trench coat, shorts and clutch designed by John Patrick, featuring floor mats made from plant-based plastic, sustainable sound-dampening material, wire harness, leather seat covers and cargo covers
• "The Luna Shoe"--Created by Alejandro Ingelmo using armrest leather trim and clear plastic tubing.

Thanks to Rhoda Miel, Plastics News' staff reporter in Detroit, for this item.

And Rhoda's not even embarrassed to say that she remembers that TV's "Project Runway" had a challenge to make clothing out of car parts some seasons ago. (A Saturn.)

How's this for a pro-plastics message: "Open up your eyes to the generation of plastic and see how it affects every part of your day."

That line comes from "Wake Up! It's the Plastics Age," the big winner in the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s first student video contest.

The video was submitted by Jason Paris of the Pennsylvania College of Technology. The prize: An iPad2 with 64GB, Wi-Fi +3G; $2,000; and a three-day trip to NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla., iincluding round-trip air transportation and hotel accommodations, one NPE2012 Expo Pass, and two Universal Studios Tickets.

The contest was created to celebrate SPI's 75th anniversary. College students (undergraduate and graduate level) studying in plastics programs were invited to submit original videos that honor plastics' innovation.

"We were extremely impressed with the videos we received. They will all help to spread the good news about how plastics benefit our society," Washington-based SPI said in a news release announcing the winners.

Second place goes to "The True Meaning of Plastics," submitted by Angela Beltran of the University of Akron.

And third place goes to "Plastics," submitted by Emily Bowser & Meghan Stefanko of Penn State-Behrend.

Following up on their meeting and joint declaration on plastics and marine debris back in March, global plastics industry leaders met again in Dubai this week.

According to a news release put out by the American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division and PlasticsEurope, the group identified 100 projects in 32 countries that are aimed at addressing the issue.

The group is inviting assistance from other stakeholders.

"The global plastics industry is determined to do its part and to play a constructive role in building new partnerships to create solutions to the issue of marine litter," PlasticsEurope Executive Director Wilfried Haensel said in the release.

"Plastics makers from around the globe agree that our products don't belong in world's oceans," said Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council. "And, plastics are valuable resources even after use. We look forward to doing our part and working with partners to implement solutions that keep more valuable plastics in productive use through improved stewardship and expanded infrastructure to grow recycling and energy recovery."

The group's activities are highlighted at www.marinelittersolutions.org.

The plastics industry is not an obstacle to recycling. But despite all the effort that many have put into recycling, that's not universally understood outside the industry.

I've been writing editorials for Plastics News pushing for expanding bottle deposit programs for almost 20 years.

In a 1994 column favoring a national deposit program, I wrote:

"Certainly this would appear to be a radical idea. But consider the benefits to the industry:
It would provide recyclers with a plentiful supply of clean, uncontaminated raw material.

"Supporting, rather than opposing, the legislation would provide a shot in the arm for the industry's environmental image.

"It would give a huge boost to the industry's recycling rate-which may be needed if plastics packaging is to reach its goal of recycling 25 percent of bottles and rigid containers by 1995."

It may surprise readers outside the plastics industry to learn that my column did not prompt an outcry from readers, or a slew of canceled subscriptions.

That's because, despite the reputation that plastics may have, your average plastics industry executive/ company owner/ worker is not opposed to recycling.

As I've written before, many actually consider themselves environmentalists. And the fact that they work in plastics doesn't present a moral dilemma. They know that plastics can help save energy and materials in many applications.

Why bring this up today? Because I spotted a column on HuffingtonPost.com's "Green" page headlined "How to Increase Plastic Bottle Recycling."

I don't want to pick on the author, Diane MacEachern, who also wrote "Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World." Because I agree with her goal -- to boost plastics recycling.

But her column seems to imply that plastics manufacturers are the obstacle.

"Consider single-use plastic water bottles," she writes. "Companies that manufacture the billions of plastic water bottles flooding the market claim the product is 'eco friendly' because the bottles are recyclable.

"In reality, only 12 percent of the 15 billion throwaway water bottles manufactured each year are being recycled. ... That being the case, manufacturers should make good on their claim that their bottles are recyclable by putting a deposit on the bottles to ensure they're returned to a recycling facility."

First -- and this is a relatively minor point -- the 2010 U.S. recycling rate for PET bottles was 29.1 percent. I think that's a more relevant number to cite than MacEachern's 12 percent number.

But the more important point is that her column may give readers the impression that plastic bottle manufacturers are opposed to plastics recycling. And that's just not true.

If anything, bottle manufacturers would like access to more high-quality recycled PET -- the kind that they could get from expanded bottle deposit programs.

And in the spirit of America Recycles Day, let me thank all the readers who diligently recycle all of their plastic containers -- whether or not they get a dime in the process.

Another plastics company CEO is trying his hand at politics.

Today Dave Spence, president and CEO of St. Louis blow molder Alpha Packaging Inc., said he will pursue the Republican nomination for governor of Missouri.

The official announcement will come sometime in the next few weeks.

Spence will likely face a primary race against current GOP Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder. The winner will probably face the incumbent Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.

Eli Yokley of PoliticMo.com writes that Spence, "armed with his own money and Republican unease about the current field of candidates, is a major setback to Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, who has hoped for years to have an easy shot at the Republican nomination."

"[I] was hoping to avoid a primary but it is not a perfect world unfortunately," Spence told PoliticMo.com. "You just can't talk about things, sometimes you have to jump in and fix them. I am doer and not one to armchair quarterback things,"

Alpha Packaging ranked No. 18 in Plastics News' most recent survey of North American blow molders, with sales of $189 million.

If Spence wins, he could be following in the footsteps of another plastics industry political novice. In 2010, Ron Johnson, then president of sheet extruder Pacur LLC in Oshkosh, Wis., unseated Democrat Russ Feingold for a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin.

But not all plastics executives-turned politicians have had the same degree of success. Here's a quick rundown on some recent examples:

• Jon Huntsman Jr. -- former plastics company executive, governor of Utah and ambassador to China -- is currently a candidate for the GOP nomination for president.
• Bill Binnie, the founder of Carlisle Plastics Inc. -- once a major film extruder, blow molder and injection molder -- last year lost the GOP nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire.
• U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, was previously the president of Nucite Sales, a small distributor of plastics and packaging products.
• Darrell Issa, a member of the U.S. House of Representative from Vista, Calif., also has a plastics industry background. Issa is the former CEO of Directed Electronics Inc., a business he founded that makes vehicle security systems and car audio equipment. Initially the company injection molded components for the systems, but later outsourced the work to custom molders.

Can you think of more politicians with plastics industry experience? Share them in the comments section, and we'll try to compile a more complete list.

Our sister newspaper Crain's Chicago Business has a report on what went wrong in the city's convention business, resulting in McCormick Place losing several events, including the 2012 and 2015 NPE trade shows.

Among the findings: internal memos from the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, (the agency known as McPier that runs McCormick Place) that the agency "made an unprecedented effort" to keep NPE in Chicago.

According to the story: "McPier offered financial incentives for the triennial plastics show to stay in 2012 and 2015, including discounts on space rental and price freezes for services and labor. (McPier redacted the exact numbers from the documents it provided Crain's.)"

Juan Ochoa, McPier's CEO, "even laid off 100 electricians to demonstrate his commitment to making some changes," the story says.

Ochoa told Crain's that McPier probably didn't stand a chance. As we all recall, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s NPE executive committee decided to move the 2012 and 2015 shows to Orlando, Fla.

NPE was declining and it "needed to create a diversion," Ochoa told the newspaper. "The [higher costs] were certainly an excuse for them to leave the city, especially since we gave them the most aggressive package of incentives we had given to any show during my tenure."

Crain's reported that SPI reported a 28 percent drop in show attendance between its 2006 and 2009 events, and a 24 percent decline in membership revenue in the same period, forcing the group to lay off one-third of its staff.

Crain's also reports: "[An SPI spokesman] says the association is looking forward to its upcoming Orlando event and will not comment on what happened at McCormick Place or on the state of its finances. But a spokesman for the Chicago riggers union confirmed that up to 75 of its members will travel to Orlando to help secure the heavy machinery on the show floor, working at Chicago labor rates and with all expenses paid."

The NPE saga is a small but interesting part of the story, "Crain's investigation: The high price of political payback at McCormick Place," by James Ylisela Jr. The story is on the newspaper's website today, and will be in the Nov. 14 print edition.

To add some context to the story, keep in mind that attendance at the 2009 NPE show suffered because of the impact of the Great Recession. SPI membership also took a major hit with the economic crisis.

Is it a surprise that McPier offered unprecedented incentives to keep NPE? No way. As we reported at the time, the five-day NPE2009 show generated $95.3 million in direct spending, according to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau. The numbers for the 2006 show -- held in healthier economic times -- were even better, an estimated $154.7 million.

McPier had to pull out all the stops to try to keep that business in the city.

Is it possible that SPI's NPE executive committee would have voted to move NPE to Orlando regardless of what McPier offered? I don't know, but it's possible.

It's not a big scoop to say many NPE exhibitors who were unhappy with McPier. Remember the $345.39 that one exhibitor paid for four cases of Pepsi, and how that story captured how many felt they were being ripped off in Chicago?

I've talked to exhibitors who felt that real change in Chicago would never happen unless they moved the show to Orlando, at least for two show cycles. Some definitely felt a warm fuzzy feeling about dealing with Orlando and the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau, especially in comparison to McPier.

Some exhibitors say Chicago never got serious about changing its convention center until it became clear that SPI was serious about moving the show.

For the record, I think Chicago is a great place for NPE. Geographically, it's almost perfect for a U.S. manufacturing show. Exhibitors and attendees are familiar with the city and the venue. And you can't beat June in Chicago.

But after holding NPE in Chicago since 1971, some SPI members were looking for a change,

Cost was a big part of the decision to move the show. SPI says exhibitors in Orlando will save an estimated $10 million on travel and exhibiting compared to what they would have paid in Chicago.

There are still some big questions to answer about the future of NPE, not the least of which is whether companies will really save that much money.

But I expect the 2012 show will be better than 2009. The economy is better, and manufacturing in North America has stabilized. And now Orlando -- not Chicago -- is poised to benefit from a stronger NPE.

When thieves burglarized a Michigan plastics fabricator, they probably didn't expect to get away with a 225-pound bronze cannon that dates to 1795.

But that's exactly what they found at Edston Plastic Co. in Romulus, Mich., according to the Detroit Free Press.

According to the story, the fabricator was making a plastic replica of the cannon. The replica was going to be used as a donation container at a museum.

Ed Roberts, owner of Edston Plastic, said the burglars cleaned out his business, taking power tools and several 200-pound boxes of aluminum -- and the cannon.

The cannon's owner is offering a $1,000 reward -- about double the scrap value of the weapon, but significantly less than its actual value.

When raw material prices are high, I tend to see more stories about plastics companies being robbed of valuable commodities: steel tooling, copper piping, even plastic pallets.

Let's just hope the burglars in this case don't decide to use the cannon in their next armed robbery.

There's no shortage of great ideas for saving weight in vehicles using plastics. So what's holding the industry back?

That's a question I'm hearing a lot today, as I blog and tweet from the Plastics in Lightweight & Electric Vehicles conference in Livonia, Mich.

Bruce Benda, vice president for automotive & transportation at Bayer MaterialScience LLC, had one of the best answers.

First, the context. Benda cited an example of a long fiber polyurethane underbody that the company helped design for a Ford Explorer simulation. The part could have helped save a whopping 45 pounds.

For an industry that's trying to save grams, 45 pounds is massive.

So why isn't this in commercial production yet?

"This industry is very firmly entrenched in existing infrastructures and technologies," Benda said. But he hastened to say that he's excited about the potential for progress now.

What's changed is that the government is now pushing automakers for rapid fuel economy improvements. The current 25 mpg average is supposed to hit 34.1 mpg by 2016, and 54.5 mpg by 2025.

OEMs will be using a wide variety of strategies to meet those goals -- the experts say electrification will be a big part of the equation.

But making vehicles lighter is also a high priority.

Tom Pilette, vice president of product and process development at Magna International Inc., said the OEMs he talks to now say their No. 1 priority is mass reduction.

Here are some more highlights from the conference today. Make sure to watch our Twitter page for updates throughout the event:

Maurice Sessel, senior vice president at International Automotive Components North America, said future vehicle designs may eliminate the crossbeam, a metal structural part under the instrument panel that accounts for 30 percent of the weight in a vehicle interior.

Sessel added that it will take close cooperation with OEMs to bring home new technology.

Magna's Pilette highlighted the company's extensive use of different materials, noting that Magna is materials agnostic. But he added that while the company is looking at applications for biomaterials, it won't step up their use until they are cost-neutral to customers.

Jay Baron, president and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research, said so-called "driverless technology" is technologically feasible now, and could be commercial by 2020. That's a trend being driven by the federal government too -- regulators want to create cars that won't crash, in order to reduce vehicle fatalities to zero.

There are materials implications to that push. For example, think of all the automotive parts that have to be steel or aluminum now in order to protect the driver and passengers in a crash. Now imagine that the car is designed to never crash...

Baron believes the future lightweight vehicle will be a mixed material product - not aluminum-intensive, steel-intensive or plastics-intensive.

Tom Gould, design director for North America for Johnson Controls Inc., says suppliers and OEMs need to collaborate to make lightweight vehicles.

That means bringing designers to the table. And once they're part of the team, push them to solve problems.

"That's what they're trained to do," he said. "Don't let them off the hook."

Likewise, Jim Tobin, chief marketing officer at Magna, said that to cut weight, suppliers need to use high tech expertise to deliver solutions that are affordable, environmentally friendly and reliable.

"This is where our industry shines," he said.

Is the CD about to go the way of 8-track tapes and disappear from music store shelves?

That's the word from music magazine Side Line. Its story, citing unnamed sources, says major music labels plan to eliminate music CDs by the end of 2012.

CDs would be replaced by downloads from iTunes and other music services. Only limited edition CDs would remain, and they would be sold primarily through Amazon.

"3 weeks ago we heard it for the first time and since then we have tried getting some feedback from EMI, Universal and Sony. All declined to comment," the story says.

Some readers seem pretty skeptical, but it's not completely unrealistic. As the story points out, CDs cost money to make, store, and recycle (when they go unsold). It must be tempting for music companies to believe they can eliminate all those costs.

According to Wikipedia, the first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street, which was sold beginning Oct. 1, 1982, in Japan. CDs and CD players were released in the United States in eary 1983.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has added nine executives to its Association Committee of 100 -- and two have plastics connections.

The obvious one is Bill Carteaux, president of the Washington-based Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.

The other: Lori Anderson, president and CEO of the International Sign Association.

Remember Anderson? She spent 14 years at SPI. When she left, she was SPI's trade, economic and policy issues officer. Now she's at the Alexandria, Va.-based group that represents manufacturers, users and suppliers of on-premise sign equipment.

The Committee of 100 represents association members before the U.S. Chamber's board of directors, to enhance Chamber lobbying and coalition work, recommend programming, and strengthen outreach to the business and association community.

The other new members include:

• Michael D. Bellaman, President and CEO, Associated Builders and Contractors
• Gov. Matt Blunt, President, American Automotive Policy Council
• Stephen Gold, President and CEO, Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI
• Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, President and CEO, American Council of Life Insurers
• Thomas E. Stenzel, President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
• David H. Stevens, President and CEO, Mortgage Bankers Association
• Susan B. Waters, EDM, CAE, President and CEO, National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors

"This Committee of 100 has a long-standing reputation as one of the most prestigious appointments in the association community," said Rob Engstrom, senior vice president of political affairs and federation relations. "These new members reflect our continued dedication to naming diverse, high-profile leaders to serve on this important committee."

The term "polyester slacks" might be not seem exactly cool or modern, but recycled PET just might help to make something old-fashioned seem new again.

According to our sister publication Advertising Age, 85-year-old Haggar Clothing Co., is preparing to launch an ad campaign for "Life Khaki" pants, which are made in part from recycled PET.

Ad Age says the company is hoping the eco-friendly pants "will give it cachet with a younger consumer."

Using recycled PET to make polyester fabric isn't exactly new. But I've noticed a few companies highlighting the recycled content of the fabric used to make graduation gowns and soccer uniforms.

"CNN Reports" did a report on plastic bags yesterday that focused on marine debris.

Correspondent Amber Lyon starts the report in a boat off the coast of California, fishing for plastic bags. Then she dives beneath the surface to find more bags, and she talks to a veterinarian who has seen plastic bags in the stomachs of whales, sea lions and dolphins.

According to CNN, this is the first in a two-part report.

OK, this isn't a high-volume application for recycled plastics, but it's still pretty cool.

Jim Griffioen, a stay-at-home Dad in the Detroit area, has blogged about making his son's Halloween costumes the past couple of years, and taken shots in appropriate run-down Detroit locations.

Last year's RoboCop was made from an old bike helmet, laundry detergent bottles and "a bunch of plastic crap," among other items. Check out the link, you'll love the photos (and captions) of the little guy visiting with some of Detroit's finest.

This year, he's "The Rocketeer", with a helmet made from an old BMX helmet, the lenses out of an old pair of sunglasses and a piece of acrylic, along with a rocket pack made from two-liter soda bottles.

Super creative stuff.

Thanks to Rhoda Miel, Plastics News' staff reporter in Detroit, for contributing this item today -- and have a Happy Halloween.

Penn State Erie has officially opened its new Medical Plastics Center of Excellence, aimed at educating students and helping companies develop new medical devices and packaging.

The center held a grand opening ceremony on Oct. 26.

The center is located on the first floor of the Jack Burke Research and Economic Development Center, and it is adjacent to the school's 10,500-square-foot plastics processing facility.

It includes a medical plastics lab that features an ISO Class 8 clean room, a 55-ton liquid silicone injection molder, a materials compounding extruder, autoclave sterilization, and injection molding machines with clamping forces up to 200 tons.

"Our mission is to partner with companies to maximize medical device performance and lower the cost of healthcare," said Jason Williams, head of the Medical Plastics Center of Excellence, in a news release.

More than 100 people attended the opening ceremonies, according to the Erie News-Times.

The school invested $4.3 million to create the facility.

In this age of downloadable music, is it possible that vinyl records are experiencing even faster growth than the numbers indicate?

David Giffels wrote a story for The New York Times Magazine on a small vinyl record company in Cleveland, Gotta Groove Records. Giffels says the company is one of about 20 left in the United States that still press vinyl records.

According to the story, vinyl record makers are still enjoying a resurgence in interest from music fans. Last year, according to the story, 2.8 million vinyl records were sold in the United States, according to Nielsen Co., and this year's numbers are about 40 percent higher.

(The Recording Industry Association of America has different numbers -- 4 million LPs or EPs, up nearly 26 percent between 2009 and 2010, and about 300,000 vinyl singles, down about 4 percent).

But Giffels' source at Gotta Groove says the real sales figures for vinyl are much, much higher. Nielsen's estimate only gets about 15 percent of the total, Vince Slusarz said, because most vinyl records are sold in independent shops, at clubs and through websites.

"The majority of the stuff we press, it doesn't even have a bar code," Slusarz said.

To put it all in perspective, though, keep in mind that 225.8 million [polycarbonate] CDs were shipped in the United States in 2010, according to RIAA. And an estimated 1,16 billion singles and 83.1 million albums were downloaded in 2010.

Dow Chemical Co. is making a significant donation to universities with chemical engineering programs over the next decade -- $250 million.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a big part of the donation is aimed at helping chemical engineering to catch up to some faster-growing academic fields, including biomedical engineering.

In the last decade, according to the WSJ story, undergrad degrees in biomedical engineering more than tripled, to 3,670 per year, while undergrad degrees in chemical engineering were flat at 5,948 per year.

The trend is similar on the graduate degree level.

"We think the shift has gone too far," Theresa Kotanchek, a Dow vice president, told the newspaper.

Schools that will get funding include the California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon; the Georgia Institute of Technology; Northwestern; Pennsylvania State; the University of California's Berkeley and Santa Barbara campuses, and the Universities of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Today the Society of the Plastics Engineers Automotive Division named the finalists for its 41st annual awards competition. The winners will be announced Nov. 9.

Here are the finalists:

CATEGORY: Body Exterior

SPOILER WITH INTEGRATED ANTENNA & AMPLIFIER

OEM Make & Model: General Motors Co. 2011 MY Chevrolet Camaro convertible sports car

Tier Supplier/Processor: ABC Group - Exterior Systems

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Dow Automotive / ABC Group - Supreme Tooling

Material / Process: Pulse® 2000 EZ PC/ABS / Blow molding

Description: This is the first-ever integrated amplifier and antenna in a blow-molded spoiler. An innovative method was used to incorporate the antenna into and locate the amplifier in the spoiler. Not only were rear-vehicle aesthetics improved, but a 10% weight savings and 66% indirect cost savings were achieved.

STRUCTURAL ASA AERO SPOILER

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford Edge & Lincoln MKT CUVs

Tier Supplier/Processor: ABC Group / Delta Tool

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: SABIC Innovative Plastics / Delta Tool

Material / Process: Geloy XP4034 ASA+PC / Gas-counter-pressure injection molding

Description: A patented chemical foaming agent combined w/ASA in a non-traditional injection molding process was used to mold this aero spoiler, which reduces weight 1.5 lb / vehicle (for better fuel economy) and better meets customer requirements. The design allowed for parts integration while maintaining a Class A surface appearance and saving $5.6MM USD direct costs and an estimated $200,000 of indirect costs due to reduced complexity vs. the previous process.

RAM BOX ASSEMBLY WITH LID

OEM Make & Model: Chrysler Group LLC 2012 MY Dodge Ram pickup

Tier Supplier/Processor: Penda Corp. / Penda Corp. (lid), Evco Plastics (bin), River Bend Industries (end caps)

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Asahi Kasei Plastics North America Inc. / Cavalier Tool & Mfg. Ltd. (injection molded bin); Tooling Technology LLC (thermoformed lid)

Material / Process: Thermylene P8-40FG-4611 (box), P6-15FG-0741 (lid); P6-15FG-0754 (end caps) PP / Twin-sheet thermoforming

Description: Twin-sheet thermoforming replaces blow molding to create the structure and ribbing of this tough storage box with lid. The result is a more uniform, more dimensionally accurate part whose length was increased from 5 ft 7 in. to 6 ft 4 in., requiring greater emphasis on the "heavy-duty" nature of the structure's design and materials of construction. A special new grade of GR-PP eliminated the need to upgrade to heavier and more costly PA 6/6, avoiding a 9% weight and 20% cost increase.

CATEGORY: Body Interior

SECOND-ROW VANITY MIRROR & DOME LAMP WITH DUAL LED

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2013 MY Lincoln Town Car livery

Tier Supplier/Processor: Daimay NA Automotive, Inc. / Not Stated

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Not Stated / Not Stated

Material / Process: PC/ABS / Not stated

Description: This second-row vanity and dome lamp combo shares a single LED circuit board to serve both vanity and courtesy/reading light functions. Additional features include a light ramp-up intensity feature to provide a luxury feel for Lincoln customers. Molded-in-hooks and snaps on the back of the vanity bezel helped eliminate 4 J-clips, 4 high-retention clips, 4 screws and screw caps, plus labor during vehicle assembly. The resulting system saves 2.02 lb / vehicle vs. previous systems and saved $4/unit direct and $8/vehicle indirect costs vs. separately packaged units.

SEAT-CONTROLS PLASTIC-MODULE BRACKET

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford Escape SUV / Kuga SUV

Tier Supplier/Processor: Magna Seating LVSS / Genesis

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: BASF Corp. / ETCS Inc.

Material / Process: Ultramid A3WG6 PA 6/6 30% GF / Injection molding

Description: This plastic module bracket for seat controls replaced a steel stamping manufactured in progressive dies with an injection-molded 30% glass-reinforced PA 6/6 material. The approach saves 805 g of weight per vehicle vs. the previous design and only is required on 31% of seats whereas the previous design was used on 100% of seats, reducing the number of parts that must be managed, controlled, and installed and lowering the potential for failure modes. Further, it reduces parts from 2 to 1 and increases design frequency from 30 Hz to 61 Hz, eliminating potential NVH issues via a tripod mounting approach with honeycomb construction. It also eliminated $260,000 in tooling costs and piece-costs were reduced $0.15/set.

OVERMOLD-CUSHION SUSPENSION

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford Escape SUV & Kuga CUV

Tier Supplier/Processor: Flex-O-Lators Div. of Leggett & Platt Inc.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Washington Penn / Advanced Mold Engineering Inc.

Material / Process: PPC5UF0 PP / Injection molding

Description: The injection-molded PP design reduces part count from 6 to 1 / seat, piece cost $0.56 per seat, tooling costs $288,000, and per-vehicle mass by 1.93 kg vs. the previous design. The single-piece design provides wire harness routing and retention, seat-cushion and back-trim retention, and climate-control system retention - functionality that previously required 6 parts to achieve. Now there are 5 fewer parts to manage, control, and install and fewer opportunities for potential failure modes.

CATEGORY: Chassis / Hardware

PLASTIC RATCHETING-STUD INSERT

OEM Make & Model: General Motors Co. 2012 MY Chevrolet Camaro sports car

Tier Supplier/Processor: ITW Super Products / ITW Shanghai

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Mitsubishi Engineering Plastics / Donglei Shanghai

Material / Process: Lupital F20-03 POM / Injection molding

Description: This all-plastic, self-centering ratcheting insert replaces metal nuts and allows for a much quicker load / hold (vs. traditional nut / bolt). The POM insert also acts as an isolator to protect the assembly from corrosion, paint chipping, and noise while achieving over 100 lb in pull-force retention. Weight is also reduced 50% and assembly time and warranty costs are reduced.

OUTER BELT WEATHERSTRIP HIDDEN FASTENER RETENTION

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2011 MY Ford All Focus compact cars (globally)

Tier Supplier/Processor: Henniges Automotive / MANUFACTURAS MAHER II, S.L .

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: BASF Corp. / Camoplast Inc.

Material / Process: Ultramid polyamide 6/6 / Injection molding

Description: The outer belt weatherstrip eliminates a threaded steel fastener and utilizes a plastic clip retainer. This is industry's first injection-molded plastic output pinion, which ensures functionality for 6-way locating with just 1 clip. Tough PA 6/6 provides robustness for impact resistance and holding force even after heat aging and high-pressure car washing. The application led to a 70% weight reduction, direct cost savings of $850,000 annually and an indirect savings of $450,000 each year.

POWER-WINDOW MOTOR OUTPUT GEAR & SHAFT

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2011 MY Ford All Focus compact cars (globally)

Tier Supplier/Processor: Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG / Mitsuba Corp.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: DuPont Automotive / Camoplast Inc.

Material / Process: Hytrel TPC-ET polyester / Injection molding

Description: This power-window motor changed from a steel output pinion to a new injection-molded polyester one for a quieter/lighter motor to meet customer targets while still complying with window velocities. It is industry's first plastic output pinion that ensures functionality. Additionally, the design allows for regulator plug-'n-play capability into the power drum for better motion control. Packaging of the involute onto the spline gear to the accommodating drum spline was critical to the customer. The application saved $450,000 USD direct and $250,000 indirect cost savings annually

CATEGORY: Environmental

RECYCLED MATERIALS FROM GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL

OEM Make & Model: General Motors Co. 2011 MY Chevrolet Volt extended-range EV

Tier Supplier/Processor: GDC Inc. / Not Stated

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Mobile Fluid Recovery, Inc. / Not Stated

Material / Process: Enduraprene 2395 PP/PE/SBR / Multiple

Description: This project demonstrates how engineers came to aid the Gulf of Mexico coast community to improve the response efforts to the oil spill and to conserve resources. Air-baffle components were molded from 100%-recycled material comprised of 25% PP Gulf oil-boom absorbent (recycled previously from automotive waste), 25% Milford Proving Ground test tires, and 25% polymer packaging aids from other General Motors' facilities, plus 25% post consumer PE bottles.

LOADFLOOR USING COCONUT FELT NAME

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford Focus BEV

Tier Supplier/Processor: Autoneum Holding AG / Aftech LL & Hobbs Bonded FibersMaterial Supplier / Toolmaker: Natural Composites, LLC / Not Stated

Material / Process: PP / Not stated

Description: This loadfloor uses coconut fiber agricultural waste for reinforcement of the polymer matrix. The coir fibers are carded and needle punched to create a mat and then calendared inline to achieve the desired thickness before being die-cut to shape and assembled with other components. This provides income to farmers and reuses a waste material that otherwise would have little market usefulness.

BIO-FOAM FOR INSTRUMENT PANEL

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford Focus compact car

Tier Supplier/Processor: Automotive Component Holdings LLC

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: BASF Corp. / Not Stated

Material / Process: Elastofoam Balance 27730 & 27731 PUR foam / Foam in place

Description: The use of bio-based components for the polyurethane foam in this application provides a partially sustainable alternative to conventional urethanes with 100% petroleum inputs. By reducing petroleum-based content, the carbon footprint of vehicles is reduced, thanks to the CO2 sequestering plants do during their growth cycle. The bio-foam also provides softness for this foam-in-place application, which required no tooling changes and was cost neutral.

REDUCED-VOC HYDROGRAPHICS

OEM Make & Model: Chrysler Group LLC 2011 MY Chrysler 300 luxury sedan

Tier Supplier/Processor: CpK Interior Products / Dongguan Taica Hirosawa Technologies Co., Ltd. / Hirosawa Automotive Trim Co. Ltd.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Taica Corp. / Not Stated

Material / Process: PC/ABS / Injection Molded Substrate & Hydrographics Coating

Description: The supplier's proprietary E-Cubic process eliminates the need for top coating and reduces VOCs vs. conventional hydrographics, paint, and in-mold film use while providing unique decorating features, including dual gloss levels and 3D texturing.

RENEWABLY SOURCED PA FOR BIODIESEL FUEL LINES

OEM Make & Model: Fiat S.p.A. 2011 MY Fiat Diesel engines, various models

Tier Supplier/Processor: Hutchinson

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: DuPont Automotive / Not Stated

Material / Process: Zytel RS 1610 PA 10/10 / Extrusion

Description: This is the first automotive use of PA 10/10 and the first bio-based PA 10/10 application. It is used in a diesel fuel line replacing PA 12. The bio-based resin provides superior temperature and chemical resistance, as well as heat-aging performance in biodiesel fuel blends vs. PA 12. This specific composition also contains a minimum of 60% bio content by weight for a more sustainable solution.

CATEGORY: Materials

VOLCANIC-FILLER PILLAR TRIM

OEM Make & Model: Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group 2011 MY Kia Pride subcompact & Optima mid-size sedan and Hyundai Elantra compact car

Tier Supplier/Processor: Plakor Co. Ltd.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Hyundai EP Co. Ltd. / Not Stated

Material / Process: Supol HL345CL PP / Injection molding

Description: This lightweight, injection-molded PP pillar trim provides the texture and appearance of more costly fabric-wrapped trim through use of a unique filler combination consisting of volcanic rock, fiber pile, and glass spheres replacing talc-filled PP and fabric-wrapped PP. No special tooling was required but process control was important so as not to crush the glass spheres and to distribute the fiber pile evenly during compounding and molding. A 10% weight and a 50% direct cost savings was achieved. Other benefits gained from using the volcanic mineral are that it emits negative ions (to reduce pollutants) and far-infrared energy.

TRANSMISSION COMPONENTS IN FLUOROELASTOMERS

OEM Make & Model: General Motors Co. 2011 MY All GM Vehicles using 6L45, 6L50, 6L80, & 6L90 transmissions

Tier Supplier/Processor: Robert Bosch LLC / Freudenberg-NOK

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Freudenberg-NOK / Freudenberg-NOK

Material / Process: FluoroXprene B FKM & ETFE / Injection molding

Description: Replacing both injection molded PA and conventional rubber, a new multi-patented fluoropolymer offers the chemical resistance of FKM with the rapid processing of thermoplastics. It also provides excellent compression set over the range of application temperatures, good permeation and fluid resistance vs. traditional fluorinated TPVs and TPEs, while solving a warranty issue and preventing seal failure, which can lead to electrical shorts. The unique 2-phase morphology of the material allows the ratio to be manipulated to produce either TPV or TPE formulations. Zero-waste, single-cavity direct injection leads to no scrap.

EP BIO-BASED POLYESTER POLYMER

OEM Make & Model: Toyota Motor Co. 2011 MY Toyota Prius "A" Alpha station wagon

Tier Supplier/Processor: Kojima Press Industry Co., Ltd. / Howa Plastics Co., Ltd.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: DuPont Automotive / Not Stated

Material / Process: Sorona EP 2045 PTT / Not stated

Description: This is the first use of polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT), an entirely new thermoplastic polyester that also happens to be bio-based. This high-temperature thermoplastic polyester delivers improved performance (vs. PBT and PET), including higher stiffness and strength, higher use temperature but lower melt temperature at a lower specific gravity. Despite the fact that it contains 45% glass, it provides excellent surface finish, allowing elimination of a paint operation and the VOC and costs associated with painting. In addition, its bio-based content provides for CO2 reduction and a more sustainable solution.

CATEGORY: Powertrain

PLASTIC TRANSMISSION ACCUMULATOR PISTON

OEM Make & Model: Chrysler Group LLC 2012 MY All Chrysler Vehicles with Automatic Transmissions

Tier Supplier/Processor: Chrysler Group LLC / Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Chevron-Phillips Chemical Co. LLC / Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies

Material / Process: Ryton R-Y-120 PPS / Injection molding

Description: This molded plastic transmission accumulator piston was designed around the current application so that the bore, seal rings, and return springs did not have to be changed and it was a drop-in replacement. Maximum effort went into material choice (PPS) and model shape to achieve the appropriate toughness to handle time, temperature, pressure, and combined cycling to create a 200,000-mile capable piston. The resulting part is 29 g vs. typical 47 g for aluminum pistons. A direct thermoplastic injection technology was developed to produce the parts, resulting in zero material waste through the use of a single-cavity design. The process allowed for a 33% improvement in cycle times and reduces the total floor space required by 20% over previous multi-cavity processes. The change in philosophy also eliminated the need for material regrind / reclamation equipment and lowered total capital expenditures. The innovative approach used here has allowed for a modular business cell that is adaptable to large market-volume fluctuations.

NI-MH BATTERY PACKAGE FOR HEV

OEM Make & Model: Volkswagen AG 2010 MY Volkswagen® Touareg® hybrid CUV

Tier Supplier/Processor: Sanyo Electric / Not Stated

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: SABIC Innovative Plastics / Not Stated

Material / Process: Noryl SE100P M-PPE / Injection molding

Description: Injection molded modified-PPE resin was used for this compact Ni-MH battery module package, providing greater dimensional accuracy than glass-reinforced PBT and lower weight vs. glass-reinforced PPE/PS. The resulting assembly is 50% lighter than it would have been in competitive GR-PBT and 10% lighter than GR-PPE/PS, making it the best material choice for the required properties at low weight.

BATTERY PACK

OEM Make & Model: General Motors Co. 2011 MY Chevrolet Volt extended-range EV

Tier Supplier/Processor: General Motors Co. / MANN+HUMMEL GmbH

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: BASF Corp. / Omega Corp.

Material / Process: Ultramid 1503-2F PA 6/6 33% GF, HS / Injection molding

Description: Thermoplastic battery frames are an integral part of electric-vehicle thermal management, channeling coolant to and from the cells. The use of injection-molded hydrolysis-resistant PA 6/6 for thermal-cycling management is a lightweight enabling material for this design, which required exacting manufacturing consistency and high levels of repeatability and reproducibility.

CATEGORY: Process / Assembly / Enabling Technologies

INTEGRATED LIFTGATE TRIM GRAB HANDLE

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford Focus compact hatchback

Tier Supplier/Processor: NYX Inc.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Not Stated / Aalbers Tool

Material / Process: PP / Injection molding

Description: Through design and tooling innovations, the injection-molded polypropylene liftgate grab handle was molded in a single piece vs. previous 2-piece assemblies thanks to 3 large cavity-side slides in the tool. The innovation saved 0.1 lb and $0.60 USD / vehicle.

COMPOSITE WHEEL WEIGHTS

OEM Make & Model: General Motors Co. 2011 MY Cadillac CTS sedan & Corvette sports car

Tier Supplier/Processor: ESYS Automation / 3M

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: 3M / ESYS Automation

Material / Process: 3M proprietary / Extrusion

Description: This innovation uses extrusion of a highly filled polymer and automation equipment to provide significant product flexibility and performance improvements that, for the first time, enable fully automated tire balance weight installation. Replacing stamped, painted steel parts that required manual installation, and reducing the SKUs from 24 to 1, the innovation uses large spools of wheel weights in tape form with an adhesive backing that can be automatically cut and applied very accurately to reduce labor, scrap, application cycles, and an average of 0.3-0.5 grams of excess weight per wheel.

MUCELL INSTRUMENT PANEL

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2012 MY Ford® Escape® compact SUV & Kuga® compact CUV

Tier Supplier/Processor: Faurecia

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: SABIC Innovative Plastics & Flint Hills Resources / Lamko

Material / Process: Stamax EXRP-49 30YK270 & AP3335-HF long glass / 30% talc-filled PP / Microcellular injection molding

Description: This is the largest automotive component molded in the patented MuCell injection-molding process and the first instrument panel to be molded in this process. By creating the part in microcellular foam, weight is reduced over 1 lb, mechanicals are improved, cycle time is reduced 10%, and clamp tonnage is reduced 45%, saving an estimated $2 / vehicle vs. solid injection molding.

CATEGORY: Safety

REINFORCED AIRBAG LID IN FOAM (RALF)

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2011 MY Ford Focus compact car

Tier Supplier/Processor: Faurecia Interior Systems

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Not stated / Not stated

Material / Process: PET & PUR / Not stated

Description: RALF technology is an optimized instrument panel / passenger airbag door system that uses a reinforced structural 3D-skeleton of PET mesh textile and polyurethane foam lid. RALF replaces the traditional metal or plastic airbag lid door and offers much improved airbag lid positioning with less risk of windshield breakage. It offers significant weight savings over traditional foam-in-place airbag construction and is cost-neutral.

UNDERTRAY WITH PEDESTRIAN-SAFETY FUNCTIONALITY

OEM Make & Model: Ford Motor Co. 2011 MY Ford C-Max world car

Tier Supplier/Processor: Faurecia

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: SABIC Innovative Plastics / Not stated

Material / Process: Xenoy iQ1103R PC/PBT / Injection molding

Description: The undertray structure was uniquely designed with "spring-back action" to help the vehicle achieve a Euro-NCAP 5 Star rating while eliminating the need for a separate lower spoiler, saving 1.5-2.0 kg of weight and $10-15 in extra cost. The lightweight corrugated structure incorporates other functional requirements, including air guides for air intake to cool the tower assembly and to meet stone chipping requirements. The PC/PBT resin used to injection mold this part is upcycled from post-consumer plastic waste, reducing landfill burden and hydrocarbon-fuel consumption while providing excellent impact resistance.

PEDESTRIAN-SAFETY UPPER LOAD PATH

OEM Make & Model: Range Rover 2011 MY Range Rover Evoque CUV

Tier Supplier/Processor: Magna International Inc.

Material Supplier / Toolmaker: SABIC Innovative Plastics / Not Stated

Material / Process: Xenoy iQ1103R PC/PBT / Injection molding

Description: This 1-piece injection-molded fascia reinforcement eliminates the need for support brackets and offers tuned stiffness to control lower-leg kinematics during pedestrian impact with this cross-over utility vehicle (CUV). The fascia reinforcement, also tuned for pedestrian protection, eliminates the need for an additional energy absorber in front of the bumper beam. Good lateral rigidity and creep behavior minimizes sag during sun load. Molded-in air intake guides bring cooling air to the intercooler. The upcycled PC/PBT material used in this application is reclaimed from post-consumer plastic waste, reducing landfill burden and hydrocarbon fuel needs. The application reduced weight 20% by eliminating the metal bracket. Another 0.5-1.0 kg of weight was saved by eliminating the need for the foam energy absorber.

For more information about the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Competition and Gala, visit the SPE Automotive Division website.

The town of Sioux Lookout in northwest Ontario is bucking a trend -- it just decided to reverse a ban on plastic bags.

Bryan Meadows of The Chronicle Journal in Thunder Bay, Ontario, reports today that the town council removed the 4-month-old ban on single-use plastic bags because of opposition from the community.

"We had a whole pile of petitions from business people and up to 400 names of private citizens" who opposed ban, Mayor Dennis Leney told the newspaper. "It was pretty unanimous that people were not happy with it."

The law had not been fully implemented -- it took effect this summer, but there was a one-year phase-in period.

Sioux Lookout had been the first municipality in Ontario to ban plastic bags, according to the report.

What's this -- a community rolling back a bag ban without a lawsuit? I'm not sure Plastics Blog readers in the United States will be able to relate to this story.

Bill Carteaux, president of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. in Washington,was present today when President Obama formally signed into law legislation for the South Korea, Colombia and Panama free-trade agreements.

Here's a photo of Carteaux at the Rose Garden ceremony. Carteaux and Jon Kurrle, SPI's senior vice president for government and industry affairs were part of a group of business leaders who joined Obama after the bills were signed in the Oval Office.

"I am honored to be invited to the White House to celebrate these trade agreements because SPI's advocacy team, aided by our dedicated members, worked countless hours and made, literally, hundreds of Capitol Hill visits in support of these agreements," Carteaux said in a statement prepared prior to the ceremony.

"I know I will feel proud and have a real sense of accomplishment because the signing ceremony will represent the end result of a long advocacy process that involves being engaged with Congress from the start and making sure our industry's collective voice is heard. SPI has long-supported these pro-growth measures and they create a more level playing field for the U.S. plastics industry and increases our competitiveness in these three countries."

The trade agreements eliminate the barriers U.S. exporters face in these three markets. SPI released these plastics-relevant facts about the deals and the markets:

• The U.S. International Trade Commission has estimated that the U.S.-South Korea FTA alone will generate $10 to $11 billion in additional exports, and every additional $1 billion dollars in exports creates 6,000 jobs.
• South Korea is the 10th largest export market for U.S. plastics. Since 2000, plastics exports to South Korea have increased by 44 percent.
• Colombia is the 16th largest export market for U.S. plastics. Since 2000, plastics exports to Colombia have increased by 163 percent.
• Although not presently a top market for the U.S. plastics industry, Panama has shown tremendous growth potential as well. Since 2000, plastics exports to Panama have increased by 107 percent.

Here's a copy of a video of Obama's remarks, where he mentions the plastics industry's interest in the trade deals:

A couple of items related to product bans caught my eye today, because both highlight some interesting logical arguments.

First, the Los Angeles Daily News posted an editorial in favor of plastic bag bans.

The column, "Plastic bag ban proposal should be carried out with OK of the public," argues that plastic bag bans are OK because bags carry hidden costs to society.

"For single-use bags, it is a double whammy: the pass-through cost from the retailers, as well as the cost of dealing with billions of discarded plastic bags in our landfills, sewers, gutters, parks, trees, rivers, beaches and oceans. We all pay for the estimated 1.2 billion to 2.3 billion (yes, billion) single-use plastic bags and 400 million paper bags used each year in the city, whether we know it or not," the column says.

I wonder about the accuracy of an estimate with such a wide range -- 1.2 billion to 2.3 billion. But that's not my problem with the column.

Take a look at this part:

The most pervasive argument against the ban of single-use bags is that doing so kills jobs at companies that produce plastic bags. That doesn't make sense when you consider reusable bags are often made from plastic. And shoppers won't stop needing bags to carry their purchases, though it's true they won't need as many.

In fact, some forward-thinking companies have already jumped on the opportunity to make reusable bags, creating jobs that didn't exist before. That includes the Van Nuys-based company, Green Bag America, which makes private-label reusable shopping bags for retailers.

So it's OK to kill jobs at companies that make one kind of plastic bags because there are other companies making other bags willing to step in and create jobs "that didn't exist before"?

That's a pretty big leap in logic.

My other example comes from The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, which did a lengthy feature story on college campuses that are banning sales of single-serve water bottles.

The story, "Bottled water ban possible in future of Lakeland, Kent State and Lake Erie College," highlights the situation at some local schools, noting that at least nine colleges across the country have banned sales of bottled water.

My problem here is the focus on bottled water. I don't have concerns about drinking water from public fountains, I do it almost every day.

But I know many people avoid drinking fountains -- some for health and safety reasons, some for taste. If colleges ban bottled water, don't they end up encouraging people to buy less healthy alternative drinks? That's not their aim, but it's a logical result.

And aren't college campuses prime spots for recycling empty bottles?

I don't have a problem with policies that encourage people to use less stuff. That includes giving out fewer single-use bags at stores, and encouraging customers to use reusable bags, or to reuse and recycle single-use bags.

But making the leap from encouraging people to use less stuff and legally requiring it is a pretty big jump.

This sounds like a candidate for one of former Sen. William Proxmire's Golden Fleece awards: Researchers at Kassel University in Germany have developed a polyurethane toy for pigs to play with to help release their aggression.

The "Wühlkegel," (translation: "rooting cone"), a PU ball on a spring, is designed to relieve boredom and inactivity among captive pigs in order to improve animal welfare.

According to a report from Urethanes Technology International, researchers at the university carried out the $276,000 project along with the German federal ministry of food, agriculture and consumer protection.

The toys are currently being tested -- pigs' behavior is being monitored on video. Researchers said in a university statement that they are optimistic the project will be successful, especially as European legal requirements regarding the quality of toys for pigs are due to become stricter in the next years.

Thanks to my colleagues at Urethanes Technology International for today's item.

Add Microsoft Corp.'s suppliers to the growing list of companies that are going to have to keep track of -- and report -- data on their environmental records.

Yesterday the company announced that starting in 2013, it will require "a cross section" of its suppliers to provide reports on how they adhere to Microsoft's Vendor Code of Conduct.

That could have some specific plastics-related implications.

Julie Bort, editor of Network World's Microsoft Subnet and Open Source Subnet communities, wrote about the issue yesterday in PC Advisor, in an item headlined "Microsoft strong-arms hardware makers into social responsibility."

Bort writes that Microsoft's policy might push suppliers like Dell Inc. to accelerate efforts to move away from PVC and brominated flame retardants.

"One of the policies in Microsoft's code of conduct is: 'If applicable, identify the chemicals or other materials being released that pose a threat to the environment and manage them appropriately to ensure their safe handling, movement, storage, use, recycling or reuse, and disposal,'" Bort wrote.

"Greenpeace has been after Dell for years to cut the dangerous chemicals out of its electronics manufacturing."

Microsoft's proposal is a response to a shareholder proposal received from New York City Comptroller John C. Liu on behalf of the New York City Pension Funds.

Today the American Chemistry Council announced that it has created a new American Chemistry Matters blog where it can "highlight and respond to news coverage and discuss relevant policy issues and their effect on innovation, competitiveness, job creation and safety."

ACC says the blog will have daily updates written by staff members including President and CEO Cal Dooley.

"As stakeholders increasingly turn to the internet for information, it's important that the central role of chemistry in our economy and in making modern life possible be part of the conversation," Dooley wrote in a news release today.

Many of the posts are plastics-specific, including today's from Steve Russell, ACC's vice president of plastics.

The post, "Uncorking our recycling potential: Small steps to take plastics recycling from good to great," highlights yesterday's release of the new ACC/Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers recycling report, plus some tips for consumers about how they can recycle more plastics.

For 27 years, experts have been citing this statistic: that plastic debris kills 100,000 marine animals a year. And it turns out that no one really knows whether the number was ever accurate.

The research today comes from Harold Johnson, a Saco, Maine, journalist and author of The Flotsam Diaries blog.

Johnson, who's outspoken of his criticism of the plastics industry, was nonetheless skeptical of the number, which he wrote "keeps cropping up, on personal blogs, nonprofit Web sites, popular scientific eZines, press releases."

(Plastics News has mentioned the number a few times, most prominently in coverage of a 2006 conference on plastic debris and the oceans.)

Johnson, writing in a guest blog for Scientific American, said something bothered him about the number.

"It's too round. Too easy. Too 'everywhere.' The vanilla ice cream of heartstring-tugging environmentalism," Johnson wrote.

So he set out to find the source -- and determine if it's worth repeating.

It turns out that it's not.

Johnson's research took him all the way back to a December 1984 story from The New York Times, "Deadly Tide of Plastic Waste Threatens World's Oceans and Aquatic Life." The story cited its source: a report from a group called The Entanglement Network at a November 1984 Workshop on the Fate and Impact of Marine Debris in Honolulu.

The Entanglement Network's report itself, from the conference's proceedings (PDF) does not cite the 100,000 figure.

"And just like that, I had the answer," Johnson wrote. "A 'fact' handed down & bandied about from article to nonprofit, conservation society to international organization, over years and years. So long that it has taken a life of its own, and becomes unquestioned, and unsourced. Whether there is -- or was -- any science behind it remains in doubt."

And, as he points out, even if it was accurate in 1984, it's out of date.

Marine debris is clearly a significant problem. But it is a magnet for hyperbole. We've seen that before in descriptions of the North Pacific Central Gyre that imply it is an actual floating island. And we've seen other exaggerated reports on the threats to marine life.

As Johnson wrote today, just because you see a 'fact' in 100 places, doesn't make it true.

But don't be surprised if, a year from now, you see it another 100 times.

At daily newspapers, editors know stories about dogs or ice cream belong on Page 1. Readers love 'em.

But in the world of plastics journalism, we rarely get the opportunity.

So imagine the reaction today to a news release from PolyOne GLS Thermoplastic Elastomers that combines both. I can't resist sharing their feature on the Happy Lapper, a dish designed to help dogs eat ice cream without making a mess.

(Aren't the best new products just solutions to problems we didn't know we had?)

The plastics angles?

The dish is made by Covington Plastic Molding Inc., a small injection molder based in New Oxford, Pa. The company specializes in small to medium runs and hard-to-mold parts.

The material -- a 60 Shore A durometer thermoplastic elastomer from PolyOne GLS. The TPE resin is FDA compliant and is soft enough to grip most types of flooring without tipping over.

Finally, the customer is Linda Haverstock, founder of Dillsburg, Pa.-based Pup Peeves.

PolyOne GLS's Rick Noller cites the Happy Lapper as an example of collaboration involving a molder, a material supplier and a customer.

No mention, unfortunately, of the key role played by man's best friend.

It can be fun to see what others think about plastics. For some really creative takes, check out these videos created by college students in plastics and plastics engineering programs.

These are entries from the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s "Shaping your World" student video contest.

The contest was created to celebrate SPI's 75th anniversary. College students (undergraduate and graduate level) studying in plastics programs were invited to submit original videos that honor plastics' innovation.

First Prize is an iPad2, a $2,000 check and a three-day trip to NPE 2012 in Orlando, Fla.

What's your favorite? I laughed at a few, including "Life without plastics" and "Plastics cab" (inspired by the TV game show "Cash cab," which I suppose will be an iconic program for this generation like "The Dating Game" or "The Gong Show" was to mine).

Some were quite creative. "The True Meaning of Plastics" uses some neat cartoon artwork, for example.

Take a look and enjoy all the entries. SPI is preparing to announce the finalists -- maybe we can treat this like our own plasticky Oscar pool.

Reckitt Benckiser plc, known for its Clearasil, Lysol, Durex and Woolite brands, among others, released its 2010 sustainability report today. Here are some of the plastics-related highlights:

The company's very proud of that eliminated all the PVC packaging from its household products by the end of 2009. The step is highlighted in big blue letters on page 3 of the report (downloadable here), and on top of the company's news release.

It notes, however, that "Healthcare products are excluded from this target as no viable alternatives have yet been identified for some healthcare applications."

Under the category of "material use," the company notes several plastics-related innovations:

• In 2010 a packaging redesign introduced an all-plastic trigger in the North American market. This will eliminate more than 198 metric tons of stainless steel a year. Since it is mainly polypropylene resin, it is also widely compatible with US recycling streams.
• We have also made progress with 'light weighting' in North America, most notably on the Lysol Dual Action Wipes, Lysol Spray, and Lysol 32oz cleaners. This has avoided more than 290 metric tons of resin usage and reduced our carbon emissions by 920 metric tons.
• Small savings can make a big impact In Europe we have changed the dosing scoop for Vanish powder from an injection moulded scoop to a thermoformed scoop. This change in manufacturing technology has reduced the weight by nearly 50% resulting in 153 tons of PP resin saved. As the thermoforming process requires much less energy than injection moulding this project also saved around 638 metric tons of CO2.

Actually, PP caps aren't widely recycled in the United States, although there's growing interest among recyclers and cap makers.

Americans are becoming much more confident with their knowledge about the environment, according to a new survey commissioned by SC Johnson.

That's despite the often confusing or even contradictory messages that they receive on many environmental issues, from global warming to the benefits of paper vs. plastic bags.

This poll isn't specifically about plastics, but I expect it will be studied carefully -- and quoted extensively -- in the coming year.

According to the survey, 73 percent of Americans say they know a lot or fair amount about environmental issues and problems. That's up 20 percentage points since 1995.

Also, fewer people now agree with the statement "I am very confused about what's good and what's bad for the environment." Just 18 percent agreed with that statement in 2011, down a whopping 21 percentage points since 1990.

A growing number of respondents say they've made lifestyle changes that have a positive environmental impact. For example, 58 percent said they recycle on a regular basis -- twice as many as 20 years ago -- and 29 percent said they buy "green" products.

Click here (PDF) for a copy of the full report, "The Environment: Public Attitudes and Individual Behavior -- A Twenty-Year Evolution."

Let's say you're on the city council of a coastal community where many residents are concerned about marine debris. Some of your constituents want to ban single-use plastic bags.

But if you pass a ban without first doing an expensive study on the environmental impact of the decision, you'll face a lawsuit -- and the prospect of an expensive legal battle.

That's the dilemma that communities in California face now, following the California Supreme Court's recent decision in the Manhattan Beach plastic bag lawsuit.

Last week, for example, the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition said it would ask the First District California Court of Appeal to overturn a bag ban in unincorporated areas of Marin County.

(Also, in a related move, yesterday Hilex Poly Co. LLC announced that it will be part of a lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles in response to a ban on plastic bags and a tax on paper bags.)

Now Huntington Beach is taking a slightly different approach. The community says it will look at a plastic bag ban. But it wants environmental groups to pay for the expensive study.

According to The Orange County Register, the Huntington Beach City Council voted 4-3 yesterday to pay Rincon Consulting nearly $30,000 to prepare an environmental impact report

The Surfrider Foundation has already given the city $3,000 for the study, and it plans to raise the rest of the money -- plus funding to copy and disseminate the report.

The newspaper quotes Surfrider Foundation member Bill Hickman: "Think of this as an investment, not a cost to the city. ... Recycling is not the answer for plastic bags. [Less than] 10 percent are recycled."

For a few years now, the Surfriders group has been a serious player in debates about plastics bags and litter, especially in California.

The decision to pay for Huntington Beach's environmental impact report will be an interesting test of how much support the group has, and whether its clout can eventually spread to other communities.

Brazilian plastics giant Braskem SA is now the largest polypropylene resin supplier in the United States. Today the company closed on its $323 million purchase of Dow Chemical Co.'s PP business.

The deal which was first announced July 27, includes two U.S. plants and two in Germany, with total annual capacity of 2.3 billion pounds.

Mark Nikolich, formerly VP of commercial and supply chain for Braskem America, has been named CEO and general manager of Braskem Europe GmbH.

Robert Nadin, formerly VP of innovation and technology for Braskem America, has been appointed VP of commercial and supply chain for polypropylene in North America.

As Plastics News' Frank Esposito has reported, this deal comes at an interesting time for the North American PP market, which has been rocked this year by extreme price volatility.

Increased use of natural gas feedstocks has reduced the amount of propylene monomer available to make PP in the region. Natural gas-based ethane feedstocks make less propylene per unit than do feedstocks based on crude oil-based naphtha.

The supply-demand situation got even more interesting earlier this month, when Phillips Sumika Polypropylene Co. announced it was closing its 700 million pound-per-year PP resin plant in Pasadena, Texas.

Eric Ross, who founded a Newark, N.J., company that eventually became compounder AlphaGary Corp., never forgot his roots as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.

Ross, who died a year ago at age 91, was a longtime supporter of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Earlier this week, the museum announced that it received a $17.2 million gift from Ross -- the largest in the institution's history.

Ross and the plastics industry go back a pretty far. He apprenticed at a rubber company in Germany before the war. He fled Germany in 1938, eventually making his way to America.

"Most of his family, including his parents, never got out. He arrived here not knowing English and with no money," a friend, Rabbi Clifford M. Kulwin of Temple B'nai Abraham in Livingston, N.J., wrote. "He collected used tires for scrap and began in a menial position in a chemical business. Compared to him, Horatio Alger heroes had it easy."

After a stint in the U.S. Army, Ross got a foot in the still-fledgling PVC sector in 1950, when he started Alpha Chemical & Plastics in Newark, N.J.

Ross was a pioneer in using PVC in medical devices, working with customer C.R. Bard, according to this excellent history of Alpha Chemical from Newark's The Star-Ledger newspaper.

In 1985 he sold the company to Dexter Inc., starting a string of changes and new owners for the company. Some of the most noteable: Alpha merged with Leominster, Mass.-based Gary Corp. in 1994, and Mexichem SAB de CV bought the whole company earlier this year.

In retirement, Ross and his wife, Lore, were active supporters of the Holocaust museum. In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Ross to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Over the years, the couple donated more than $30 million to the museum.

"Having experienced firsthand Nazi antisemitism and hatred, Eric and Lore Ross became determined and generous investors in Holocaust education," Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield said earlier this week. "Their loss and suffering inspired remarkable generosity."

I'm happy to share the story with you today, it seems particularly appropriate during the Rosh Hashanah holiday. L'Shanah Tovah, Tikatevu!

President Obama held a Town Hall meeting today, and his first question came from a plastics salesman.

The question, on social media site LinkedIn, came from Chuck Painter. Here's how the exchange went, thanks to the White House's transcript of the meeting:

Q Good morning, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning.

Q I'm from Austin, Texas. I've been in sales in the plastics industry for 20 years. I lost my job in 2009 and fortunate enough to have found another position, become reemployed. My question is what can we do as American citizens to unite ourselves and help the economy?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, are you a native of Austin? Because that's one of my favorite cities in the country.

Q Actually, I'm a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, but just relocated to Austin, and I love it there.

THE PRESIDENT: Austin is great. Charlotte is not bad. (Laughter.)

Q Thank you, thank you, thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: That's the reason why I'm having my convention in Charlotte, because I love North Carolina as well. But how long did it take you to find a new job after you had gotten laid off?

Q It took nine months.

THE PRESIDENT: It took nine months?

Q Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And that's one of the challenges that a lot of folks are seeing out there. You've got skilled people with experience in an industry. That industry changes, and you were fortunate enough to be able to move. Some folks, because of the decline in the housing industry, are having trouble with mobility in finding new jobs and relocating in pursuit of opportunity.

(... From there Obama made a pitch for his American Jobs Act ... read the transcript for the full plug.)

Is anyone surprised that a plastics industry executive would get the first question today? Considering how scripted something like a Town Hall meeting with the President can be, I'm sure nothing is left to chance.

Here's an odd twist to the plastic marine debris problem: your laundry may be a major source of microscopic plastic particles found in the ocean.

Until now, litter and spilled pellets have received most of the attention. But according to Clothing Sheds Microplastics Into Sea, from Chemical & Engineering News, synthetic fabrics are a major -- if often overlooked -- source.

According to the story, researchers from University College Dublin collected samples of microplastics from 18 coastal sites around the world.

The particles' shapes and sizes indicated they were fibers of synthetic fabrics. The researchers used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to determine the fibers' chemical composition. They found that polyester made up about three-quarters of the plastics; the rest consisted of polyamide, polypropylene, and acrylic, a composition that matches that of textiles.

The spectroscopy data led the team to think of washing clothes. So the researchers analyzed the water drained from frontloading washing machines after throwing fleece jackets, blankets, and synthetic business shirts into them. In one wash cycle, they found, a single piece of clothing shed more than 1,900 tiny fibers.

The scientists also determined that the chemical composition of their coastal plastic samples matched that of microscopic plastic found in treated discharge they collected from two wastewater treatment plants in Australia. [Researcher Mark Anthony] Browne and his team concluded that plastic fragments from synthetic fabrics most likely flow from wastewater treatment plants down to the seashore, and perhaps out to sea.

If other researchers confirm the findings, it will be interesting to see if:

1. Scientists determine if this microscopic plastic is harmful,
2. Clothing manufacturers, laundry products makers, or wastewater treatment plants can do anything to reduce the volume of microscopic plastics being released into the environment, and,
3. Which community will be the first to suggest banning polyester slacks.

How are plastics companies using social media? And what are they getting from their efforts?

Pam Aungst Teubner, e-commerce manager at E&T Plastics Manufacturing Co. Inc., recently took a look at what some innovative companies are doing in social media. Today she posted a report on the topic in her company's blog, titled How Plastics Companies Are Using Social Media.

Pam interviewed mostly smaller to mid-sized companies for the report, so many Plastics Blog readers should be able to relate to their experiences.

I'll highlight one of the findings, on the unexpected benefits that companies are experiencing as a result of their efforts. Here's what a few companies had to say:

• "Through social media, we've been able to connect with other marketers in related fields. In addition to nurturing business relationships, our social media communication helps us find new ideas and tricks for promoting our company." - Ashley Jernigan, UniTherm International.
• "It was quite a learning curve fitting a plastics manufacturer into a social media environment. But as we started and continue to connect with other SMBs we were provided with more ideas than we could keep track of. By engaging more, we found more ways to engage." - Johnny Bravo, PolyPak America.
• "At first I thought social media was all about promoting our product, but we have found a couple of really good suppliers and freight companies [through social media] that have actually saved us money! We have also formed some valuable relationships from some very supportive businesses." - Jennifer Toolis, ABC Plastics, Inc.
• "We were actually surprised at the number of leads that came in within the first few months of participating in social media. Knowing that an effective social media presence can take time to build, we really didn't expect to get leads through these efforts as fast as we did. It just goes to show that you don't have to be out there for a very long time in order to get people's attention; you just have to be there at the right moment when they need you!" - Pam Aungst Teubner, E&T Plastics.

Pam interviewed me for the report too, so check the link for more information on my experience with social media at Plastics News, plus tips and information on challenges, useful tools, how to get started, and dealing with competitive concerns.

By now we've all seen cool examples of 3D printing used to quickly make prototype products from computer drawings.

Today let's go old school -- with a fun story about a replica of a Stradivarius violin made from polyaryletherketone on a 3D printer.

Wired.co.uk has the story. The violin was made by Krailling, Germany-based EOS GmbH.

"The violin was a technology exercise," EOS told Wired.co.uk. "We wanted to test what we can achieve with our technology, which...is ideally suited for complex structures. This is why we chose a complex musical instrument which normally is being made in a very traditional way and with a traditional material -- wood."

How about it, music fans? Is the sound any good? How does it compare to the original?

I received a note this week from a vinyl window fabricator that donated product for a deserving family featured on ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

The company, National Vinyl LLC of Chicopee, Mass., said its vendors -- Chelsea Building Products, Edgetech, AGC Glass, Guardian, Timber Trading and OSI Sealants -- also donated material for the project, a home in Springfield, Mass.

Chelsea Building Products supplied all the vinyl profiles.

"We are extremely proud to be involved in this project," said National Vinyl General Manager Scott Channell. "The ability to assist a deserving member of our community is an honor and our employees as well as our vendors are excited to be contributing to this great cause."

My wife is a fan of "Extreme Makeover," and we always notice the not-so-subtle product placements shots. We're not bothered by them, though -- half the fun of watching the show is seeing which companies supply the cool building products and appliances.

Congratulations to National Vinyl and Chelsea, we'll be watching for you in a future episode.

Defects and malfunctions can be fixed, but design problems are forever. And auto interiors are full of them, according to a new report from J.D. Power and Associates.

According to the 2011 U.S. Interior Quality and Satisfaction Study, released today, design problems account for a majority of the quality issues that new owners have with vehicle interiors.

The top five most frequently reported problems: material scuffs/soils easily; cruise control difficult to use/controls in poor location; cup holders difficult to use; center console difficult to use; and door locks difficult to use/controls in poor location.

I come across reviews all the time where journalists complain about the plastics in new cars. The material isn't mentioned specifically in this report -- the emphasis here is more on the design than material selection.

Owners reported an average of 17.2 problems per 100 vehicles related to the vehicle interior, and 11.6 per 100 are the result of design issues, according to the report.

Allan Dix, research director of automotive product quality at J.D. Power and Associates, noted that interior comfort is very important to buyers.

"In fact, more than one-half of new-vehicle buyers cite interior comfort as one of the most important factors in choosing a vehicle," he said. "As a result, it's crucial to improve on interior design issues -- such as difficulty using the center console or door locks -- as these are issues that can really make a difference to the overall vehicle ownership experience."

The study is based on responses from more than 73,000 new-vehicle owners who purchased a 2011 model-year vehicle. The study was fielded between February and May 2011.

Processors of all types have been dealing with rising prices for many commodity and engineering resins this year. For auto suppliers like Magna International Inc., that signals the start of negotiations on who pays for the increases.

Magna CEO Don Walker recently talked to Automotive News senior writer David Sedgwick about the company's purchasing strategy, including dealing with rising resin prices.

Here are a few of the plastics-related highlights from the interview:

We're told that suppliers generally get compensated for the rising price of copper, aluminum and steel. But we hear that plastic resin has been a headache.

"Resin is a bit of an odd one. It's hard to figure out what the cost drivers really are. Quite often, the resin suppliers don't even care about the auto industry because they have other [customers]. So they'll say, 'We'll give you this price if the economy is up, or that price if the economy is down. And if you don't like it, don't buy it.'"

Are your customers compensating you for the rising cost of plastic resin?

"Typically it takes a bit of time, and you have to have a lot of discussions. If [resin costs] go up 25 percent, the car companies will expect us to do something to mitigate it. It's never a straight pass-through. Hopefully it's an intelligent and relatively fair negotiation. [Customers] who are not fair will pay the price later."

Are automakers getting more realistic about raw material costs?

"I would say they are reasonable. But we still usually have a delay of three to six months. There are a lot of discussions going on right now."

Duluth, Ga., recycler U.S. Plastics Recovery has a good story to tell about how it started operations just before the start of the Great Recession, but it still managed to thrive.

Plastics News staff reporter Mike Verespej shared the story last year.

Now the company is getting another moment in the spotlight. This week U.S. Plastics Recovery is featured in The Wall Street Journal's "Small Business, Big Innovation" competition.

Steve Hogan, one of the firm's co-founders, tells the WSJ blog that the industrial plastics recycling company "was nearly swept under by the world-wide recession which hit in the fall of 2008. Our inventory was devalued by 90 percent and our sales fell by 70 percent in the first few months following the global collapse."

The company decided the only way to survive was to buy all the scrap it could at low prices, and wait for demand to pick up.

"To do this, we needed to raise capital, buy additional processing equipment and move into a larger facility. If we could implement this strategy quickly, we would leapfrog the competition," Hogan said.

Check the competition website for more stories about small businesses that are trying to innovate their way out of the recession. Eventually the newspaper will pick a company to feature in its Nov. 21 Small Business report.

Here's a sad update to an earlier story: Michelle Caudle, the wife of the former manager at a plastics compounder who joined the U.S. Army at age 39, has died of cancer.

You may recall that Bill Caudle joined the service in 2009. He had been laid off from his job at PolyOne Corp.'s plant in Sussex, Wis., and he joined the Army because he needed healthcare insurance for his family.

Michelle had ovarian cancer. She died Friday at age 42. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a lengthy obituary that brings readers up to date on the family's story.

U.S. readers might believe California is ground zero for the debate on plastic bag taxes and bans. But long-time Plastics Blog readers know that the latest wave of anti-bag legislation actually originated in the United Kingdom.

Film maker Rebecca Hosking sparked the debate in the small village of Modbury, England, after a trip to the Pacific Ocean where she saw environmental damage created by plastic marine debris.

The bag ban battle rages on today, in England, Wales and Scotland, as you can see from these headlines from sister newspaper PRW. And the latest, somewhat surprising, word comes from a newspaper that has long crusaded against plastic bags, the Daily Mail.

The paper posted a story today, "Shoppers 'hoarding free plastic bags' because of fears they will be outlawed," which was the result of a discussion about bag bans today in the House of Lords.

The story contains two surprising revelations, both courtesy of Lord Baroness of Parkes.

First, she claims that "some people are starting to hoard free plastic carrier bags because they are so fearful they will become unavailable."

Why do I find this surprising? Because just about everyone who cares for dogs will hoard free plastic bags all the time -- not just when they're afraid they'll become unavailable -- for obvious reasons. Perhaps Lord Baroness of Parkes would like to visit my house and help clean up after our terriers.

Second, she suggests that plastic bag makers can control the degradability of bags to a degree that sounds a bit exaggerated.

"The chemical additive D2W, which has been used since the 1970s, has now been developed to a degree of accuracy that almost the exact date of self-destruct can be built into plastic bag manufacture," she said.

"Would not it be an advantage for everyone to know this date so that bags could be tailored to certain markets such as the fast food industry to prevent bags clogging our waterways and to prevent other bags intended for long-term storage unexpectedly turning into confetti?"

D2W is an additive marketed by Britain's Symphony Environmental Technologies plc.

While Symphony is an active participant in the bag ban debate, I'm skeptical that the company would go so far to say they can predict "almost the exact date" that bags manufactured with their additives will "self-destruct."

Hype and exaggeration are often weapons used in the debate over plastic bags -- both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

U.S. manufacturing is at a "critical crossroads" according to a new report from consulting firm Booz & Co., with the plastics sector "on the edge" -- it could become a global competitor or see its operations displaced to other countries.

The report, "Manufacturing's Wake-Up Call" (PDF), warns that manufacturers and policymakers are at a true crossroads.

If things go well, U.S. manufacturing could account for 95% of all products Americans consume. But if they don't, output could drop by half.

Today, U.S. manufacturers provide about 75% of the products that Americans consume.

"As labor costs and currency rates play a smaller part in manufacturing decisions, there is an opportunity for U.S. business leaders and policymakers to rise to the challenge and create conditions that support manufacturing," said Arvind Kaushal, a partner at Booz & Co,

"The potential for a rebound is there, but only if the right actions are taken," he said.

The report breaks down each manufacturing segment, classifying their prospects into four different categories:

1. Global leaders. Aerospace, chemicals, machinery, medical equipment, and semiconductor industries have a critical worldwide advantage stemming from their high investment scale, established intellectual property, skilled workforces, and close ties with customers.
2. Regional powers. Food, beverages, and tobacco; nonmetallic mineral products; wood products, and petroleum coal segments, among others, benefit from the U.S. as their largest market. Mexico and Canada offer additional markets for these companies.
3. On the edge. Paper, plastics, electrical equipment and components, computer equipment, fabricated metal products, pharmaceuticals, printing, and certain automotive equipment companies are besieged by low-cost overseas competitors. They could become global competitors themselves or see their operations displaced to other countries.
4. Niche players. Textiles, apparel, leather, furniture, and appliances companies serve small-scale niche markets through domestic operations, while most production is outside the United States.

Plastics may fall into the "on the edge" category, but just as important to Plastics Blog readers are the various important end markets. And the inclusion of chemicals in the "global leaders" category is still a potential plus, since U.S. manufacturers may benefit if their domestic suppliers remain strong.

The report calls for the private sector and policymakers to concentrate on four actions to provide the greatest momentum for manufacturing:

1. Think and grow regionally. The U.S. needs to build a better future with Mexico, shifting less-demanding, labor-intensive processes to that country while helping to build a safer consumer economy there and retaining highly skilled work in the United States.
2. Develop and attract skilled talent. The U.S. needs more robust manufacturing education programs, immigration reform, and promoting the attractiveness of manufacturing careers.
3. Foster high-impact clusters. The public and private sectors can build geographical concentrations of suppliers, service providers and academic institutions, reinforced by investments in infrastructure.
4. Simplify and streamline the tax and regulatory structure. The official U.S. statutory corporate tax rate stands at 39%. Closing the gap between statutory and effective rates (typically 28%) would be a revenue-neutral way to put U.S. manufacturing on a level global playing field.

Now that we're 14 months away from a presidential election, I imagine that some candidates will embrace parts of this report -- at least the parts they agree with. (Do you expect anyone to stick their neck out for immigration reform?)

But if that translates to a real, comprehensive manufacturing policy from Washington is a longshot at best.

Newell Rubbermaid posted a news release today on its plans to open a premium child care center at its headquarters in Georgia. That got me thinking about how rare it is these days for companies to promote that they offer excellent benefits.

I'm not a complete skeptic. I know that many companies -- including plastics suppliers and processors -- are known for their great worker relations.

But after we all witnessed the debates in Ohio and Wisconsin this year about public sector union worker benefits, I'm starting to feel like there's a backlash against workers getting anything beyond the bare minimums.

Newell Rubbermaid's news release said the child development center at its Sandy Springs headquarters "will complement the company's comprehensive benefit offerings designed to meet the diverse needs of a multi-generational workforce."

The company said it also offers flexible work options, back-up child and elder care and a program to help new mothers transition back to work.

"Newell Rubbermaid is committed to being an employer of choice by providing benefits that support the needs of a diverse and multi-generational workforce," said Joe Ketter, vice president of corporate human resources.

Offering employees convenient, affordable child care will help retain top talent, he said.

The company said classrooms at the new child care center will incorporate Newell Rubbermaid products, incuding Graco-brand items. (I had to think for a minute why Little Tikes toys weren't mentioned in the release -- then I remembered that Tikes now is owned by MGA Entertainment Inc.)

Is Newell Rubbermaid's announcement a sign of good things to come for employee benefits at other companies? I think we can be skeptical about that.

Good workers may be hard to find (and retain). But until the economy shows more robust signs of improvement, I don't expect most employers to pull out all the stops on improving benefits.

Manufacturing is alive and well in North America -- more on that later. But I always get a kick out of companies that serve odd or unusual niche markets.

How about bowling balls, CDs and chopsticks, for example?

Those great examples come today courtesy of a link sent by a Plastics Blog reader to "10 American Industries Still Hanging On," from Minyanville.com.

A few of the products have plastics connections -- polycarbonate CDs and DVDs, for example:

The physical is dead, long live the download. That's what entertainment observers have been saying since the turn of the century and they're not wrong. Last year CD sales fell by 20% from 2009, marking the fourth year in a row of increasingly brutal decline. But despite this, Sony DADC this spring announced a $72 million expansion of its existing Terre Haute, Indiana, manufacturing plant, in which it makes compact discs, Blu-ray equipment, video games and other electronics, while employing some 1,312 people (the planned expansion will add another 100 jobs).

Why? Well, partly, it's just consolidation. With the closing of its Pittman, New Jersey compact disc plant, Sony DADC is merely shifting operations east (and shedding 200 jobs - the Pittman plant employed 300 people).

And partly, it's a question of demographics. You, future-embracing consumer that you are, may be eager to embrace the world of on-demand downloads or dodgy torrents, but Aunt Gertrude in Duluth is going to be hanging on to those newfangled CDs until the day she dies. And there are a heck of a lot of Aunt Gertrudes out there, with a good decade or so left in them.

These aren't examples of booming industries -- there's global competition for pencils, socks, ironing boards, sneakers, pianos, sparklers and electrical relays (the other examples cited in the article).

The reader who sent me the link said she thought the article was very interesting, but also a bit sad.

Still, there are plenty of North American manufacturing success stories. Think of that the next time you break out the Georgia-made chopsticks at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Steve Jobs' decision to resign as CEO of Apple Inc. last night is the biggest story on the business page today. Jobs is one of the rare corporate CEOs who became a household name. Newspaper readers understand that, no matter the company culture, Apple without Jobs will be a different company.

Apple may not be the No. 1 player in personal computers, but the company's impact in that market -- and in smartphones, tablet computers and portable media players -- has been significant.

And that's not limited to operating systems, software and features. Apple also put an emphasis on design -- the materials, the colors, the shapes -- that has been revolutionary.

That's one way that Jobs has had a major impact on the plastics industry.

Plastics News correspondent Roger Renstrom touched on Apple and plastics design in a sidebar story to a special report on electronics earlier this year.

Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian newspaper also wrote about Jobs' influence on design, in a feature today headlined "Steve Jobs: iDesigned your life."

Here's part of Glancey's column that highlights the plastics-related design breakthroughs at Apple:

One of Jobs's greatest contributions to design was the promotion of Jonathan Ive, the brilliant young British designer, to senior vice president of industrial design at Apple Inc in 1998. Jobs had been away from Apple for some years - creating Pixar and thus Toy Story in the interim - yet when he came back, he teamed up with Ive to create a range of hugely appealing products. The first was the colourful iMac of 1998, a bold attempt to break away from the dull world of beige and grey plastic computer cases. With its oddball marriage of boiled sweet colours and transparent plastics, the iMac was certainly eye-catching, and it also sold - two million in the first 12 months.

But Jobs and Ive really got into their stride in 2001 with the iPod MP3 player, a small, minimalist design that evoked the work of the legendary German designer Dieter Rams, who had done so much since the 1950s to make Braun products, from record players to electric shavers, sell in prodigious quantities worldwide. The iPhone (2007) and iPad three years later have seen the Jobs-Ive design partnership come to fruition. These lightweight yet well-made, jewel-like objects, with their crystal-clear screens, finally imbued the design of computers and digital gizmos with a seductive quality. Once seen and touched, sales were made.

Another way that Jobs has had an impact on plastics is related to material choices -- specifically those that have been the result of pressure from environmentalists.

For years, Greenpeace has pressured Apple to avoid PVC and brominated flame retardants. Long before the word "sustainability" become a buzzword, Apple's plastics material choices have been under a microscope.

Greenpeace determined that a significant number of Apple buyers cared about these issues. Apple, indeed, has paid attention, and it has adjusted its material portfolio as a result of the campaign.

Now that Jobs is retiring, will we see changes from Apple that will impact its plastics part and material suppliers? Or will the company be cautious about straying too far from Jobs' strategies?

The folks at Inc. magazine must have had a tough time picking the 5,000 fastest-growing U.S. companies this year.

Despite the sour economy, firms that managed to survive the recession have probably experienced growth between 2007 to 2010, the time frame that Inc. measured this year.

Paso Robles, Calif.-based IQMS -- a developer of enterprise resource planning software -- sent a news release today highlighting that it made the Inc. 5000 list for the first time this year. The company ranked No. 4,723, reporting three-year organic sales growth of 11 percent.

So I decided to check out the full list to look for other plastics-related companies.

After scrolling through 5,000 companies, I have no doubt that I missed some. But here are a few that I spotted:

• Injection molder Steinwall Inc ranked No. 3,909, with three-year sales growth of 35 percent. Plastics News readers know Steinwall -- the company was a finalist for our Processor of the Year award, and won our first-ever PN Excellence Award for employee relations.
• Integra Enclosures, a Mentor, Ohio-based manufacturer of polycarbonate and nonmetal enclosures used to protect electrical devices. The company ranked No. 3,872 on the Inc. list, with 2010 sales of $4.5 million and three-year sales growth of 36 percent.

All of the winners will be invited to an awards ceremony on Sept. 24 at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Md.

The reality TV craze is looking at the plastics industry this year -- well, sort of -- with a new program on Animal Planet that features an acyrlic fabricator.

It's not just any fabricator, though. The subject of "Tanked," which airs on Friday nights, is Acyrlic Tank Manufacturing Inc., a family-owned company, based in Las Vegas, that specializes in huge aquariums.

ATM appears to have some significant manufacturing capabilities -- check them out here.

Check out the video below for a sample of the type of tanks this company makes, or this link for more videos.

And for a taste of another acrylic fabricator that's doing impressive work, see Plastics News senior reporter Frank Esposito's feature story on Reynolds Polymer Technology Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo., which built a giant display enclosure for a historic carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York.

Trivia time: Which plastics material supplier pledged this week to donate $1 million over the next three years to the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra?

If you answered Lubrizol Corp., give yourself an appropriate fanfare.

The Wickliffe, Ohio-based company made headlines this week, and for a change it wasn't related to its pending acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The funds will go to the Cleveland Orchestra's Sound for the Centennial campaign. The money will go to the orchestra's education and community programs.

"We are honored to be in a position to support the Orchestra in such a significant way as they approach their centennial," said Chairman, President and CEO James L. Hambrick. "Beginning with Lubrizol's founders, the company has maintained a commitment to supporting the communities in which it operates and what better way to continue this tradition than with ensuring the future of the Orchestra, a true regional gem. We extend our best wishes for their continued success."

"Personal" computers have been around since the 1970s -- I worked on a TRS-80 in high school, and let's just say that was sometime before 1980. But today the world is celebrating the 30th birthday of the PC, because the IBM 5150 was introduced on Aug. 12, 1981.

PCs have used a lot of pounds of engineering resins in the past 30 years, and I've contributed my share. I must have 50 pounds of obsolete equipment in my basement and garage.

But the market is changing, and now analysts are wondering if the PC era is over.

On Wednesday, Mark Dean, chief technology officer for IBM Middle East and Africa, wrote on the company's "Building a Smarter Planet" blog that although he was proud to help design the first PC, he's also proud that IBM exited the PC business in 2005, when it sold that division to Lenovo.

"While many in the tech industry questioned IBM's decision to exit the business at the time, it's now clear that our company was in the vanguard of the post-PC era," Dean wrote.

I, personally, have moved beyond the PC as well. My primary computer now is a tablet. When I helped design the PC, I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness its decline. But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they're no longer at the leading edge of computing. They're going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.

PCs are being replaced at the center of computing not by another type of device--though there's plenty of excitement about smart phones and tablets--but by new ideas about the role that computing can play in progress. These days, it's becoming clear that innovation flourishes best not on devices but in the social spaces between them, where people and ideas meet and interact. It is there that computing can have the most powerful impact on economy, society and people's lives.

Is the PC era dead? I doubt it -- tech analysts and writers are always eager to write off yesterday's technology. Sure, PCs have replace typewriters. But I think we've got at least a decade or two left before PCs disappear.

U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith in Missouri has denied a request by plaintiffs' lawyers for class certification in lawsuits against six makers of polycarbonate baby bottles and sippy cups.

The ruling (PDF), dated July 5, involves a case with defendants Handi-Craft Co., Gerber Products Co., Playtex Products Inc., Evenflow Co. Inc., Nalge Nunc International Corp. and RC2 Corp.

The plaintiffs allege that the manufacturers failed to warn consumers of the dangers of BPA despite their knowledge of its alleged toxicity.

Denying class certification doesn't end the lawsuits. But it's interesting that the court had some comments about the debate over BPA safety, which it addressed in determining if the lawsuits could satisfy federal guidelines on "commonality."

Here's a portion of the ruling:

"Defendants contend - and the Court agrees - that a consumer's knowledge of BPA's existence and the surrounding controversy is legally significant. Knowledge of the controversy carries with it knowledge of the likelihood (or at least possibility) that a plastic baby bottle contained BPA. A consumer who knew about the controversy and also knew that the bottle s/he purchased contained BPA would have all the knowledge Plaintiffs allege should have been disclosed, and will have tremendous difficulty convincing a jury that the seller was unjustly enriched. Similarly, a consumer who knew about the controversy and exhibited no concern about whether the product purchased contained BPA may have difficulty convincing a jury that the seller was unjustly enriched. This same analysis holds true for claims under consumer protection statutes."

A fountain featuring rotomolded sharks -- could plastics be any more fun? Greg Lynn, a California-based architect, created the project for the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

Now the fountain is in the front yard of Lynn's home, and on Aug. 3 The New York Times featured a Q&A interview with the Ohio-born materials connoisseur.

Much of the interview is focused on the material, so here's a snippet of what Lynn has to say about plastics:

Plastics, as a material, are very nasty, but as an alternative to, let's say, a brick, which seems really natural, they start to look pretty good. They're very low energy to produce, very lightweight to transport and construct. That's why they're so popular. And that's part of the problem with plastic: it's so good and so cheap that it becomes disposable.

Seems fitting that the fountain was featured at the Hammer -- the museum was founded by Armand Hammer, former chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Check out the video for more about the project, Lynn's thoughts about plastics, and shots of the fountain under construction.

Many businesses are skittish about marketing sustainability benefits of their products these days because they are afraid of being branded as "greenwashers" -- I think that's especially true in the plastics sector.

But Jacquelyn Ottman, an adviser on green marketing and author of "The New Rules of Green Marketing: Strategies, Tools and Inspiration for Sustainable Branding," says skepticism shouldn't scuttle companies' sustainability efforts, or their marketing campaigns.

Ottman has a column today on sister publication Advertising Age subtitled "5 Steps for Gaining Consumer Trust Despite Greenwashing Fears."

Here are some samples:

• Thwart the most discriminating of critics by visibly making progress toward measurable goals. Being proactive in responding to the public's concerns and expectations starts with a visible and committed CEO. That's because CEOs can create an emotional link between the company and its customers. Empower your employees, too. Educate them on environmental issues and the specifics of their company's processes so they can fuel authentic communications about your company's green initiatives.
• Don't mislead. Be specific, prominent and comprehensive so as not to confuse. Consumers may claim to know what commonly used terms such as "recyclable" and "biodegradable" mean, but they can be easily mistaken -- creating risk for unsuspecting sustainable marketers.
• The best advice for green marketers is to adopt specific standards for disclosure of green initiatives and to follow the FTC Green Guides or other appropriate government guidelines.

Click the link to Ad Age for the full article, and check out her "Moving Sustainability Forward" white paper.

Don't expect this to be the last word on the issue, but the latest study on bisphenol A safety suggests that people don't accumulate enough of the chemical to cause harm.

The Wall Street Journal editorialized on the study yesterday. The research was led by Justin Teeguarden at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and published in the journal Toxicological Studies -- and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the WSJ report, subjects were fed a BPA-rich diet for 24 hours, then their blood and urine was monitored for traces of the chemical.

"The results of the study, which was duplicated in two separate government labs, may not change the fate of BPA in the court of public opinion," the newspaper editorialized. "Lost amid the hysteria were the benefits of BPA, including the fact that it helped to eliminate botulism in canned food. Where does a chemical go to get its reputation back?"

Maybe I've been following bag ban lawsuits for too long, but when I read this story today I chuckled.

According to The Beach Reporter, the former city attorney in Manhattan Beach, Calif., plans to file a lawsuit against the city. He's upset that he's not being credited with winning the landmark case that allows the city to ban plastic bags.

Former city attorney Robert Wadden was terminated in April. Then, earlier this month, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city in the bag ban case.

"Their argument in firing me was that I was not competent. But you have to be fairly competent to win a Supreme Court case," Wadden told The Beach Reporter, a weekly newspaper in Manhattan Beach.

Wadden, who is 62 and worked for the city for more than 15 years, says he plans to file an age discrimination case, and he is seeking at least $155,000 in severance.

According to the local story:

The city's elected leaders have applauded the ruling as a major victory for Manhattan Beach, but excluded mentioning Wadden in public remarks. His name was not included in a press release issued shortly after the ruling was announced, nor was it mentioned during a brief ceremony marking the victory at the most recent City Council meeting.

Wadden believes the lack of public recognition is intentional.

I guess the city could have saved itself some embarrassment by mentioning Wadden in their press release. Now the courts may have to decide who gets credit for winning the bag suit!

It's often fun to see what sorts of products that designers can create from plastics. Today I spotted an item in the Gizmodo blog that's worth sharing: the Frii, a super-strong all-plastic bicycle.

Gizmodo's Kwame Opam noted that design student Dror Peleg created the bike with flat-proof tires, a shorter fork, and a ribbed body.

"So, while its not winning any beauty pageants, it could probably take a good beating," Opam wrote.

There's a photo below of the colorful Frii. If you want to see more, or get more information, check Designboom.com.

Keith McLoughlin, president and CEO of appliance maker Electrolux AB, singled out rising resin costs yesterday when the company presented its latest quarterly results.

It's not surprising -- Electrolux reported that its quarterly sales and profits both fell, yet its raw material prices are rising. That's not a good trend.

McLoughlin said the company plans to raise prices to offset its higher costs -- "a risky strategy," The Wall Street Journal reports today, "given low consumer confidence in mature markets."

Electrolux raised some eyebrows last year when the company hired a marketing firm to help it scout the United States for injection molders that could help lower its part costs.

Is it a coincidence that now the company is blaming rising resin costs for its troubles? Electrolux looks like a company that's trying pretty hard to keep a close eye on its suppliers.

Mike SanClements, an ecologist at the University of Colorado, just concluded a two-week attempt to minimize the plastics in his life, which he blogged about for Grist.org.

I've blogged about "let's live without plastics" efforts before, and some of SanClements' observations are pretty typical. So let's focus on what he does differently.

He started the series by observing that plastic is "both amazing and horrible. Think about all the great things made from plastic -- the computer I'm typing on, our phones, medical and scientific equipment. I don't think wooden cell phones would work so well.

"At the same time, we use far too much plastic and the environmental and health effects are terrible. Plastic is made from fossil fuels so it's energy-intensive to produce. It doesn't go away when you put it in the trash and when you recycle it, it doesn't get used over and over and over again like aluminum."

SanClements had an entertaining post about trying to minimize plastics that he encounters because he has a dog, Hank. SanClements eventually purchases some biodegradable plastic bags (made from cornstarch) to clean up after Hank.

It's interesting how the term "plastic" is being applied only to materials that are made from natural gas or oil and take a long time to degrade. Is that intentional -- are suppliers of resins made from renewable materials and/or degrade more quickly intentionally avoiding the term "plastic"? I don't think so. But that's how SanClements uses the terms, and I think that's a pretty typical attitude these days.

Also interesting -- check out the comments from his readers about how they tackle the dog waste issue without using plastic bags.

SanClements concluded his series yesterday, noting that "it would be nearly impossible to avoid plastic entirely unless maybe you were homesteading in Alaska. Even then, I think you'd be hard pressed."

He then divides plastics into three categories -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

"The good is your phone, camera, computer, medical equipment, ski bindings, etc. These things last a long time and using plastic makes possible, or greatly improves, their performance. Backpacking with a canvas tent? I'm cool with nylon, thanks.

"The bad is stuff like plastic food storage containers. It gets reused over and over but while you are using it, who knows whether or not it's leaching nasty chemicals into your food? It's nice to know that in some instances, like water bottles, BPA-free plastics are now available for purchase.

"The ugly is what I call lazy plastic -- single-use plastic that's easily avoidable with almost no effort required to find a substitute. Plastic grocery bags are the king of ugly plastic. There is never a need to get a plastic grocery bag at the store. They should be banned. You can bring your bags and you can also bring your own bags for produce."

There's a crisis that takes the lives of millions of people every year -- lack of access to safe drinking water. Los Angeles-based pipe extruder JM Eagle has been working around the globe to ease that burden in developing nations.

In late 2009, the company shipped nearly 400 miles of pipe -- worth about $2 million -- to Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda, Ghana and Tanzania for water-related infrastructure projects. President and CEO Walter Wang also provided funding to engineer and design of the project, according to a news release from the company.

The company issued the release yesterday as Wang concluded a tour of water infrastructure projects that he helped support in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

"Piping water to these villages, step by step, will eventually lead them out of poverty and sickness and show them a prosperous future. I thank God we are so blessed to be able to do these projects," Wang said.

This is the latest in a string of water infrastructure projects for Walter and his wife, Shirley Wang, founder and CEO of fiberglass door maker Plastpro Inc.

In 2005, JM Eagle provided plastic pipe and other materials to transport drinking water from a mountain spring to a community of 5,000 people in Honduras, and supported a project to develop water delivery and sanitation systems for needy communities in northern Thailand.

In 2005, JM Eagle sent more than 70 miles of pipe to Potou, Senegal, providing water to 67 villages with a population of more than 13,500 people.

JM Eagle currently is working with the Millennium Villages Project, launched by Columbia University's Earth Institute in 2005, which is working to provide safer water to more than 125,000 people living in Africa.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, said: "With water there can be productive agriculture, good nutrition, sanitation and health. Without it there is only poverty and disease. I am pleased to be able to travel Africa again with my good friend Walter to see the difference our partnership is making to the future of the continent. Thanks to the generosity of private sector leaders like Walter, we are changing that."

There continues to be intense interest among many readers in biodegradable plastics.

A case in point: a story that we posted on June 1, "Biodegradable products in landfills may be harmful" was the third-most-accessed story on PlasticsNews.com in June.

The story, from our colleagues at Waste & Recycling News, said that biodegradable products such as some disposable cups and utensils may be doing more harm than good in landfills, because they release a powerful greenhouse gas as they break down.

Since there was so much interest, I want to make sure that readers notice that we've published a Perspective column from one of the authors of the study that prompted the first story.

The column, headlined "Collecting landfill gas good step," is by James Levis, a researcher and doctoral student at North Carolina State University.

Levis notes that he is aware that his report, "Is Biodegradability a Desirable Attribute for Discarded Solid Waste? Perspectives from a National Landfill Greenhouse Gas Inventory Model," had generated news headlines.

In some cases, he said, writers have drawn improper conclusions from the report.

For example, writers who he identified as anti-environmentalists "have tried to use the results to portray environmentalists and environmentalism as naive and/or misguided. This argument is nonsensical when made by those who deny anthropogenic climate change. This research is meaningless if one does not first accept basic climate science. The purpose of the research is to allow us to more effectively mitigate GHG emissions by making informed decisions."

What the study does suggest is that landfill operators should be much more aggressive about collecting methane from landfills. In addition, it suggests that "increasing composting infrastructure could also be beneficial if additional life-cycle research shows benefits from composting these materials instead of landfilling."

I know this won't be the final word on the merits of degradable plastics. But it should help to put the North Carolina State research into the proper perspective.

California had a long history of groups trying to secede from the rest of the state -- and the newest one has a plastics angle!

Jeff Stone, a member of the Riverside County board of supervisors, has proposed that 13 mostly inland, conservative counties break away from the rest of the state and form a new state of "South California.''

His proposed new state would include Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Tulare counties.

Los Angeles is the largest city in southern California, but it's not included in Stone's "South California" -- and that's where the plastics angle comes in.

Stone told Phil Willon of The Los Angeles Times:

"Los Angeles is purposely excluded because they have the same liberal policies that Sacramento does. The last thing I want to do is create a state that's a carbon copy of what we have now. ... Los Angeles just enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags. That put three or four manufacturers out of business.''

Willon's story notes that Stone's proposal has the proverbial's snowball's chance of actually going anywhere.

A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown called it "a supremely ridiculous waste of everybody's time," and a USC historian noted that secessionist movements are nothing new in California.

"It's never passed, and it will never pass. It's been up to bat 220 times and struck out every time," said USC history professor Kevin Starr.

Plastics News readers have a lot of interest in Dow Chemical Co.'s solar shingle project -- the company is actually injection molding durable plastic shingles that double as solar panels.

Carol Williams, a Dow group senior vice president and president of the chemicals and energy division, mentions the shingle project prominently today in an interview posted by James daSilva in the SmartBlog on Leadership.

"Driving the invention is solar, but innovation is putting it into the shingle," including making such shingles more energy- and cost-efficient for residential installations, Williams said.

She cites the shingle as an example of an innovative project that Dow is investing R&D dollars in, in hopes that the company can create a significant business by responding to major challenges facing society.

Williams says Dow invested $1.6 billion in R&D last year, while coming up with 500 projects that the company believes could generate $30 billion in sales.

A newbie might not think today's news is all that important -- the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association are forming an alliance to help the industry speak with a single voice in North America.

But formalizing this spirit of cooperation -- even naming it the North American Plastics Alliance -- is noteworthy. Especially in an industry that, despite its size, sometimes suffers from lack of political clout.

Mike Verespej, Plastics News' staff reporter in Washington, wrote about the agreement today. He points out that the alliance initially will focus on four areas: pellet containment, advocacy, energy recovery and initiatives aimed at getting key stakeholders to look more favorably on plastics.

Again, to a newcomer, the list of challenges that the industry is facing today may seem daunting and unprecedented: bag bans, PS foam container bans, regulatory concerns about the safety of bisphenol A and phthalates.

But scrutiny is nothing new to plastics. Think back to the late 1980s, when SPI formed the Council for Solid Waste Solutions. Just like today, plastic bags were under attack, PS foam was being banned, and chemical safety was on the public docket.

If anything, it's surprising how little has changed.

Yes, some of these issues are on the rise. Mike listed them in his story today:

• Some 22 communities in the United States have bans on plastic carryout bags, eight of them enacted this year. In addition, Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Md., have a 5-cent tax on paper and plastic carryout bags.
• In California alone, 36 cities and three communities -- most of them adjacent to the ocean -- have banned polystyrene takeout food-service containers.
• Nine states, the city of Chicago and four counties in New York have bans on BPA in baby bottles.

Considering those challenges, it's essential that the North American plastics industry's leading trade groups cooperate at all levels. And, to their credit, that's been the case -- at least in recent years.

But it wasn't that long ago that the groups were at odds. SPI and ACC went through a bitter divorce. For a while, they seemed to battle over anything and everything. Plastics News frequently took them to task in editorials, which didn't make us popular -- but they deserved the criticism. Disagreement contributed to balkanization, with special interest groups popping up outside the structure of what should have been the industry's umbrella organizations.

Today, the industry's leaders deserve credit for handling issues the right way. Their staffers regularly cooperate on important topics. And they recognize that they should formalize the relationships to make sure that they continue, regardless of who is in charge.

In journalism school, professors tell young reporters that conflict is news. But today, at least, cooperation is news. It's a welcome development.

Biodegradable plastics offer some promise for dealing with waste issues like litter and marine debris. But a new report prepared for the European Commission's Directorate-General Environment recommends more study before policymakers take actions that encourage manufacturers to redesign products to use biodegradable polymers.

The report (PDF), Plastics waste, redesign and biodegradability, considers the implications of redesign and increased use of biodegradable plastics.

Among the conclusions:

• The redesign of plastics and bioplastics has the potential to reduce the use of fossil fuels, decrease carbon dioxide emissions and decrease plastic waste.
• More agreement is needed on the use of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to assess the environmental impact of bioplastics and redesigned plastics and LCAs need to focus more on end-of-life analysis.
• Clearer definitions and better labeling on the new breeds of plastics are required as well as improved public communication.
• Assessments of the impacts on waste management infrastructure should be performed at a local and national level.
• Research is needed to assess the critical mass needed to make bioplastics affordable and to identify the most appropriate plastics to substitute.

The report doesn't go into a great deal of depth, but it is a useful primer for readers interested in the issues involved with the potentially growing market for biodegradable plastics.

A few weeks ago I asked Plastics Blog readers who had tried their hands in social marketing to share their best experiences.

Since then, I've been following those companies, and I've been quite impressed with their efforts.

I had promised to give away copies of Eric Schwartzman's book, "Social Marketing to the Business Customer," to the best three ideas. Today I'll share the winning ideas, along with a bit more information about the companies.

First up is John Spevacek, author of the "It's the Rheo Thing" blog, which I started following after his post. John writes about a wide variety of topics -- sometimes fun, sometimes technical, always with an authoritative voice and just enough of his personal opinion and experience. I highly recommend his work.

John shared this about his social marketing efforts:

Anytime I create a new post on my blog, I immediately go to Twitter and send a tweet. I know it directs more traffic to the site, and certain readers look first at the Twitter feed before going to the site. I know there are utilities that will allow for crossposting the Twitter feed to Facebook, but I haven't set that up yet. Ditto for LinkedIn.

Also, every once in a while I write a post that I consider pretty good and interesting. When that happens, I make sure (via a friend) that it is submitted to reddit. That really drives the traffic over.

Next up is Jennifer from ABC Plastics Inc., a plastic spool supplier in Lodi, Ohio. She's involved in the company's extremely active Facebook and Twitter pages -- follow them if you want frequent updates -- and a LinkedIn page with 120 connections.

Here's what Jennifer had to share:

We are using social media, but we haven't had our a-ha moment yet and come up with something imaginative, so I will use something I saw someone else do that I thought was pretty creative.

Last week there was a company trying to get to 3,000 fans on Facebook, so they promised a free t-shirt to the 3,000th fan. The number went up really fast until 2,998...it took a couple of minutes for someone to click "like" knowing they were about to let someone else win. Now they have 3,057 fans and one of them has a new t-shirt.

I did not know of this company before this and I did not actually find them on Facebook. They tweeted about the give-away and someone I follow on Twitter re-tweeted it. It did lead me to their Facebook page and I was too late for the t-shirt, but I am now a fan of a company I didn't even know existed. The hype over the t-shirt was enough to draw people to their page and see what they're all about.

Since her post, I've noted quite a few plastics companies using the "help us reach our goal" to win new followers, often with quick results.

Finally, there's Pam Aungst Teubner from E&T Plastics, a distributor and manufacturer that was established in 1946.

But don't let that fool you -- E&T may be an older company by plastics industry standards, but it's a leader in the newfangled world of social marketing.

E&T Plastics has a colorful, frequently updated blog, a very interactive Twitter feed, and a fun Facebook page.

Here's what Pam shared about her social marketing efforts:

Hubspot and MarketingProf are considered to be the two of the best examples of effective B2B social media. Their strategy is quite simple. They write whitepapers and host webinars and online virtual conferences that help their potential customers do their jobs. The information distributed is genuinely useful and valuable to the participants, even if the participant doesn't sign up for any of the hosting firm's services at the end.

This content-distribution strategy may not result in immediate acquisition of new customers, but it will develop a reputation for the hosting firm as an authority in its industry. Therefore, when a company does come across a need for a related service, the firm that established itself as an authority on the matter will come to mind first, and will be quite likely to get the sale in the end. This strategy also works well for lead generation, as the participants need to give their contact information in order to sign up. Again, even if that doesn't result in an immediate sale, the opportunity to make initial contact and a personal introduction from a salesperson could turn out to be profitable later on.

This strategy can be adopted to any industry with a little creativity. For example, Quicken Loans uses social media to distribute a steady stream of valuable information on how people can better manage their money. This increases satisfaction and retention among existing customers and attracts potential new customers.

The most effective part of this strategy is frequency. A steady stream of genuinely useful information, distributed via the company's website, blog, and all social media channels, is essential for establishing credibility in the eyes of the potential customer. If a prospect is visiting your website, blog, or social profile for the very first time, they will be much more likely to engage with you if they can scroll through a history of posts that are chock full of information useful to them. Only then will they click "like" or "follow" or "sign up for our webinar here", and those clicks are the meat and potatoes of your B2B social media success.

One individual brilliantly creative and imaginative B2B social media campaign may immediately increase a company's number of followers; however, those followers will not stay engaged unless they are being supplied with a steady flow of information that is useful to them. Therefore, I believe it to be more effective for the B2B marketer to focus their energy on their pipeline of useful content rather than searching for that one big-bang campaign idea.

Congratulations to John, Jennifer and Pam, and thanks for sharing your ideas with all the Plastics Blog readers. I encourage everyone to click on their links and learn more about their efforts.

The Monterey County Weekly in Seaside, Calif., is unhappy that many restaurants in its circulation area are ignoring local bans on polystyrene take-out containers. So the newspaper has created a database of offenders, and now it is asking readers to help add to the list.

"Nobody likes to tattle on their favorite restaurants. And we understand that in these times, any added expense is hard on business owners," Kera Abraham writes today. "But elected officials - like our own readers - have sent a strong and united message that getting this toxic stuff out of the waste stream (and natural streams) is worth the extra investment."

She writes that as of June 15, 18 local restaurants were apparently violating local PS bans, while 12 were in compliance.

City officials don't really have the time or staff to go around and check on whether restaurants are complying with bans. So if anyone is going to pressure them to do so, it's likely to be local papers like this one, and grassroots environmental groups.

Even if 99 percent of customers don't care if a restaurant is using PS take-out containers, it takes just one complaint to draw attention to an offender.

So while I don't think most patrons would bother to report a violation, this "tattle" strategy could work in towns where the local media embrace the bans.

Galveston County's The Daily News is speculating today about the future of Sterling Chemical Inc.'s plasticizer plant in Texas City, Texas.

The story, "Is Eastman Chemical scoping Texas City plant?," notes local rumors that Eastman Chemical Co. is interested in buying the operation.

Business reporter Laura Elder, who wrote the item for her twice-weekly Biz Buzz column, also posted it in her Buzz Blog today, so watch that space, and the blog's comment section, for more speculation on the potential deal.

Jon Huntsman Jr. -- former plastics company executive, governor of Utah and ambassador to China -- is officially in the 2012 race for the GOP nomination for president.

Huntsman made the announcement today at Liberty Park. Check out the video. Pundits say Huntsman is doing his best to evoke the memory of Ronald Reagan, and I think they're right. Even the new commercials showing Huntsman riding a motorcycle through the desert remind me of the old shots of Reagan riding his horse around the ranch in California.

Huntsman isn't the front-runner, and the plastics industry's poor public image isn't his primary problem. But you have to believe he has a chance. The Daily Beast ran a story a few weeks ago, "How Jon Huntsman could win in 2010," that makes his case.

Would you pay $600 to vacuum the carpet at your trade show booth -- just once? That's how much one exhibitor paid at a recent trade show at Chicago's McCormick Place.

Remind anyone of the $345.39 that an exhibitor at NPE famously paid for four cases of Pepsi?

The vacuuming charge is highlighted in a big investigative story in this week's Crain's Chicago Business (one of our sister newspapers), headlined "Contractors, trade associations squeeze convention exhibitors at McCormick Place."

The story goes into detail about the cost of exhibiting at trade shows at McCormick Place. Instead of focusing on just the unions, Crain's Chicago's James Ylisela Jr. spent three months investigating all the issues -- especially the mark-ups charged by general contractors at the show, Freeman and Global Experience Specialists Inc. (GES).

Vlisela also explores the roles that show organizers -- primarily trade associations -- have played in the McCormick costs debate.

Today Crain's Chicago posted an interactive calculator on its web site that allows readers to see how much it would cost to exhibit at the convention center.

Pittsfield, Mass., is well known in plastics circles as the home of Sabic Innovative Plastics --formerly GE Plastics. The city and the company are just about synonymous. So it makes perfect sense that the city, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary, is marking the event with a plastic memento.

According to this story from the Berkshire Eagle, Sabic Innovative Plastics and local injection molder Hi-Tech Mold & Tool Inc. created 3,000 limited-edition, commemorative medallions to mark the city's incorporation.

The medallions, made of Lexan polycarbonate, "depicts an historic image of Park Square and the old elm tree; the other side commemorates the plastics industry's long and innovative history in Pittsfield."

Sabic donated the resin in three different colors. The medallions will be on sale during the city's "Welcome Back Reunion Weekend," July 1-4, for $3 each, or for $5 with a display sleeve.

Way to embrace that plastics heritage, Pittsfield!

General Motors Co. is honoring the supplier that spearheaded a program to recycle hundreds of miles worth of used oil booms from the Gulf of Mexico and use the material in car parts.

Mobile Fluid Recovery Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., worked with the Detroit-based automaker previously on efforts to clean and recycle rags used during auto production.

The multi-company effort headed by Mobile Fluid Recovery cleaned and recovered more than 200 miles of polypropylene, polyethylene, PVC and other materials from booms used in the 2010 oil spill cleanup in the Gulf.

The plastics were then used in air baffles for the Chevrolet Volt electric car.

GM announced in a June 10 news release that it gave the company is Environmental Excellence Award for providing unique recycling ideas and collaboration on projects.

(Thanks to Rhoda Miel, Plastics News' staff reporter in Detroit, for writing this up).

It's a pleasure to report tonight that Plastics News was honored by the Press Club of Cleveland with two Excellence in Journalism 2011 awards.

The entire Plastics News editorial staff was honored with a second place in the "Best Trade Publication in Ohio" award. PN actually tied with a sister publication, Waste and Recycling News, in the category.

Here's what the judges had to say about PN and WRN: "These publications made it difficult to pick one over the other, as both are jam packed with relevant news for their industry and provide must-have content for their audience."

I couldn't have said it better myself! (First place in the category went to a landscaping magazine).

PN also was honored in the "Departments or Columns" category. I received a second place award for my Viewpoint columns. (First place went to Michael Feuer of Smart Business Cleveland).

It's a treat to be recognized by our peers in journalism for the work we do every day for our readers. Congratulations team!

After I posted a video tour of Marglen Industries' PET recycling plant yesterday, I received an email link to another good recycling plant tour. So today I encourage readers to check out Placon Corp.'s EcoStar recycling plant in Fitchburg, Wis.

Jennifer Mitchell, Placon's marketing communications manager, says the company put together the video to provide a virtual tour the new recycling facility.

"We wanted to show the recycling story, not only tell it," she said. "Our EcoStar facility is unique in its ability to run mixed thermoform bales as well as bottles. Watching how it starts out as dirty plastic and comes out clean food-grade flake is quite the process. There are several washing cycles, sorting processes, metal detectors and even a decontamination process that can only clearly be explained by watching how it flows through."

Mitchell brought up another good reason for companies to create video tours of their plants (I mentioned a few in my blog post yesterday) -- it helps potential customers who have limited travel budgets.

"Many of our customers were interested when we announced we were adding this facility, but with traveling freezes it isn't always possible for companies to come and tour it," she said.

"This video has been used for more than customers though. We showed it at our open house a few weeks ago prior to employees and local community members going through the plant.

"Even with a tour guide it is difficult to hear the step-by-step process so this familiarizes them before they go in and may prompt some additional questions as they go through."

Placon hired a local company in Madison, Wis., to shoot and edit the video.

"We discussed trying to do it ourselves but because of the noise level from the machines it is hard to take a camera through and do it at a level we would be happy with," Mitchell said. "We are very pleased how it turned out and summarizes the story."

I hope the Marglen and Placon examples encourage more plastics processors to look into how they might use video to help promote their companies.

I don't think we're to this point yet, but perhaps it's almost here: At a debate in Aspen, Colo., yesterday on "Rethinking plastics," one participate made the argument that the time for debate is over -- single-use plastics should be banned.

That's the position of David de Rothschild, an environmentalist and author who in 2010 made a trip across the Pacific in a boat made from recycled plastics to raise awareness of ocean debris.

According to this report from The Aspen Times, Rothschild "said the debate is getting bogged down because the American Chemistry Council (ACC) is pumping millions of dollars annually into a campaign to warn people that the 'plastics police' will ruin the economy."

"Rothschild said the argument that banning plastic grocery bags will doom the economy is ridiculous. It will benefit imperiled ocean life and improve the food chain that threatens human health, he claimed," according to Scott Condon's report.

Rothschild was participating in "Rethinking Plastic: Design, Reuse and Recycling," a panel discussion that was part of the 4-day Aspen Environment Forum.

The plastics industry was represented at the debate by Marsha Craig, engineering polymers global business manager for DuPont Co. She's quoted in Condon's report talking about plastics recycling, adding: "I'm an optimist. I think plastics are good. I think they are going to get better."

I've been to my share of plastics recycling plants, but for Plastics Blog readers who have not, here's a nice video tour of a Marglen Industries plant in Georgia, courtesy of the International Bottled Water Association.

"This video traces the path that an empty bottles travels, from a bound bale to being made into clean plastic flake that is then heated and converted to make either food-grade [recycled PET] pellets, which are used to make PET containers for food, or rPET fiber which is used in pillows, mattresses and carpeting," said Tom Lauria, IBWA's vice-president of communications

The video highlights the technology used to recycle PET, as well as the persistent issue that recyclers have getting enough bottles to feed their plants.

"We hope that this video will help promote recycling through a better understanding of the need for more recycled material and the useful products that can be made from empty PET bottles," Lauria said.

Other manufacturers might consider doing similar videos to highlight their technology and processes. They could come in handy helping to recruit new talent and in explaining the importance of your business to your community.

I've blogged many times about thieves targeting plastic pallets and crates, and various efforts to foil them. The state of Arizona is raising the ante, with a new law aimed specifically at protecting plastic pallets.

Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services writes about the effort today in a story on the Arizona Daily Star's website, "New rules aim to stop theft of plastic pallets."

One bottling company executive quoted in the story estimates his firm spends $700,000 replacing pallets that "disappear."

"At night, people go out and scavenge and sell them," said John Kalil, vice president of Kalil Bottling Co. in Tucson. "If you're unemployed, lack cash, have a pickup truck, you're in business. We need something to shut them down."

According to the story, starting July 20 if a company -- for example, a plastics recycler or scrap dealer -- buys more than five pallets at a time that have a company logo, they'll have to collect personal information from the seller, including name, phone number, driver's license and license plate information. The buyers will have to keep the information on file for a year.

The penalty for failing to comply is a fine of up to $30,000.

Some states have similar laws that apply to other frequently stolen recyclables, like copper piping and catalytic converters.

I didn't know until today that Manoj Bhargava, CEO of Living Essentials LLC, maker of the popular 5-Hour Energy drink, has a background in the plastics industry.

The news comes from Plastics News' sister publication Crain's Detroit Business, which has a story on Bhargava's new $100 million venture fund.

According to PN's story archives, Bhargava was formerly the majority owner of Prime PVC Inc., a Marion, Ind., compounder that was purchased by investment firm Spell Capital Partners LLC in 2007.

Crain's Detroit reporters Daniel Duggan and Dustin Walsh pieced together a story on Bhargava -- a difficult task, since he is not well known and has done few interviews.

"In 1998, he started Innovative Ventures LLC after he bought the formula for a drug for hangovers from a New Jersey chemist," they wrote. "The product was later named Chaser and was the start of Bhargava's success. He created Living Essentials as a new arm to market Chaser."

In December he spoke at a Beverage Digest conference, where he said the company had exceeded $1 billion in sales since it was introduced in 2004, $500 million of which from 2009.

Bhargava's investment venture is already giving him a higher profile in Michigan business circles. The co-founder of the initiative is Tom LaSorda, former CEO of Chrysler Group LLC.

NewsChannel 8 in Washington is reporting that 38 percent of the business there are not complying with the city's 5-cent-per-bag tax on single-use plastic and paper grocery bags.

The station's report quotes an unidentified official with the district's ">Department of the Environment who has been visiting stores as a "secret shopper" to check on whether they're complying with the law.

My question: Why are they failing to comply?

According to the story, the problem is that stores "simply don't understand" the law. Also, many shoppers don't understand that the law applies to businesses like sporting goods stores and hot dog stands.

This is something other cities mulling bag taxes will have to consider -- there will be a cost associated with enforcing the law, even if it's just aimed at educating retailers.

Some technology-related websites are buzzing that the new white iPhone 4 is 0.2 millimeters thicker than the black model. (Don't believe me? Do a Google search on "0.2 millimeters.")

Blogger Ryan Cash first noticed the difference when the white version of the phone came out in late April. He actually noticed that it felt thicker, so he measured both versions. Cash works in marketing for Marketcircle, a company that makes business apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

At first Apple tried to dismiss the story. Senior Vice President Phil Schiller tweeted: "It is not thicker, don't believe all the junk that you read."

But the story wouldn't go away, so Apple finally tried to explain -- while emphasizing that 0.2 millimeters really doesn't make a difference, even to iPhone accessory manufacturers.

Today PC Magazine takes a more in-depth look at the issue.

Some of you are probably thinking, "it's because the white ones are painted." But PC Magazine points out that "a coat of paint is so thin, thinner than a human hair ... it wouldn't account for anything more than a couple of thousands of a millimeter."

It turns out that the thickness issue is actually related to the plastic case. The white iPhone does have some design and engineering difference from the black model. But the bottom line is that there are small -- and apparently unintentional -- differences in the injection tooling used to mold the cases.

PC Magazine calls the issue "Sizegate," but it's clearly tongue in cheek. Peter Pachal, the website's news director, writes that Apple must have been aware of the difference, but officials decided that because it had no practical effect, they didn't need to say anything.

"Given that there haven't been any reports of people lining up to return cases they bought for their white iPhones, you could conclude (rightly) that a difference of 0.15 millimeters simply isn't a big deal after all," he writes.

"'Sizegate' certainly isn't on par with the iPhone 4's antenna problems that plagued the phone upon its initial release. But for anyone who's ever looked at a spec sheet as definitive, it's a reminder that every number cited is really just an average, and your mileage may vary. Sometimes a lot," Pachal said.

Maybe a molder making a case for a high-end product like the iPhone doesn't have to worry too much about a few extra grams of plastic. But I doubt it.

If you've ever been to the finish line at a marathon -- at least in a cold-weather location like Cleveland -- you know that runners wrap themselves in disposable blankets that look like giant pieces of aluminum foil to stay warm after the long race.

But runners don't tend to like to carry a lot of extra gear, so most of the blankets are discarded at the end of the day.

Let's see, we've got a relatively large volume of a material made of an identical material -- This sounds like an opportunity for a recycler, right? You've got it.

Today AFM Inc., the manufacturer of Heatsheets-brand blankets, announced that it worked with wood-plastic composite decking and railing manufacturer Trex Co. Inc. to recycle the finish line blankets from the Greater Washington Sports Alliance's SunTrust National Marathon on March 26.

According to the companies, this was the first race to participate in the new program, which allows events of any size to recycle and repurpose their Heatsheets thermal-reflective finish line blankets at Trex collection facilities across the country for transformation into durable decking and railing products.

"The Blankets to Boards program allowed us to easily recycle our Heatsheets, reduce our event's waste and improve our environmental impact while still providing the finish line blankets that runners need, especially on a cold day," said Daniella Levy, event manager for the Greater Washington Sports Alliance and finish line director for the SunTrust National Marathon.

With temperatures dipping into the low 30s during the marathon, the Greater Washington Sports Alliance provided 12,000 Heatsheets to runners. Approximately 2,000 - or 16 percent - were returned for recycling.

The sheets, which are made of low density polyethylene, were taken to a local Safeway store, then sent on to Trex.

Did you know that plastic food is a big business in Japan, and it's growing in China? This surprised me, but it's the topic of an informative report on the OddityCentral blog -- complete with some great photos of some realistic-looking plastic food.

According to the report, Japanese restaurants started to use wax models of meals in 1917, and eventually manufacturers shifted to plastic. The manufacturing process is pretty complicated:

Restaurants send fake food makers the exact item they want replicated, along with photos. Silicon is poured around and over the disk and solidifies into a mold, which is then filled with liquid plastic and cooked in an oven. Then comes the really hard part - getting the details right. Oil based paints, regular brushes, air brushes, knives and carving tools are all part of fake food artist's arsenal, but they all keep their techniques a secret.

Maiduru Corp. is one of the big players in the market, check out their website for more photos of plastic food.

According to Wikipedia.com, which actually has a listing for "Fake food in Japan" (isn't the web wonderful?), Japanese makers of plastic food now are targeting restaurants overseas, including in China.

The Safer Chemicals/Healthy Families blog is right -- this video "will both make you laugh and make you mad."

But I'm not sure it will be in the ways they intended.

The Xtranormal video is a make-believe interview of a chemical company spokesman by a mom who apparently has her own late-night TV talk show.

The chemical guy says ridiculous things like "toxic chemicals are perfectly safe already. The real problem is people who worry too much," and "scientists worry too much, they're scaring people with too many facts."

The interview concludes when the mom offers the chemical industry guy a drink from "a plastic water bottle made by your company. It contains chemicals that have been shown to lower sperm counts."

Not exactly a fair debate.

The video equates the plastics bottle maker with the chemical industry, and personifies industry with a PR-speaking buffoon who says one ridiculous thing after another.

For readers who want to dig deeper than what the video offers, the Safer Chemicals/Healthy Families blog does offer more information on bisphenol A safety in its "resources" section. The information is even presented pretty fairly, considering it's specifically there to convince the public to lobby Congress for tighter regulations on BPA.

It's another interesting example of how the debate on plastics and chemicals safety is playing out in social media, with easy-to-use tools like blogs, YouTube and Xtranormal.

Congratulations to Trexel Inc., which on May 11 received a 2011 Smaller Business Innovation Award from the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE).

The NEIA program recognizes companies that have transformed innovative ideas into products and services that deliver proven value to customers.

Steve Braig, president & CEO of Trexel, said in a news release: "This is a great honor for our company, as nearly 200 companies competed in this year's competition. It's a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees, who continue to build a strong, innovative and rapidly-growing global business in the plastics industry."

Trexel is well known in plastics circles for its MuCell microcellular foaming technology, which allows injection molders to make parts faster and using less material with enhanced dimensional stability.

Trexel was one of nine companies honored this year, and the only plastics firm.

(Two other winners have tangential plastics connections: Biovation LLC, a Boothbay, Maine, company that develops non-woven fiber products with antimicrobial properties for food packaging, wound care and customer OEM applications; and TEI Biosciences Inc., a Boston biomedical company that makes devices used for soft tissue repairs).

Injection molder Cascade Engineering Inc. is continuing its annual report on its "triple bottom line," noting its efforts in promoting environmental and social progress as well as economics.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based firm recently released details for 2010, which are available as a pdf file here.

Cascade notes its continued reduction in waste going to landfills, its use of post-consumer recycled content and investments in solar as well as wind power. The company's welfare-to-work program averaged a 97.13 percent retention rate, while Cascade's pink trash carts -- which support breast cancer awareness programs -- are now available in 35 states.

The report also notes new efforts for 2010. Cascade -- aided by donations from Dow Chemical Co. and other groups -- worked with the U.S. Navy to send 1,000 large scale water filters to Haiti following the earthquake there.

"The U.S. Navy's Project Handclasp provided the logistics to get the filters transported to Haiti and through customs. Another willing partner, Pure Water For The World, was waiting on the ground in Haiti to begin installations while our local neighbor, Amway, provided chlorinators and de-chlorinators to make the filters work immediately," the report notes.

"Since the original filters were installed, we have continued to receive emails, pictures and stories about how the filters have impacted lives. In one orphanage, many children used to be seriously ill from the water, but thanks to the filter they are no longer at risk due to unsafe drinking water. Our filter was even profiled on a CNN broadcast. The Navy has also shared with us that it is the, 'No. 1 requested item on all of the ships,' because of its effectiveness and the positive impact it has on people's lives."

CK Technologies also joined an outreach program working with the Toledo Correctional Institution inmates while Cascade also participated in two different youth job mentoring programs.

Yash Awasthi, vice president of operations at PET resin manufacturer AlphaPet Inc., had a first-hand experience with a line of storms and tornadoes that hit the company's Decatur, Ala., plant on April 27.

AlphaPet's parent company, Bangkok, Thailand-based Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd., shared Awasthi's story today in a news release headlined "Personal description of the tornados that hit Alabama in April 2011."

His story is so powerful that I'm sharing it with Plastics Blog readers. It's very interesting to see how a company dealt with the disaster, as well as the local and corporate response in the aftermath. Perhaps it will help other companies with their disaster preparedness planning.

Here's Awasthi's story:

"It was a day of tornado warnings: 141 warnings, one after the other. The weathermen had predicted damaging winds throughout the day. The first siren went off at 10:00 am and all of us evacuated the plant and gathered at the designated spot next to the break room. After a while, we received the all clear signal and went back to our work areas. At 11:15 I got a grim forecast of what was about to happen. One of the DCS operators was watching the rooftop security camera and spotted a twister north of us and alerted everybody of the impending danger. We began to hear about the tornados on the radio. Normally, we would have waited for the siren, but as I looked out of my window and saw the menacing dark clouds, I ordered everyone in the trailer to rush to the evacuation site. It was almost too late.

"Gas cylinders came flying toward us as we made a sprint for the Utility building. Everyone made it to shelter without injury. Heavy rain and golf ball-sized hail hammered the building. The storm passed and during the calm weathermen announced that even more powerful storms were expected in the afternoon. The schools announced that they would dismiss early. It was then that we decided to send as many people home as we could to take care of their families as well as reduce the number of people on site.

"It was 4:15pm when the next big twister came our way after decimating three communities about five miles away. The tornado passed just northwest of the BP facility, about a mile from us, and badly damaged several companies across the road - literally demolishing everything in its path, including the 500KV power lines that supply much of the power to northern Alabama. Power failed immediately and we were left huddled inside the process building next to the break room in the dark. We held each other and prayed.

"It was at this point that we realized that nothing could be done to deal with the forces of nature. In total darkness, everyone had to sit for the next two hours as the storm whooped and whined outside relentlessly. Just after 7:00pm the weather subsided and it was safe for us to go outside. Portable generators were arranged to try and drain the polymer in the process lines but all the lines in the plant had frozen. In the early morning hours we realized this was going to be a lengthy and complex process. We decided to call everything off and wait for the resumption of power. The shift crew did an excellent job of making sure everybody was safe.

"The next day we made calls to the homes of all our employees to find out if they were okay. Fortunately, all employees and their immediate families were safe although some had lost some of their extended family members. Around 252 people died in Alabama during those storms when 21 tornados hit the state. Five employees suffered extensive damage to their homes, though there was no appreciable damage to AlphaPet.

"Frantically, we struggled to get generators on site to hasten the plant's restart process. It was quite a scramble to locate large enough generators but our team did a great job in locating the type we needed. Our colleagues over at Starpet in North Carolina pitched in, to our eternal gratitude. Power was restored after a week and the start up activities commenced.

"All around Alabama it was like living in the Stone Age once again. No power in over 650,000 homes, no gasoline, no shops, no communications - yes, no internet, TV or phones - and limited water supply. Food in the refrigerator started spoiling. Everyone started having cook-outs in the evenings to use it all up.

"Finally, power in our homes was restored after about 5 days. As a humanitarian effort we have extended some financial support to employees who suffered damage to their homes and some support to the other employees who faced particular hardship. Food was arranged at the plant for the workers who were helping to restore things back to normal. Our PET CEO, Mr. Dilip Kumar Agarwal, flew in to speak with the shift crew on Sunday May 8 and offer some comfort. His sincere empathy was felt by everyone. The BP Chemicals site next to us also offered excellent support throughout and we thank them for this gesture."

Every once in a while I run across the blog post so complete and entertaining that it leaves me with almost nothing to add. That's the case today with Nicola Twilley's post on TheAtlantic.com, "The Rise of the Plastic, Disposable Coffee Cup Lid."

Twilley covers the history and industrial design highlights of the lowly coffee cup lid, with special attention to the Solo Traveler, a favorite of some industrial design experts. But she doesn't stop there.

Despite the Solo Traveler's celebrity status, to my mind, these lids are most interesting when considered as a group, unified by function and yet differentiated in form. Patton, Harpman, and others have traced their design evolution over time, from the 'primitive days' of simple vented plastic circles, through the invention of the sip tab, to the multi-functional straw/sip-through domes of today.

She cites an I.D. Magazine feature story by design historian and author Phil Patton, who had a collection of more than 30 lids that was once on display at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

A lid also was featured in a 2004 exhibit titled "Humble Masterpieces" at the Museum of Modern Art.

Check TheAtlantic.com for all of Twilley's research, and enjoy her links.

Get ready to meet "Kai," a real goldfish that is the centerpiece of a social media-focused ad campaign designed to raise awareness of plastic marine debris.

The campaign, on behalf of Project Kaisei, a non-profit ocean cleanup initiative, was created by advertising agency Cohn & Wolfe.

The plan? They're putting "Kai" (pronounced Kī) in a fish tank filled with plastic trash. Starting today, for the next 30 days, the sponsors will stream live video of the tank on the "Kai's Home" Facebook page.

In order to "Save Kai" and remove plastic from his tank, Facebook friends can make donations to the project. As donations increase, plastic debris will be removed.

Does this remind anyone else of the iconic National Lampoon cover from January 1973, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog?"

"With this campaign we want to help people around the world to understand the impact of plastic pollution in the ocean and rethink our use of materials that end up there as debris," said Doug Woodring, co-founder of Project Kaisei.

Cohn & Wolfe prepared the campaign as part of a pro-bono partnership with Project Kaisei -- the goal was to create a project that would cost just $1,000, be orchestrated in 30 days, and raise 10 times that amount to help fund Project Kaisei's next ocean expedition.

"This was a creative exercise to push our people's thinking to the outer limits, giving them almost no money or time to design a program that would accomplish something rewarding. Who knew the idea would center on a single goldfish? We know people will donate to help save Kai," said Cohn & Wolfe Chief Creative Catalyst Jeremy Baka.

The Plastics Blog is pleased and humbled to be included on "50 Best Blogs for Industrial Design Students," a list put together by OnlineUniversities.com.

The list is described as "50 blogs that anyone interested in learning more about great product design should check out, with news, stunning photos and tips that can help you improve your skills in the field."

Check the link for the whole list. They include 12 "Must-Read" blogs including Core 77, Yanko Design, Product Design Hub, Industrial Design History, Industrial Design Served, CAD CAM News, Embody 3D, ID Tuts, Planet Industrial Design, Get It Made, Industrial Design Sandbox and IDSA News.

There are also blogs listed under the "General Design," "Inspiration," "Designers and Firms," "The Business of Design" and "Niche" categories.

The Plastics Blog is in that last category, with this description: "So much of what we use and what you'll be designing will require plastics. Why not learn a bit more about it now? Start with this blog."

In the wake of natural disasters we often see US plastics companies lend a hand, donating money, plastic sheeting and bottled water. Now, following the storms and tornadoes that hit the South on April 28-29, the shoe is on the other foot.

According to Alabama Atty. Gen. Luther Strange, the government of Japan has donated 150 "huge pieces of plastic sheeting," as well as 8,000 blankets, to the state's tornado victims -- even as Japan itself is recovering from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"As I have traveled throughout Alabama this last week visiting with people who are struggling from the tornado damage, I can assure that these supplies are greatly needed and will be much appreciated by our people. This gesture is a sign of the goodwill between our countries, for which we are thankful," Strange said.

Takuji Hanatani, consul general of Japan, at the Japanese Consulate in Atlanta; and Keiichiro Nakazawa, chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Washington, represented the Japanese government at a recent ceremony in Alabama.

The other day at Antec, someone asked a question during my panel discussion about how plastics recycling could be more like aluminum. The question kicked off a good discussion on the differences between the materials.

Today the "Save the Plastics" blog posted an item on high density polyethylene recycling that, if I'd seen it last week, I could have cited it as a source. So for the benefit of everyone, I'll share it here.

According to the blog, recycling HDPE makes great sense these days, in part because of the high costs of energy and virgin resin.

Here's the part that reminded me of aluminum: according to the post, "converting previously used HDPE plastic into resin uses 90 percent less energy than virgin resin to produce."

On the aluminum side, we've often seen the claim that recycling scrap aluminium requires only 5 percent of the energy used to make new aluminium.

Of course aluminum is more expensive than plastic, so the comparison isn't perfect. But that's a great fact that Plastics Blog readers can cite in support of the commercial viability of plastics recycling.

I'm at the Society of Plastics Engineers' Antec 2011 conference today in Boston. My head is just spinning a bit after sitting in on forums with names like "High temperature polyimide film for roll-to-roll copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) deposition."

All good stuff, and thoroughly researched. I love how the Q&A after a technical presentation can be so specific -- or how sometimes an entire roomful of experts has no questions at all!

SPE provided some facts and figures today about the conference:

• Experts will make more than 700 presentations at 108 topical sessions this year.
• Paper and presentation submissions were up 25 percent from 2010 levels.
• Student presentations have hit a 10+ year high.

Next year, Antec will take place April 2-4 in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the NPE 2010 trade show.

There's a spirited discussion about BPA safety and science reporting taking place in Milwaukee this week. One point that it reinforces to me: If you want to get a journalist's attention, attack his ethics.

Jon Entine, director of the Genetic Literacy Project at STATS, writes about the controversy today in The American, the Journal of the American Enterprise Insititute.

The post, headlined "Milwaukee's Best No Longer," goes into detail about the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's coverage of a report about BPA safety by the German Society of Toxicology.

(Entine first gave the German report a wider audience last week, as I covered in this previous post).

I've been watching the Journal Sentinel's coverage on its web site this week. Even before I saw Entine's post today, I thought the debate was quite interesting.

There's obviously disagreement about BPA safety between the paper's news reporters and editors and a conservative columnist. The dispute seems to have spilled over into the paper's own web site, with a spirited debate in the comments section.

I won't recap everything here -- check Entine's post for the full story and his links.

I doubt this will be the last word on the issue. The Journal Sentinel has put a lot of resources behind its BPA reporting. So I expect it will take steps to defend its credibility.

It will be interesting to see if, in the end, the paper decides to keep both of its conflicting "voices" that it has speaking about BPA -- its news reporters and editors, and its conservative columnist.

Plastic bag bans and taxes remain hot issues. Five U.S. communities have approved bans so far this year. And the state of Oregon could be next.

The Oregon legislature is considering a bill that would ban plastic bags. The industry is fighting back, and now residents are hearing radio ads urging legislators to reject the bill.

Plastics News staff reporter Mike Verespej wrote last month about the pro-bag effort, spearheaded by major bag maker Hilex Poly Co. LLC.

The company created a website -- www.bagthebanoregon.com -- in addition to bankrolling radio and newspaper ads, and submitting editorial page columns to newspapers around the state.

I thought it would be interesting to share the radio ads with Plastics Blog readers, so here's a link to the "bagthebanoregon" multimedia page with the latest spots.

To summarize, the ads stress pretty strongly that if the ban passes, grocery prices would go up -- not a popular consequence in Oregon's troubled economy.

The ads also touch on some other hot buttons likely to appeal to some voters: Doesn't the legislature have more important issues to deal with? A ban would threaten U.S. jobs -- they even call them "green jobs." Reusable bags aren't as clean as single-use bags.

These are arguments that we'll likely see repeated elsewhere around the country, anywhere that a serious bag ban proposal surfaces.

The economic angle has been successful before -- voters aren't likely to support proposals that hit them in the pocketbook. Will that strategy work in Oregon?

You might not expect an interview with an environmental activist to include comments like "Plastic can be an incredibly reusable, resilient, sustainable material."

But that's the case with David de Rothschild, who is now pitching his new book "Plastiki: Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans."

Joe Fassler has a nice Q&A interview with Rothschild on The Atlantic's web site today.

I've blogged about Rothschild's mission before -- about the little boat made of recycled PET bottles, and about his effort to promote a recycled PET resin called Seretex. So we won't cover that again.

But the entire interview is very much focused on plastics, so I'll encourage you to click the link, while teasing you with a couple of the questions and Rothschild's answers:

Why do you think the plastic industry hasn't tapped into long-term use for its plastics? Wouldn't it make their own products more valuable?

"No. It's the high-volume, high-consumption model. The margins on a straw, say, are tiny. They want to sell 60 billion straws every year to make their profits, as opposed to something where you buy one, and that's it. It's not in the interest of the plastic industry to make products that are reusable and last longer when they're making money on high-volume, low-margin products, and churn, and consumption. It's an age-old problem: we live in a disposable society. At one point, it was a sign of affluence, I guess. These days, we've become highly suspicious of hygiene--so we use plastic forks once and throw them out. And we're hooked on convenience."

It's interesting that plastic is both villain and hero of your story. Yes, plastic's a dangerous, ubiquitous pollutant--but it's also a useful industrial material with vast untapped sustainable-design potential. How should we feel about it?

"I think we have to recognize that plastic's not going to disappear any time soon, and we've got learn to live with the consequences of our modern materials. Plastic can be an incredibly reusable, resilient, sustainable material. It can be the right material. Look at the number of applications--you're sitting on a plastic phone, writing notes on a plastic computer, using a plastic pen to draw up some other notes. When you look around, you see how ubiquitous it is. It's probably the most ubiquitous of all man-made materials."

Cigarette butts are a big component of litter, but they are difficult to deal with and often overlooked. Blake Burich, from the Columbus suburb of Dublin, Ohio, thinks he has a solution.

Burich's company, InnovaGreen Systems, is touting a process for turning the cellulose acetate butts into a material that can be used to make new products.

The Columbus Dispatch published a feature story on Burich a few weeks ago.

According to the story, Burich has patented a process to recycle the filters by mixing them with different solvents, creating plastics with a range of properties. The company is still a part-time, R&D-phase operation.

"I work on this thing from Saturday morning to Sunday night a lot of times," Burich told the Dispatch's Robert Vitale. "We're a bunch of guys who want to do something to improve Mother Earth."

Burich's current project is to create a sculpture for the city of Columbus using butts collected by volunteers.

This may be one of the oddest materials I've ever seen recycled -- and I once visited a plant that was trying to recycle disposable diapers.

If you're wondering how environmentalists feel about Coca-Cola Co.'s PlantBottle -- PET and HDPE containers made in-part from bio-based raw materials ... well, let's say it's not completely positive.

The Earth Resource Foundation sent a news release today after some of them received an invitation to an Earth Day event to launch Coke's Dasani-brand bottled water in a PET PlantBottle.

The release, titled "No Glee from Environmentalists for Coca-Cola 'PlantBottle'," takes the company to task. Much of the critcism could apply to any bottled water manufacturer, but a few of the points are specific to the PlantBottle material:

We Regret that despite your green leaf logo, your "plant bottle" is still just a PET plastic bottle and is not biodegradable or compostable on land or at sea.

We Regret that Coca-Cola will not be collecting and recycling their own PET "plant bottles," and that only approximately 20.9% percent of PET bottles are "recycled" (mostly into lower grade material that is not used in bottles again) in America. The remainder, at over 20 billion bottles, last forever in our landfills or in our environment, including our oceans. We also regret that Coca-Cola failed to achieve it's own pledge of using at least 10% recycled content in PET bottles and has just announced the shut down of it's PET recycling joint venture in South Carolina.

We Regret that Coca-Cola is substituting its chemical-laden petroleum plastic bottle with a chemical-laden petroleum and plant plastic bottle.

We Regret that estrogenic compounds in your PET "plant bottle" may leach into the water and impair human health and reproduction.

The release is in the form of a petition, and is signed by a number of leaders of California-based environmental groups.

While the petition does not link to Plastics News, we are the source of the information about Coke's recycling plant in South Carolina. For that story, check out this news story (which was updated today), as well as this interview with Coke's Scott Vitters.

Remember the paper "bottle" that Ecologic Brands Inc. rolled out last month for its Seventh Generation laundry detergent? A sustainability consultant blogged today about how he is disappointed in the package.

Paul Smith, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, wrote that "there was something about the design that missed the mark, on a psychological level. The lack of handle made it feel strange to hold. It was only then that I realized how crucial a handle is to my laundry detergent paradigm. The package utilizes pressed recycled paper, which makes the inclusion of a handle quite a challenge."

He added that the sample bottle he received leaked, and he also was critical of the company's claim about how much plastic it was saving.

It looks like Santa Barbara, Calif., will be the new ground zero for the U.S. debate on plastic bag bans.

According to Santa Barbara's The Daily Sound newspaper, the City Council "appears to be leaning away from creating an ordinance to ban plastic bags or heavily regulating them."

That's blasphemy to some in a city that's proud of its environmental legacy. (Among other things, the city is home to the University of California at Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.)

According to the Sound's report, a majority of the city's ordinance committee support a plan to voluntarily reduce single-use plastic bag consumption, and encourage residents to use reusable bags.

Kathi King of the Santa Barbara Community Environmental Council likened the defense of the plastic bag industry to those defending tobacco companies, according to Joshua Molina's report.

With that level of rhetoric, watch for sparks to fly as the City Council continues its debate on plastic bag bans.

Apollo Global Management LLC, a private equity firm with major plastics holdings, is now a publicly traded company. The firm held an initial public offering on March 30.

The company owns stakes in a wide variety of companies in many industries -- plastics are a small part of the pie.

Nevertheless, Apollo highlighted some plastics operations in a footnote in its S-1 statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The footnote is titled "Our Investment Edge Creates Proprietary Investment Opportunities," and it highlights the firm's ability to take advantage of its expertise in certain businesses.

"Recent examples include the creation of Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc., a $5 billion chemical company and Berry Plastics, a $3 billion plastic packaging company, both of which we have built through multiple acquisitions in our core industry verticals," the S-1 says.

Is public concern about bisphenol A safety rooted in science, or in poor journalism? According to Jon Entine, director of the Genetic Literacy Project at STATS, the problem lies with ink-stained wretches (like me).

Entine wrote a blistering column for The American, the Journal of the American Enterprise Insititute, where he pronounces BPA safe and says the problem is that journalists have an anti-plastics bias.

His latest example: the lack of coverage of a comprehensive review of BPA safety from the German Society of Toxicology, which concluded that "[BPA] exposure represents no noteworthy risk to the health of the human population, including newborns and babies."

"Although this evaluation is noteworthy because of its prestigious authorship, it will come as news only to those who ... well, it will probably come as news to almost all readers," Entine wrote. "Many journalists long ago signed the 'plastics are dangerous' pledge and have ignored the slew of recent comprehensive international meta-reviews that contradicted that narrative."

STATS is affiliated with the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Pour yourself a cup of melted butter and check out this story about University of Maine researchers who are using lobster shells to mold biodegradable golf balls.

The best parts: the lobster-dervived balls are made from a waste material, and they may be cheaper to make than biodegradable golf balls already on the market.

In conjunction with the Lobster Institute, Professor David Neivandt and undergraduate student Alex Caddell developed the technology.

These balls aren't meant for the PGA Tour, or even for duffers like me. The ball was created for use on cruise ships.

According to the university, the balls are the first to be made with crushed lobster shells with a biodegradable binder and coating. The shells would otherwise end up in a landfill.

Biodegradable golf balls now on the market retail for just under $1 per ball. The raw materials for the lobster shell balls cost as little as 19 cents each.

"The flight properties are amazing," Caddell told the university. "It doesn't fly quite as far as a regular golf ball, but we're actually getting a similar distance to other biodegradable golf balls."

UMaine has filed a provisional patent for the lobster-shell mixture, which can also be used for such products as plant pots that decompose in the ground, surveying stakes and other applications.

Here's a twist on a frequently cited industry argument on chemical safety: are alternative materials safer than products that legislators want to ban?

Elizabeth Grossman brings up the point on The Atlantic's website today, in "Beyond BPA: Could 'BPA-Free' Products Be Just as Unsafe?"

Grossman clearly explains which plastics, and what sorts of products, may contain BPA. She also gives some detail on the current status of BPA regulation and legislation. This story goes beyond the typical news report on BPA safety.

She cites Eastman's Tritan copolyester as a material being marketed as a BPA-free alternative to polycarbonate, but without the long history of testing.

"The point is not to single out the Eastman Chemical Co. or Tritan copolyester, which may be entirely environmentally benign, but to highlight the dilemma we're in when it comes to assessing the safety of new materials," she writes.

"Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. law that regulates chemicals in commerce, it's entirely permissible to launch a new material into high-volume production without disclosing its precise chemical identity or any information about its toxicity.

"This makes it impossible for the public to assess product safety independently of manufacturer claims. And currently, despite EPA and FDA policies that support 'safe' alternatives to a chemical of concern like BPA, neither federal agency conducts safety testing of new materials destined for consumer products before they come on the market."

Grossman concludes that the U.S. needs a better system for testing new materials before they become commercially available.

As an observer (but not a participant) of the process for winning food-contact approval, I think she implies too strongly that FDA approval is simple. But it's still a thought-provoking story that will likely get some attention, since BPA remains a material in the headlines.

Blog readers will recall the Plastiki and Project Kaisei ocean voyages, which aimed to increase public awareness of plastic marine debris. Somehow I missed another adventurer with a similar goal -- Roz Savage, a British woman who had already rowed across the Atlantic Ocean.

This week Savage set off from Australia to row across the Indian Ocean. She's traveling alone in the 23-foot boat on a 4,000-mile journey that should take about four months.

She has an interesting story, which she shares on her web site. Here's a taste:

It was the year 2000, I was 33 years old, and I seemed to have the perfect life. I had a job, a husband, a home, a little red sports car.

In theory, I should have been happy.

Fast forward to March 2006. I am 38, divorced, homeless, and alone in a tiny rowing boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My last hot meal was two months ago, before my camping stove broke. My stereo is bust. I've had no human contact since my satellite phone stopped working several weeks ago. All four of my oars are broken and I've had to patch them up with duct tape and makeshift splints. I have tendonitis in my shoulders and saltwater sores on my backside.

I have battled twenty-foot waves, sleep deprivation, self-doubt and depression. But I have never been happier.

They said I was crazy. They said I wasn't big enough, not tall enough, not strong enough.

But at last, after three thousand miles and 103 days at sea, I am about to accomplish my goal. I am proving that anybody can achieve the extraordinary, if only they have enough guts and determination and sheer bloody-mindedness to see it through.

I am realizing my dream, one stroke at a time.

Her mission is less focused on plastics than the Plastiki and Project Kaisei voyages, which is probably how she's escaped my notice until now. But banning plastics is part of Savage's message.

"Although every action counts, some actions count more than others. The further up the ladder of engagement we move, the more powerful our actions become," she writes. "For example, saying no to plastic - that's at the consumer level. Canvassing the neighborhood to get bags out of the local grocery store - that's the distribution level. Petitioning legislation to outlaw plastic bag production and voting reaches the manufacturing and extraction level. With each level upstream the effectiveness magnifies exponentially. Upstream actions pay off more, but no action is too small, and every action fits and has a purpose and helps us reach a better place."

Savage's trip should generate plenty of publicity -- her website explains her media strategy (PDF), as well as a solicitation for corporate sponsors.

Getting abundant natural gas through hydraulic fracturing contributes to global warming as much as coal, if not more, according to a study quoted by political news website TheHill.com.

The story, from the site's E2 energy and the environment blog, quotes a soon-to-be published report by Cornell Prof. Robert Howarth:

The [greenhouse gas] footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20 percent greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years.

The study will run in the journal Climatic Change, according to the E2 blog.

The blog quotes an expert from an energy consulting firm -- with clients in the natural gas industry -- who questions Howarth's study study.

If the study is confirmed, it could have repercussions in the North American plastics industry, which is counting on plentiful supplies of natural gas from U.S. shale deposits as feedstocks for polyethylene resin.

This isn't decades down the road, either -- in the past month, three ethylene projects have been announced in North America to take advantage of the newfound supplies of natural gas in the region.

Tom Nosker, a plastics recycling expert long affiliated with Rutgers University, is featured in the April issue of Inventors Digest magazine. Nosker is being recognized as a mechanical engineers whose problem-solving skills touch our daily lives.

"It's a great honor for any group of peers to recognize one's work, and this is no exception," Nosker said in a news release. "Since my undergraduate days I've dedicated my career to finding a solution to the large amounts of waste that normally end up in landfills. If we can continue to search for innovative ways to convert garbage to useful products or energy, we're going to find ourselves a lot closer to solving some of the world's most pressing environmental and sustainability issues. And the solutions aren't hard to find. They just take creativity, dedication and sometimes a little luck. Okay, maybe a lot of luck."

Inventors Digest selected Nosker and five other mechancial engineers "based on peer recognition, societal impact of their work and commitment to their craft."

Today Nosker is also working with Axion International Inc. on using recycled plastics to replace wood and other traditional materials in applications such as railway ties and bridges.

It's hard to believe that Plastics News has been writing about Tom Nosker for more than 20 years.

At the risk of giving readers the impression that Ford vehicles are made of mushrooms and recycled carpeting, here's another post on how the automaker is highlighting its use of sustainable materials.

Ford Motor Co. today put out a news release on how it is using EcoLon nylon, made from 100 percent recycled carpet, to make cylinder head covers.

Ford said the cover is "the first automotive product of its kind manufactured from post-consumer recycled nylon," and is used in the Escape, Fusion, Mustang and F-150

To date, the program has saved more than 4.1 million pounds of carpet from landfills, the equivalent of nearly 154 football fields.

The supplier of the EcoLon material is Wellman Engineering Resins, and the molder is Dana Holding Corp.

"By working with Wellman and Dana, Ford has found a way to bring green applications to a new, unique location in our vehicles," said Brett Hinds, Ford manager, engine design. "This single use has made an incredible impact, and we're continuing to look for ways to expand the use."

Ford Motor Co. has a well documented history of using bio-based polymers. But mushrooms? That's the word from Ecovative Design LLC, a Green Island, N.Y.-based company that makes polymers from agricultural waste.

The news is all over the environmental blogs this week. This one is reporting that Deborah Mielewski, head of Ford's plastic research department, is interested in using Ecovative's mushroom foam "to replace 30 pounds of each car's petroleum-based foams with more environmentally sensible alternatives."

I was surprised to see the story explode in blogland. I had to go back a few days to find the source. It was this press release announcing that Mielewski and Ford research engineer Angela Harris will give presentations at the upcoming BioPlastek 2011 Forum, set for June 27-29 in New York.

"Ms. Harris' presentation will outline Ford's R&D process for finding and developing novel bio-based material solutions that meet the rigorous requirements for automotive, highlighting key technical obstacles that must be overcome before widespread usage of these materials takes place," the release said.

Ford was the first major automaker in North America to begin using soy foam blends (in the Mustang), and the company has also used natural fiber-reinforced composites. It will be interesting to see just how committed Ford will be to using mushroom-based plastics.

For more about Ecovative Design, check out this video. Note that co-founder and CEO Eben Bayer isn't a big fan of polystyrene, and he makes a special effort to call the company's Ecocradle a "polymer," rather than a bio-based plastic.

Plastics aren't the focus, but the recently announced $9.7 billion purchase of specialty chemicals maker Lubrizol Corp. by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the subject of intense media scrutiny today.

David Sokol, a top Berkshire Hathaway executive, has resigned amidst controversy involving his purchase of Lubrizol shares prior to mentioning the company to Warren Buffett as a takeover candidate.

For those who don't recall, here's the plastics angle: Lubrizol generates about 30 percent of its sales and about 20 percent of its operating income from its Advanced Materials unit, which includes its market-leading Estane-brand thermoplastic polyurethane. Lubrizol acquired the business -- then known as Noveon -- for $1.4 billion in 2004 from private equity firm AEA Investors Inc.

Scott Suttell, my colleague at Crain's Cleveland Business, covers the controversy in his blog today with this post, "Berkshire Hathaway intrigue makes deal for Lubrizol Corp. a talker."

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an alert today urging consumers not to use plastic water walking balls, because of the potential to suffocate or drown.

"CPSC has informed state amusement ride officials of the risks associated with this product and encourages state officials not to permit this ride in their state," the agency said in a March 31 news release. "CPSC does not know of any safe way to use this product."

According to the agency, at least some of the balls have no emergency exit and can be opened only by a person outside of the ball.

An individual climbs into the large, see-through plastic ball; it is inflated with a blower through the zipper opening; and the zipper is closed, making the ball air-tight. The ball, with the person locked inside, then rolls around on a number of surfaces, including water, ice, or grass. The product is most commonly used by children and is used mainly as a ride in amusement parks, carnivals, malls, sporting events and other high-traffic areas. The product is also sold directly to the public for personal use.

Several states have banned or refused to provide permits for rides that use this product. CPSC is aware of two incidents involving this product. In one incident, a child was found unresponsive after being inside the ball for a very brief period of time, and emergency medical treatment was sought. In the second incident, a person inside of a ball suffered a fracture when the ball fell out of the shallow, above-ground pool onto the hard ground.

Forget about Libya, the budget deficit and Social Security. Some pundits think they can swing a U.S. House of Representatives election by focusing on the polystyrene vs. compostable foodservice debate.

You'll recall that this issue popped up in February, when the new GOP-controlled House decided to stop using compostable foodservice products in its cafeteria, and went back to using PS.

Today the political newspaper Roll Call is reporting that some California Democrats think the issue may be enough to beat Rep. Dan Lungren -- one of the architects of the move to PS -- in his 2012 relection race.

They've even given Lungren a new nickname: "Styrofoam Dan."

Hmm. The last politician I recall with a plastics-related nickname was Ronald Reagan, once known as the Teflon President.

The Financial Times is reporting today that Dow Chemical Co. is looking for a buyer for its polypropylene licensing and catalyst business.

The FT's story cites all unnamed sources, but it has enough detail to sound convincing.

According to Marlene Givant Star's report, Midland, Mich.-based Dow has hired Citi to sell the business, which it estimates generated $1 billion in sales and $50 million in profit.

Sources expect that a strategic buyer will be interested in Dow's metallocene PE technology.

The impact of Japan's March 11 earthquake on the automotive supply chain has been well documented. How about other sectors? (Watch both Plastics News and www.autonews.com for updates).

Electronics is an obvious one. The Wall Street Journal has a story in its Asia Technology section today, "Chemical Reaction: iPod Is Short Key Material." According to the report, the shutdown of a Kureha Corp. polyvinylidene fluoride plant in Japan has created a shortage of lithium-ion batteries for Apple Inc.'s iPods.

Have you heard of other supply chain problems that have been a result of the earthquake and tsunami? Share them with me, we'll check them out.

I've noticed some manufacturing experts talking about what lessons OEMs will learn from this disaster. I don't think this is a new lesson -- remember how OEMs reacted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2008? But it does reinforce the value of shorter supply chains, and multiple vendors, at least when it comes to critical, non-commodity products.

What's new in biobased polymers? How about high-strength plastics made from bananas and pineapples? I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

I'm seeing headlines from all over the world today about an announcement from scientists in Brazil who are developing "super-strong automotive plastics" that may be commerialized in as little as two years.

"The properties of these plastics are incredible," project leader Alcides Leão of Sao Paulo State University said in a news release.

"They are light, but very strong -- 30 percent lighter and three to four times stronger. We believe that a lot of car parts, including dashboards, bumpers, side panels, will be made of nano-sized fruit fibers in the future. For one thing, they will help reduce the weight of cars and that will improve fuel economy."

Leão revealed the materials at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif.

The U.K.'s Daily Mail calls the announcement "the ultimate green development."

Stephen Joseph is becoming the plastics industry's version of Lady Gaga. Every time you turn around, he's making headlines.

The latest is The Wall Street Journal, which featured Joseph in "Paper or Plastic? A Lawyer's Answer Sends Him From Hero to Pariah."

As the Plastics Blog has pointed out before, Joseph is a quoteable character. If anything, Vauhini Vara's WSJ article underplays his colorful nature.

"I have a plastic watch, and I just got new plastic glasses," Joseph told the newspaper. "I love plastic."

He adds at the end of the article that he's fighting a losing battle in behalf of the plastic bag, but "I never, ever give up."

Joseph has previously been featured in Time magazine, which called him "The Patron Saint of Plastic Bags."

I'd argue that Joseph, thanks to his quotablility, and the attention that he attracts with his cleverly named Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, may currently be the highest-profile advocate for the plastics industry in the world.

By the way, the reader comments section attached to the WSJ's story is active, and worth reading.

The plastics industry will generate some international news headlines in the next couple of days, following its "Global Declaration for Solutions on Marine Litter," announced March 22 in Honolulu.

The declaration was announced at the 5th International Marine Debris Conference in Honolulu. Plastics News staff reporter Mike Verespej wrote this story, "Plastics associations pledge to cooperate on global marine debris issue," on the announcement, which we posted minutes after it was released.

As Mike wrote, the decision to forge a joint agreement among plastics associations began in a meeting after the K show in Germany in October.

Some 47 global plastics associations representing groups in 26 countries signed on, including the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. and the American Chemistry Council's plastics division.

With SPI's participation, more U.S. plastics processors can feel like they're now taking part in the debate.

"SPI and its member companies continue to embrace the concept of sustainability, and I am proud that we have joined with our peer organizations across the globe to make this formal declaration concerning marine debris," SPI President and CEO Bill Carteaux said in a news release. "The plastics industry has always been about creating innovations that meets societal needs. Marine litter is no exception and SPI stands ready to participate with others in problem-solving this issue."

Will the declaration make a difference in this issue, which until now has been driven largely by grass-roots environmental groups pushing for taxes and bans on products like plastic bags and polystyrene foodservice products?

Sarah Abramson Sikich, coastal resources director for Heal The Bay in Santa Monica, Calif., told Mike that it will not.

"Strong regulatory and policy action is needed that prevents trash from getting into waterways in the first place, as well as to promote the use of more sustainable items, like reusable bags and water bottles," she said. "We recommend target trash reductions, bans or charges on the most prevalent items found in aquatic environments be established to truly address the plastic pollution problem."

The Boston Globe had a nice story on Sunday about a trend in the housewares sector that we've been following, the rise of recycled-content products. The story went into some detail on housewares brand Preserve Products.

Plastics News staff reporter Rhoda Miel touched on this a few weeks ago, when recycled resins specialist NextLife LLC announced at the International Housewares Show that it had signed a partnership to supply post-consumer polypropylene to Recycline Inc., the Waltham, Mass., company that developed Preserve.

NextLife, based in Boca Raton, Fla., has worked with other companies to source recycled resins for their products. Its resins include proprietary post-consumer recycled PP and polystyrene that meet U.S. food safety requirements.

For Preserve, NextLife will provide PP for a range of items including toothbrushes, dishes and food storage products.

The Globe's story goes into some more detail on Preserve's plans, including naming the company's custom molder -- G&F Industries Inc.

G&F Industries Inc. of Sturbridge makes the Mini, along with other Preserve products, including colanders and reusable drinking cups. The two companies began working together in 2007. G&F president John J. Argitis says Preserve is still his only customer using 100 percent recycled plastic in its products. "From my perspective, I think it's pretty rare in the industry,'' he says.

While the relationship started small, today Preserve is a major customer of the 100-person plastic molding company. Once the Mini has been produced, G&F applies several labels (like "BPA Free'' and a bar code), puts a dozen of them into a cardboard box, and sends the boxes off to a distribution center in upstate New York. (Preserve uses software to analyze the environmental impact of nearly every decision it makes, such as whether to use trucks or trains to transport materials and products. The finished Minis are trucked; plastic the company reuses travels by rail.)

Check out the March 21 issue if Plastics News for our special report, "Plastics in Housewares," which includes a story on more products that are using recycled content.

And watch PlasticsNews.com tomorrow for Rhoda Miel's video reports from the show.

After all the talk in recent weeks about avoiding plastics, The New York Times has a little different take on the topic today, with an op-ed column "Plastic: Too Good to Throw Away."

The column is written by Susan Freinkel described as the author of the forthcoming "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story."

While "Plastics Blog" readers may relate to the Times column's headline, the article itself isn't exactly a love letter to the industry. But it does have a message that some readers may consider positive -- that plastics have many worthwhile attributes.

"It's estimated that half of the nearly 600 billion pounds of plastics produced each year go into single-use products. Some are indisputably valuable, like disposable syringes, which have been a great ally in preventing the spread of infectious diseases like H.I.V., and even plastic water bottles, which, after disasters like the Japanese tsunami, are critical to saving lives," she writes.

"In a world of nearly seven billion souls and counting, we are not going to feed, clothe and house ourselves solely from wood, ore and stone; we need plastics. And in an era when we're concerned about our carbon footprint, we can appreciate that lightweight plastics take less energy to produce and transport than many other materials. Plastics also make possible green technology like solar panels and lighter cars and planes that burn less fuel. These "unnatural" synthetics, intelligently deployed, could turn out be nature's best ally."

But she takes plastics -- and, it seems, consumers -- to task for wasting this valuable resource on too many single-use throw-away products.

Disposables like bags, straws, packaging and lighters are "essentially prefab litter with a heavy environmental cost," she writes, adding that "...we can't hope to achieve plastic's promise for the 21st century if we stick with wasteful 20th-century habits of plastic production and consumption."

Freinkel seems to be echoing the opinions of some "Plastics Blog" readers who bridle at what they consider unfair attacks on plastics, while at the same time complaining that at least some of the industry's problems are the result of a culture that encourages overuse.

Look at this way: Crusades to outlaw water packaged in PET, or grocery bags made of polyethylene are shortsighted. Bottled water has definite attributes, as do PE bags. But just as shortsighted is our culture that encourages consumers to drink bottled water every day at home or on the job, when they have access to inexpensive and safe tap water, or to accept a PE bag with every single purchase at the grocery store, even when the product is small enough to carry out of the store -- or to put in your pocket.

I have a feeling that not all "Plastics Blog" readers will agree with Freinkel's column -- but also that she's not that far off from expressing the opinions of many in the plastics industry.

We see stories about plastics packaging and sustainability every day. But not on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

Comedy Central's Stewart opened his March 7 show with a rant against Del Monte Fresh Produce Inc.'s individually wrapped bananas.

He nominated the product for the show's honorary "Pantry of Shame," saying the product was designed "for people who love bananas but hate their biodegradability."

James Epstein-Reeves wrote a well researched item on the issue today for Forbes magazine's "The CSR Blog," which focuses on corporate social responsibility issues.

I won't repeat all of Epstein-Reeves' work here ... check the link for a good Q&A interview with Dionysios Christou, Del Monte Fresh Produce's vice president of marketing.

As the plastics packaging experts on "The Plastics Blog" already know, there's a purpose for the individually wrapped banana -- to extend the shelf life of the product.

Certainly not all bananas need Del Monte's "Controlled Ripening Technology" package. But, used properly, it can help reduce food waste.

In the aftermath of the terrible earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan last week, global plastics companies are starting to join the relief effort.

Today we received word that Barcelona, Spain-based TPU supplier Merquinsa and Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co. have made donations.

Merquinsa made its donation to the Red Cross, to assist in emergency relief and rescue operations.

"We are shocked and saddened with what happened. Our thoughts are with all the people of Japan going through this very difficult time", said Jose Luis Ayuso, Merquinsa's president and executive chairman, "People of Japan are giving us a lesson of courage and responsibility."

Dow Chemical will make a donation of up to $6 million in humanitarian aid, including $2 million to the City of Soma Community Rescue Fund; up to $3 million to the Soma region in Dow product, technology and financial resources for long-term rebuilding; plus the company has a plan under development to offer employees a matching grant opportunity of up to $1 million.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan, including our Dow family, communities and partners, who are coping with the aftermath of last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami," said Andrew Liveris, Dow chairman and CEO. "It's clear that the need for assistance is paramount in Japan, so we hope our contributions can help expedite emergency response and the country's efforts to rebuild."

I wrote a few weeks ago about the Plastics Are Forever International Youth Summit. You may be wondering, how did it turn out?

According to the Long Beach, Calif., Press-Telegram, more than 100 students from 14 countries attended the event, along with their faculty advisers.

The students received information and training aimed at helping them to reduce plastic pollution in their hometowns.

So you can expects the newly motivated troops to start to take action to get taxes and bans passed in many, many more communities in the coming months.

Plastics News also has a story related to the summit today, on a study showing the extent that ocean fish eat plastic debris.

Here's an interesting reaction to Rodale Inc.'s "Plastic-free February" -- some tips for cutting down on plastics from an industry insider.

Sandy Bauers, environmental reporter for the The Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote a column -- "So much plastic - and so hard to avoid using it" -- on March 7.

Response to the column was strong, she wrote in her Green Living blog on March 9. One note that stood out, she said, was from Craig Blizzard, a polypropylene industry veteran now working as an industry consultant in West Chester, Pa.

He wrote:

First, if one wishes to reduce personal plastic consumption for solid waste reasons, immediately stop consuming things which overuse plastic packaging since not many humans actually consume plastics per se. Glaring examples include soft drinks/beer at the stadium in heavy polypropylene cups, fast food pre-packaged salads in glossy polystyrene plates and lids, windshield wipers in their annoying PVC sleeve packages and TV sets, etc. swathed in polystyrene and polyethylene foam.

Second, if one wishes to reduce personal plastic consumption for personal health reasons such as a fear of any detectable level of plastic additive migration, stop consuming things packed/conveyed in plastics altogether. Every plastic can be made to exfoliate its chemical additives under some set of (possibly extreme) laboratory conditions if that's what the researcher wants to demonstrate. Under normal usage of most things plastic, my scientific sense suggests that our breathing of the exhaust emissions from our >150 million vehicle fleet in North America is likely to be order-of-magnitude more damaging to individual health than any plastic additive migration and that one's use of plastics is relatively riskless.

Third, if one wishes to reduce personal plastic consumption for energy conservation reasons, better and easier to reduce personal auto travel by 5-10%. The energy conservation by that action would likely dwarf the total energy content of the amount of plastics even the "greenest" person could reasonably save by meticulously reducing his/her consumption. Plastics are not a "low hanging fruit" in energy conservation.

Its interesting that Bauers devoted an entire blog post to Blizzard's thoughtful response to her column. Perhaps there's an example here that others could follow.

There's no arguing that a substantial number of Americans want to tax or ban plastic bags. But is it a majority?

In El Paso, Texas, the answer is no. That's according to this story from the El Paso Times, on a scientific poll conducted on March 5-6. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, according to the story.

The poll, conducted by Reuel Group Inc.,, found that 48.1 percent of poll respondents did not want plastic bags banned, and another 20.2 percent said consumers should have a choice between paper or plastic.

Just under 30 percent supported a ban.

The city of El Paso is considering putting a 10-cent fee on plastic bags, with 2 cents going to the retailer and 8 cents to the city.

Do you wonder why environmentalists think taxes and bans on plastics are a good thing?

I'm sure many readers of the Plastics Blog disagree, but here's a video with Angela Howe, legal manager with the Surfrider Foundation, explaining why the group sponsors its "Rise Above Plastics" campaign, and how it is working on getting more bans and taxes adopted in states and municipalities in 2011.

Plastic packaging manufacturers have some new competition jockeying for attention from consumers who value sustainability.

Ecologic Brands Inc. this week is rolling out a cardboard bottle for Seventh Generation laundry detergent. USA Today wrote about the package yesterday.

Ecologic calls its packages pouches, but they look like bottles. They're made from recycled cardboard and newspaper, and when they're empty they can be torn up and recycled with newspapers. (That's assuming anyone out there is still buying newspapers and recycling them, right?)

The packages still have plastic caps -- so that they look like a regular laundry bottle, according to Ecologic CEO Julie Corbett. "If you change too much, you can end up scaring consumers from buying it," she told USA Today's Bruce Horovitz.

Remember the National Debt Clock in New York? The Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association is taking a page out of that playbook to highlight the staggering cost of water main breaks.

According to the trade association, every day, 850 water main breaks occur in North America at an annual repair cost of over $3 billion.

To hammer home the incredible waste of water -- and money -- Uni-Bell has launched a new web site, www.watermainbreakclock.com, where you can track the cumulative price tag to taxpayers of the high costs associated with repairs, replacement and more.

"The costs are astounding, not just in repairs, but emergency equipment, depleted water supply, traffic disruptions, and lost work time," said Executive Director Bruce Hollands. "Equally astounding is the fact that some local governments and utilities continue to use the same outdated, costly pipe material that corrodes over a very short period of time."

Uni-Bell members have a stake in the issue, since they hope to replace aging steel and concrete water pipe with PVC pipe, which they say can last in excess of 110 years.

Surfers have been on the front lines on the battle against plastic marine debris. Here's a video about a surfer and shaper who's trying to make boards from recycled plastic.

I noticed the story today on Discovery Communications' Treehugger.com blog. It's the story of Kevin Cunningham in Providence, R.I., who created the Spirare Sustainable Surf Craft project -- bringing together a desire to do something about marine debris with his passion for making surfboards from sustainable materials.

He explains in the video that his materials include post-consumer polystyrene.

Here's a link to Cunningham's project -- he says it will move forward if he can raise $3,200 by April 16.

A week ago, I wrote about the critical need for help -- in the form of portable toilets -- following the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on Feb. 22.

The appeal came from Bill Carteaux, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., who has been in touch with Simon Wilkinson, his counterpart at Plastics New Zealand.

Although the earthquake is already starting to slip off U.S. news coverage, the situation remains critical -- and it will remain so for a long time. According to Wilkinson, the public sewage system in the impacted area of Christchurch may not be operable for more than a year.

To get a better feel for the urgency of the effort, check this story, "Christchurch earthquake: Battle of Port-a-loos in dusty suburbs," from the New Zealand Herald.

To help out, SPI is heading an industry-wide effort to produce and ship 4,000 portable toilets to New Zealand.

According to a follow-up letter this week from Carteaux, one portable toilet manufacturer has already offered to manufacture and ship 50 units at no cost.

Now SPI is appealing for $1.5 million in donations by the next week -- in cash donations and in-kind contributions of resin and colorant -- to help meet the 4,000-unit goal.

To donate, or for more information, visit SPI's "Future of Plastics" web page, or contact SPI at (202) 974-5224.

Apple Computer Inc. may be phasing out a lot of external plastics, with a design ethic focusing on glass and aluminum, but it is still using some resins.

In the hype of the iPad 2 release, there's this information on the product's new cover:

"The innovative new iPad 2 Smart Cover provides protection for the iPad screen while maintaining its thin and lightweight profile. Designed with a unique self-aligning magnetic hinge that makes it easy to attach and remove, the new iPad 2 Smart Cover automatically wakes iPad 2 when it's opened and puts it to sleep when it's closed, and has a soft microfiber lining to help keep the screen clean. The Smart Cover also folds into a stand for typing or viewing videos and is available in vibrant polyurethane for $39 or rich leather for $69 in a range of colors, including a (PRODUCT) RED one which helps support the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa."

In this video from cnet, Apple's Steve Jobs says the covers "come in polyurethane, which is used to make space suits [audience laughter] ... or leather."

Thanks to Rhoda Miel, who covers design for Plastics News, for contributing this item.

The "Plastic-Free February" project is over. The bloggers who participated all discovered that it's awfully difficult to avoid plastics -- a lot harder than any of them expected.

For a sample of their experiences, check out this week-by-week report compiled by a rotating team of bloggers from publisher Rodale Inc., which sponsored the project.

It's full of stories about the problems they had avoiding plastic packaging and other products, as well as a few of their personal victories when they discovered a hard-to-find product made of an alternative material.

To wrap up the story, Maria Rodale.CEO and chairman of Rodale, posted a final word on the topic today on The Huffington Post, titled "The Top 10 Things I Wished Didn't Involve Plastic."

A few of her examples: Shampoo bottles, condiment bottles, takeout containers, garbage bags, pens and computers.

She actually suggests going back to glass ketchup and mustard bottles. But what about all the extra energy it would take to make and transport glass bottles instead of plastic? Wouldn't that more than offset any supposed benefits of avoiding plastic?

If you're interested in how political unrest in the Middle East might impact the pricing and availability of petrochemicals, check out Alex Tullo's post in "The Chemical Notebook" blog.

In the Feb. 28 post, "The Middle East Revolts And Chemicals," Tullo writes that the countries that have seen the most serious challenges to their ruling regimes -- Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and Bahrain -- "don't have very large petrochemical industries, at least not in the sense that they are major producers of olefins and derivatives."

The Middle Eastern countries that do have large petrochemical industries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- haven't seen as much unrest.

"If these countries do see serious challenges to the regimes, then there could be a disruption in chemical operations," he writes.

But he adds somewhat ominously: "never underestimate the power of high oil prices to sabotage the economy. The last time oil prices climbed into the 90s was in the fourth quarter of 2007, when the recession began."

Jan Schroers, a Yale University materials scientist, is touting a breakthrough that can help metal compete with plastic -- the ability to blow mold metal.

The blow molding process has some technological advantages for economically making complex, hollow shapes. Until now, blow molding has been pretty much limited to thermoplastics, because of the unique properties (viscocity, flow strength, etc.) of the material.

Schroers, in an article in the journal Materials Today, explains the conditions necessary for blow molding some metals.

Registration is required for the article, but for more information I recommend listening to this podcast interview with Schroers, or reading this news release from Yale on his research.

Fans know that some sports have adapted to changes in equipment -- golf and football are prime examples. How about bowling?

Zach Berman from The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., wrote last week about professional bowlers bringing up to eight balls to the US Open tournament in North Brunswick, N.J.

"In the last 20 years, bowling balls evolved from rubber to polyester to urethane to reactive resins, with current technology that can control the amount of chemical friction a ball creates on the lane" Berman wrote in his story, "Competitors deploy a dizzying array of bowling balls at U.S. Open."

He quotes John Petraglia, a former bowler who now works for ball maker Brunswick: "You need a different ball, a different layout, a different surface on the ball for every condition you bowl on, almost every game now. A typical bowler will go through 80 to 100 balls a year now. Relate the bowling ball to NASCAR tires."

Unlike golf, which has resisted some equipment-related changes in the name of tradition, bowling has pretty much embraced this evolution ... with one exception.

The Professional Bowlers Association still gives a nod to "traditional materials" in the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, scheduled to run from March 2-6 in Cheektowaga, N.Y.

In this tournament, all the players must use identical "throwback" polyester balls, like the ones that PBA Hall of Famer Mark Roth used back in the 1970s.

"The concept behind the plastic ball tournament is to put a premium on knowledge of changing lane conditions, subtle adjustments in hand positions and delivery techniques, and other skills rather than relying on advanced bowling ball technology," according to the PBA.

I'm aware that advances in bowling ball technology have resulted in much higher scores on all levels -- but I'm afraid that I wouldn't know the difference between the proper way to throw a polyester ball and a polyurethane ball.

Something about the headline, "Earth-Raping Dictator-Supporting House GOP Brings Styrofoam Back," gave me the idea that this wasn't going to be a balanced look at polystyrene.

Ken Layne from political blog Wonkette.com blasted the U.S. House of Representatives today for its decision to stop using compostable foodservice products in its cafeteria, and go back to using PS.

The story doesn't make the common mistake of calling PS foam foodservice "Styrofoam," even though the headline does.

But Layne jumps right into the blog with a rant against "foamed polystyrene," which he calls "a miraculous invention that manages to be completely awful through every step of its near-eternal "life cycle" -- it is manufactured with petroleum that must be imported from Middle East dictatorships, toxic "styrene oligomers" migrate into the food it holds, it's highly flammable and produces black poisonous smoke, and most of the 25 billion polystyrene cups tossed every year will take more than half a millennium to degrade."

Layne writes that "people with brains" ban PS.

The comment section on the blog is already going bananas. My favorite (?) so far: "Polystyrene cups are the perfect metaphor for the Repubicans (sic): White, lightweight and bad for the environment."

So much for the spirit of cooperation in Washington these days.

A group called the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change is suggesting that families make a sacrifice for Lent this year that will help make the world more sustainable.

The plastics-related suggestion caught my eye -- to give up disposable plastic or paper bags and replace them with reusable cloth bags.

But according to this story from the Catholic News Service, plastics aren't being singled out. The target is consumption and lifestyle, with a goal to focus on "Christian simplicity." And the coalition also has some suggestions that specifically mention paper, too:

• Use cloth shopping bags instead of paper or plastic to reduce the estimated 380 billion plastic bags distributed in the United States each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. The U.S. Department of Energy says that if each U.S. household replaced just one bulb, it would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
• Give up disposable paper products such as napkins and paper towels.
• Use a refillable mug instead of disposable cups. One coffee drinker using disposable cups can generate 22 pounds of waste in a year.

Are you up for debunking some myths about plastics recycling?

Envision Plastics Industries LLC's "Save the Plastics" is rapidly becoming my favorite plastics-related blog. Today the site posted a nice item that analyzes and comments on a well-traveled article from the Ecology Center in Berkeley, Calif., titled "Seven Misconceptions About Plastic and Plastic Recycling."

The folks at Envision Plastics, a major recycler of plastic packaging, is in a good position to comment on the "Misconceptions" article -- after all, they've got first-hand experience.

The blog notes that, despite the global audience that "Misconceptions" has enjoyed, the content of the article is actually more locally driven, "and not particularly accurate across a broader cross section of the country, or even California for that matter."

Here are a few of the seven "Misconceptions," along with Envision's take on the issues:

Misconception #1: "Plastics that go into a curbside recycling bin get recycled. Not necessarily.", says the Ecology Center. This statement is not accurate. Provided that we put the proper plastics in our recycling bins, as requested by our municipal waste authority, they will all be recycled. In Berkeley, they ask for #1 PET bottles and #2 HDPE bottles only. These plastics are in high demand and will be recycled back into plastics products.

The Ecology Center states that "In fact, none of the recovered plastic containers from Berkeley are being made into containers again...". This is not an accurate statement. We buy the #2 HDPE material from Berkeley (and many other California communities) and most of it is converted back into plastic bottles by Graham Packaging, Liquid Container, Consolidated Container, Clorox, Polytainer, Microdyne and other molders on the West coast. It is true that there are other end markets for this material and some of it may become plastic drainage pipe, plastic lumber or other products, but it certainly does not wind up in landfills.

Misconception #2: "Curbside collection will reduce the amount of plastic landfilled. Not necessarily.", says the Ecology Center. This doesn't make sense to us. Our plant in Chino, California saved 344,626,607 plastic bottles from being landfilled in 2010 alone and we are not the only recycler on the West coast.

The Ecology Center argues that more recycling will lead to more demand for plastics products. This is not how demand for consumer products is created; however, demand for recycled plastics currently exceeds supply of curbside collected plastics, so our attitude is, bring it on! We'll recycle it!

Envision doesn't just debunk the Berkeley article. They agree on some points, such as the meaning of the chasing arrows recycling symbol, and on the value of source reduction.

Check out the link for more "Save the Plastics" posts ... and keep up the good work, Envision.

The plastics industry is being called on to help out in the wake of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit New Zealand's South Island on Feb. 22. The priority right now -- locating portable toilets.

This evening Bill Carteaux, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., passed along an urgent request from his counterpart at Plastics New Zealand.

"Since the devastating earthquake, the public heath focus has been on clean drinking water -- but sanitation remains a huge obstacle during the recovery efforts," Carteaux wrote. "If you manufacture portable toilets and would have an inventory available to ship overseas, please contact me tonight."

Given the urgent nature of the request, we're sharing it with Plastics Blog readers right away, as well as those of you who follow Plastics News via Twitter and Facebook. Post a reply to the blog, or send an email to editorial@plasticsnews.com, and I'll forward it immediately to Bill Carteaux and SPI.

In the meantime, Plastics News and the Plastics Blog will look for other opportunities to alert readers to ways that they can help. If you have a suggestion that you'd like to share with others, post it in the blog comment section.

Polypropylene resin prices have been in the global spotlight for a couple of months, and Plastics News deserves much of the credit. Have you been watching?

In early January senior reporter Frank Esposito reported that PP prices had gone up 3 cents per pound, and were poised for another double-digit jump. He followed up a week later with news of a 17-cent-per-pound increase. The story noted that some manufacturers were considering moving out of PP to alternative materials.

On Feb. 14, The Economist took note, with an item (attributed to PN) on how fast-food chains were switching from PP to paper cups.

Now Russia's Pravda is joining the party, with an online story, "Plastic bottle to push food prices even higher."

Pravda cites The Economist as its source ... sadly, Plastics News fails to get any credit. Such is the nature of journalism on the web these days. But we still get a kick out of how far and wide this story has spread.

After plastic carry-out bags are banned, the next target may be the produce bags that consumers use to protect and transport fruit, vegetables and bulk products from grocery stores to their homes, according to one anti-bag activist.

The news was revealed in this story from the Santa Cruz Weekly. The proposed ban isn't the point of the story -- it's primarily a feature on singer/songwriter Jackson Browne's well-documented stance against plastic bags and water bottles.

Here's a taste of Browne's thoughts on plastics:

"The world is literally filling up with things that are designed to be used once and which never go away," Browne told the Santa Cruz Weekly. "Plastic bags are blowing around the Sahara desert. Camels are dying of starvation with their guts full of plastic." Browne says personal friends of his who have surfed on every continent have reported plastic bags washed up on beaches in Antarctica.

Browne will be honored for his high-profile anti-plastics stand on Feb. 23, when the environmental group Save Our Shores gives him an Ocean Hero award.

(Feb. 23 has also been designated as Jackson Browne Day in Santa Cruz, "to honor the veteran singer's anti-plastic campaign," the story says).

Laura Kasa, executive director of Save Our Shores, told the newspaper that after single-use grocery bags are banned, produce bags may become the group's next target.

Remember Colorforms, the toy made of thin vinyl shapes that stick to semigloss surfaces for creative play? The original Colorforms set was launched in 1951, so this is the toy's 60th anniversary.

According to Playthings magazine, Colorforms were "the product of an offbeat idea of art students Harry and Patricia Kislevitz, who wanted something to use as a creative outlet for their children when in the bathroom."

Today the Colorforms brand is owned by University Games Corp.

Check out these classic TV ads for Colorforms, which highlight that kids can play with the forms that "stick like magic" with no scissors or glue. I didn't remember all of the versions of the game that featured licensed characters.

S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. has spent millions on becoming a model of sustainability -- everything from using renewable energy, changing the formulation of products like Saran wrap, and launching recycling efforts.

So I was quite surprised today to see this report from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on a lawsuit accusing the consumer products company with greenwashing.

Specifically, the suit questions the Racine, Wis.-based company's use of a proprietary "Greenlist" logo on its products.

The complaint, which seeks class-action status, says the Greenlist seal is misleading, because S.C. Johnson itself is the party judging the products' environmental attributes.

The Journal Sentinel's Rick Romell reports that the company isn't backing down.

S.C. Johnson says Greenlist criteria was reviewed by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. It also won an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and it claims that complying with the Greenlist goals has helped the company eliminate nearly 48 million pounds of volatile organic compounds from its products in the last five years.

Given the company's commitment to sustainability, I think the lawyers have targeted the firm with this suit. Yes, S.C. Johnson has deep pockets, and it makes a attractive target because of the high profile it has taken on sustainability issues.

But S.C. Johnson has walked the walk, and it would be a mistake to think they'll throw money at this lawsuit to get it settled.

We're on Day 8 of our "Plastics-Free February" watch, and I can finally report that the effort has generated an acknowledgment of the benefits of plastics.

I almost feel guilty. Yesterday I posted an item complaining that no one involved in the project was even questioning whether trying to live without plastics was a worthy goal.

"The universal assumption is that plastics are something that consumers should avoid," I wrote. "But I haven't seen any serious thought about the pros and cons of different materials."

Today, Rodale Inc., the magazine publishing company that cooked up "Plastics-Free February," took up the gauntlet.

Emily Main, online editor for Rodale.com, wrote a guest item for Maria Rodale's blog on The Huffington Post, headlined "Is Plastic Really That Bad?"

Regular Huffington Post readers may be surprised (the site often includes contributions that slam plastics over chemical safety issues), but Main took a careful look and concluded that plastics actually have benefits -- even plastics packaging!

Main wrote that after a visit to the grocery store on Sunday, she realized that it was very difficult to avoid buying anything that wasn't wrapped in plastic.

That got me thinking. Is plastic really that bad of a material? There must be some reason it's become the packaging material of choice for everything from crackers to contact lens solution. And, as it turns out, there is. Back in 1969, Coca Cola commissioned the very first life cycle analysis on packaging materials to determine whether the company should stick with its returnable glass bottles, switch over primarily to aluminum cans, or go with plastic bottles. The plastic bottles won out because, the analysis found, they used the least amount of oil and natural gas of the three alternatives. Glass is too heavy and requires more trucks to ship, and aluminum is extremely energy-intensive to manufacture.

Main goes on to cite other examples where plastic is superior to alternative packaging -- or to no packaging at all. She cites a study by Food Review stating that in countries where food packaging is minimal or nonexistent, food waste is as high as 50 percent.

Main doesn't ignore issues related to plastics packaging, including the still-in-the-spotlight chemical safety and marine debris problems. In the end, she concludes that plastics have benefits, but some products are grossly overpackaged.

I think most Plastics Blog readers will agree with that conclusion.

We're a week into "Plastics-Free February," and as expected the project is generating some attention -- including from some Plastics Blog readers, who are pointing out some chinks in the effort.

As a reminder, the project is sponsored by Rodale Inc., the publisher of magazines including Runner's World, Men's Health and Prevention.

Rodale's staffers are taking a stab at minimizing their use of plastics this month -- primarily in single-use disposables, packaging and food preparation/storage. They've also recruited a significant number of bloggers to participate. The rules are:

1. No buying or acquiring new plastic.

2. No cooking with plastic or storing food in plastic.

3: Minimize all other plastic use.

Judging from the number of Twitter posts with the #noplastic hashtag, "Plastics-Free February" is generating a fair amount of attention in the world of social media.

I see a few trends.

First, no one is questioning whether trying to live without plastics is a worthy goal. The universal assumption is that plastics are something that consumers should avoid. There are plenty of stories about bloggers substituting a product made of paper or some other material for plastic. But I haven't seen any serious thought about the pros and cons of different materials.

Second, they're discovering that living without plastic these days is just about impossible. Even minimizing it is very inconvenient. Bloggers are finding that they can find food without plastic packaging. But that often means lifestyle changes -- like buying different products or shopping at specialty stores.

And that doesn't even scratch the surface. Packaging and single-use disposables are the main target of "Plastics-Free February," but really living up to all the goals -- including no buying or acquiring new plastic and minimizing all other plastic use -- requires lifestyle changes that few are willing or able to accept.

Some Plastics Blog readers pointed out that readers of Rodale's magazines would have a tough time even making adjustments to their hobbies and leisure activities.

"I'd just love to see the subscribers to Runners World attempt to do their aerobic thing sans plastics," one wrote. "I was in a running shoe store on Saturday and there were polyesters, polypropylenes, polyethylenes, polyurethanes, polyamides and poly- this that and everything else on display throughout the store!"

Another pointed out that the latest Men's Health magazine has an article about the best way to cook a steak -- which includes putting the meat in a Ziploc bag and cooking it slowly in hot water first.

"I bet that [article] gets more readers than their blog does," the reader wrote to me.

I agree, the average Men's Health reader probably is more interested in cooking a delicious steak than in finding an alternative to his plastic toothbrush.

I'll keep watching the "Plastics-Free February" blogs for more insight, and I encourage more feedback from readers.

A Quebec school district came under fire last week after a teacher punished a 6-year-old boy for bringing a sandwich to school wrapped in plastic.

According to a report from the National Post, Marc-André Lanciault and Isabel Théorêt's son, Félix, was excluded from a drawing for a stuffed animal because his sandwich was wrapped in a Ziploc bag.

"If we want to teach people about the environment, I can understand that," Marc-André Lanciault told the newspaper. "But surely there's a better way than to penalize kids. The goal wasn't achieved anyway. At the end of the day my son doesn't know why he shouldn't use a Ziploc bag. It's not only the bag, it's the whole idea that we're being brainwashed from everywhere. They told us Ziploc bags are bad, so we've stopped thinking about it and just started applying the rule."

The case -- and the resulting publicity -- has sparked a debate about plastics, personal choice, environmental responsibility and greenwashing.

Canadian radio commentator Charles Adler weighed in today with a column in the Toronto Sun, headlined: "Enough greenwashing, Plastic haters need to keep their smug little hands off our children."

Adler didn't hold back.

He wrote that the boy "is without a doubt being indoctrinated at the earliest possible age to hate all things that flow from the petrochemical industry. Could there be a more enlightened approach to rescuing the planet from Big Oil than to scare the living daylights out of the children?

"Memo to environmental fundamentalists: Please keep your sticky fingers off our children. We want them to learn how to think for themselves. We don't want them to be indoctrinated with fear and loathing of whichever people or objects you wish to dismiss or denounce."

Plastics proponents often say that educating young people is a key to the industry's future. But what message are children getting about plastics?

Up for an adventure that sounds just a bit nutty? Yesterday a raft made of polyethylene pipe left the Canary Islands on a 70-day (scheduled) sailing trip to the Bahamas.

One sailing publication describes the crew as "four elderly gentleman (one of them a fit, fighting 84)."

The raft, dubbed the An-Tiki, is made of PE pipe (some designed for potable water, some for natural gas transmission). That's appropriate, because the trip is aimed at raising awareness of the importance of clean water to the world's population. The trip is raising funds for a charity called Water Aid.

A pipe extrusion firm is even involved in the project. GPS PE Pipe Systems, a unit of Brussels-based Aliaxis SA, is a sponsor -- it donate the PE pipe used to make the vessel.

Bon voyage, An-Tiki!

Looks like it's time for more bloggers to try to live "plastics free." Magazine publishing company Rodale Inc. has declared this "Plastics-Free February," and they have eight bloggers preparing to write about the effort.

The publisher is pushing readers to drop plastics for personal health benefits. That's in keeping with Rodale's overall tone -- its titles include Runner's World, Men's Health and Prevention magazines.

As usual, "plastics free" doesn't really mean plastics free. No one is talking about doing without electricity, computers, plumbing, transportation or medical care. The aim is primarily at single-use plastic and packaging.

Rodale's "Plastics-Free February" rules are:

1. No buying or acquiring new plastic.

2. No cooking with plastic or storing food in plastic.

3: Minimize all other plastic use.

I'll keep an eye on the bloggers' progress for any interesting reports.

Jon Huntsman Jr. appears to be edging closer to a run at the Republican nomination for president. Soon the question will shift from "will he run?" to "can he win?"

Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns of Politico.com have a story today about Huntsman's supporters forming a political action committee to help him hit the ground running, should he decide to throw his hat into the ring.

Of course Huntsman has a job right now -- U.S. Ambassador to China -- and the current occupant at the White House might not be thrilled to have one of his "employees" taking part in an active effort to take his job. But according to Politco, so far the Obama administration has just joked about Huntsman's plans.

(Some political web sites today are reporting that Huntsman may be preparing to resign from the U.S. Ambassador's job).

Can Huntsman win the nomination? Maybe not -- and the problem isn't his plastics industry background. His weakness might be that he's viewed by Republican primary and caucus voters as being too moderate -- although that could be strength in the general election, if Huntsman manages to win the nomination.

Politico points out that Huntsman won "exactly zero votes" in a recent presidential straw poll taken in New Hampshire

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48454.html#ixzz1Cd4BP1MGPolitico.com

Bottled water sales suffered during the Great Recession, and some pundits predicted it would never come back -- the victim of thriftiness and environmentally enlightened consumers.

But perhaps they wrote the epitaph a bit too soon.

Convenience Store News reported yesterday that bottled water sales were up 4.2 percent in 2010, and are likely to grow another 3 percent in 2011.

Where's all the growth coming from? If you think it's all the fancy lemon- and berry-flavored waters that you've noticed in your local grocery, guess what -- you're wrong.

According to the experts quoted by Convenience Store News, the fastest growth is in sales of old-fashioned plain water.

Former Obama administration environmental adviser Van Jones will stir up the plastics industry with this speech recorded at the TedxGreatPacificGarbagePatch conference, held in Los Angeles in November.

His talk, "The economic injustice of plastic," links the ideas of social justice and the environment.

In his view, having an economy where throwaway plastic products are available leads to a society that also considers poor children "disposable."

Plastics have "horrific" impacts on the planet -- and also on people, Jones says.

Recycling makes consumers feel better about themselves, but he claims plastic isn't actually recycled -- it's burned, he says, in developing countries.

Some of this may seem ridiculous to an audience of plastics industry readers. But that does not mean it will be ignored.

Already, the Discovery Channel's Treehugger.com blog has linked to and posted the video.

A 71-year-old cast-iron gas main is suspected as a possible cause of a natural gas explosion on Jan. 18 that killed a utility worker and injured five people.

"There's always a concern about cast-iron pipe," Thomas Knudsen, chief executive of Philadelphia Gas Works, told The Wall Street Journal.

The story cites federal data for Philadelphia Gas Works indicating 18 incidents from 1985-2008 involving cast-iron pipes "that resulted in death, injury or significant property damage."

The utility, like others around the country, has been investing in recent years to replace old cast iron with new polyethylene pipe.

A Toyota dealer in North Carolina is highlighting the company's use of eco-plastics in his own PR campaign.

A news release from Toyota of Sanford highlights the use of a bioplastic -- which Toyota has dubbed Ecological Plastic -- in some 2011 model year vehicles.

The Ecological Plastic is produced using less petroleum for manufacturing and additionally will limit the vehicles overall carbon emission. This development will contribute to Toyota's overall goal of going green and not hurting the environment.

It's interesting that this dealer finds it worthy enough to put out a news release on the material. One of my colleagues at Automotive News noticed it today, and I imagine some sustainability-minded car buyers will stumble across it online as well.

Thailand's Indorama Ventures has ambitious plans to be a top global player in PET resin -- that's been documented. So I was glad to see The Wall Street Journal post a Q&A interview today with company CEO Aloke Lohia.

The story, "Thailand's Indorama Chases Growth Ambitions," starts with background on Lohia: he is 52 years old, was raised in India but spent 10 years working in Indonesia.

In 1988 he moved to Thailand to set up a chemical business. He got into PET resin in 1995, and two years later he benefited when Thailand devalued its currency, the baht. That was a big plus for Indorama because most of the company's earnings were in U.S. dollars.

In the interview, Lohia highlights opportunities for growth in emerging markets:

China, India, other parts of Asia, some parts of east Europe, former [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries, Brazil, Mexico. So the lesser-developed countries, that's where the growth is and that's where our focus of growth is.

He also specifically mentioned Brazil, in the context of interest in using ethanol as a feedstock for PET, instead of petroleum.

"At the moment, all our free stock is petroleum-based. We are looking at the ethanol side of Brazil, and ethanol can be converted into plastic. So we are looking if we can have a good tie-up on the ethanol side and then convert it into what they call a bioplastic which is much greener than a petrol-based [plastic]," Lohia said. "We would like to partner with somebody who has ethanol availability."

PlasticsNews.com posted my latest column today about plastics and marine debris, along with a great cartoon by Rich Williams.

The column concludes that the plastics industry "has an important role in preventing more plastic from fouling the oceans."

What's being done now? Steve Russell, vice president of plastics at the American Chemistry Council posted a blog item yesterday on the topic, "Tackling Marine Debris in 2011."

Russell writes about plastic makers' commitment to finding marine debris solutions, and ACC's involvement in an upcoming event, the 5th International Marine Debris Conference (5IMDC).

"5IMDC presents a tremendous opportunity to deepen our understanding, meet with researchers and other experts, talk about best practices, and find new ways to work together on real solutions," Russell writes.

"Some of the things we look forward to sharing include successes we've had with public-private partnerships in California. For example, for the past three years we have worked in California (including with Keep California Beautiful, California State Parks, Caltrans and the City of Woodland) to place nearly 700 recycle bins throughout the state. Those bins diverted over 45 tons of plastic and over 105 tons of other recyclable materials from the waste stream, and importantly, prevented them from entering the marine environment as litter."

Check out Russell's post for more details and links.

Plastic packaging will be the focus of a new episode of "Modern Marvels," set to premier on Jan. 14 on the History Channel.

The episode will feature Joe Hotchkiss, director of the packaging school at Michigan State University.

Here's how the History Channel describes the episode:

"It's all around us--so much a part of our lives that we forget it's there. But try to survive a single day without packaging. This episode reveals the astounding technology and ingenuity required to create our packaged world. At a Michigan company that designs water bottles, we'll show you how engineers find their inspiration from a bell pepper. In New Jersey, the makers of bubble wrap clue you in on their manufacturing secrets. In Texas, workers conquer the challenge of packaging the world's largest crane. And you'll also see how America's military goods and supplies are packaged and shipped by the United States Transportation Command. Other stories include a new easy to open package that's the cure for "wrap rage"-- and how NASA engineers packed a fragile humanoid robot for a trip into orbit."

Set your TiVo, this program sounds like it will be worth checking out. And thanks to blog reader Andrew Peacock for passing along this tip.

Get ready for more negative stories about plastics, as the documentary film "Plastic Planet" opens tomorrow in some U.S. markets.

Austrian director and author Werner Boote is behind the project -- this review from The Hollywood Reporter notes that Boote's grandfather was "an early plastics manufacturing executive [who] delivered lengthy lectures -- shades of The Graduate -- extolling [plastics'] virtues to his young grandson."

Boote wasn't convinced. From the trailer, it looks like the focus of the movie will be on some of the most controversial issues the plastics industry has faced in recent years: marine debris and litter, and chemical safety (University of Missouri professor Frederick vom Saal is on screen talking about bisphenol A and polycarbonate.)

More from the Hollywood Reporter's review:

The filmmaker takes a wide-ranging approach to his topic, traveling to many far-flung locations and interviewing scores of subjects ranging from plastics industry executives to experts in such fields as biology and genetics. Needless to say, none of the latter have anything very positive to say about the way plastics have come to permeate modern society.

Take a look, you might see someone you know. I think I recognize some exhibits from the 2007 K show in Dusseldorf.

Oregon State University Professor Angelicque White made global headlines this week with her report criticizing the media for grossly exaggerating the size of the "Great Garbage Patch."

The Green Living Blog from UK's Guardian newspaper took a closer look at the issue with a post today, "Which is the bigger eco-villain: plastic or paper?"

Blogger Sylvia Rowley says plastic clearly poses a threat to wildlife, and suffers from its visibility in marine debris and litter.

"However, in some cases, plastic is environmentally the better option," she writes, because plastic, if recycled, has a better carbon footprint than materials like cardboard.

Nevertheless, she cites the example of a UK company, Riverford Organics, that tried to switch its packaging from cardboard to durable plastic boxes, only to face a backlash from its customers.

Founder Guy Watson told the Guardian that the company decided to stay with cardboard because of the perception that it was better. Riverford Organics did not want to risk losing customers who believed plastic was environmentally unfriendly.

"You have to be quite courageous to fly in the face of people's intuitive judgement," Watson said, "and some might say commercially foolhardy." (Now he's investigating using bamboo, instead.)

Manufacturers can't expect many customers to step up and make the case that plastics are the superior choice. Publicity about studies like White's at Oregon State may help.

But until the plastics industry makes progress on its recycling efforts, and its image problem, potential customers like Watson will have a tough time carrying that burden on their own.

The Sunday morning talk shows were buzzing yesterday with news that Jon Huntsman Jr. may be interested in the Republican nomination for the White House in 2012.

The discussion got its start from Newsweek magazine, which posted a lengthy feature, "The Manchurian Candidate," on Saturday.

Huntsman is currently U.S. Ambassador to China -- hence the "Manchurian candidate" reference. President Obama picked Huntsman for the slot, a move that political insiders said may have been aimed in part as removing a strong potential rival from the 2012 race.

But Huntsman isn't out of the picture. Newsweek asked if he would rule out a 2012 run, and Huntsman declined to comment. Here's what he did have to say about his presidential ambitions:

You know, I'm really focused on what we're doing in our current position. ... But we won't do this forever, and I think we may have one final run left in our bones.

As Steve Toloken, Plastics News' Asia bureau chief, wrote in 2009, Huntsman is a familiar face to the U.S. plastics industry. He's a member of the family that owns part of The Woodlands, Texas-based chemical and plastics supplier Huntsman Corp. He also served as a top executive at Huntsman Corp., where his brother Peter is CEO and his father Jon Sr. -- the company founder -- is chairman.

On the political side of his resume, Huntsman has been U.S. ambassador to Singapore, deputy U.S. trade representative responsible for Asia and governor of Utah.

Toloken caught up with Huntsman last year at a news conference in Shenzhen -- check this link for his story, plus a link to an audio clip of Huntsman responding to a question about a U.S. manufacturer that planned to withdraw its research and development work from Shenzhen over IP concerns.

Meanwhile, here's an update on a plastics executive who is, indeed, on his way to Washington. Larry Bivins, who covers Washington for the Appleton, Wis., Post-Crescent, wrote a feature on Ron Johnson, the new GOP senator from Wisconsin.

Johnson will be sworn in on Wednesday. The story points out that with Johnson going to Washington, his younger brother Barry will take over management of Pacur LLC, Johnson's Oshkosh, Wis.-based sheet extrusion company.

In the news business, the week between Christmas and New Year's is big on "Year-in-Review" stories, so here's ours: The Most Popular Stories from PlasticsNews.com in 2010.

My criteria -- the number of times that readers viewed any story posted on our web site during the calendar year.

No. 1: PVC pipe extruder JM Eagle hit with whistleblower lawsuit, written by senior reporter Bill Bregar in February.

We've posted several updates on this case during 2010, so if you're just catching up now make sure to check our story archives for more information.

No. 2: Dow Chemical sticks to Basics, a feature by senior reporter Frank Esposito from April. Frank outlined the Midland, Mich.-based company's strategy for its plastics operations since the 2008 collapse of a proposed commodity plastics joint venture with a Kuwaiti firm.

Again, this is a topic that we've come back to several times this year, so check the archives for the most recent updates.

No. 3: My Feb. 7 spot news story, Audi's Super Bowl commercials blast single-use plastic products. Were you surprised by the Audi A3 TDI "Green Police" ad that cast plastic products in a negative light?

I took a break from the game to write this story at 10:30 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, complete with a timely response from the American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division, and reaction from advertising/media critics including Advertising Age's Bob Garfield.

No. 4: Amcor to buy Ball's plastics packaging unit, by staff reporter Dan Hockensmith. Big M&A news, always a mainstay on PlasticsNews.com, and this story featured solid reaction from several analysts.

No. 5: Mexico's plastics industry taking action to crack down on resin theft. Our coverage of Mexico is strong thanks to local correspondent Steve Downer. Here he wrote about gangs of thieves who were stealing trucks loaded with resin, an estimated 1,000 metric tons of material every year.

No. 6: JM Eagle alleges kickback scheme in PVC pipe whistle-blower suit. Bill Bregar's first update of the No. 1 story from our list ... again, see the story archives for more.

No. 7: Massive Toyota recall centers on plastic friction device. Rhoda Miel, our Detroit-based staff reporter, investigated a plastics angle to Toyota's faulty accelerator pedal problem.

No. 8: Colombia's Phoenix Packaging building plant in Virginia. Hockensmith again, with news of a big move by a Bogota, Colombia-based injection molder and thermoformer into North America.

No. 9: Industry reacts to US healthcare plan. Mike Verespej, PN's staff reporter in Washington, was in a prime position to report on what President Obama's healthcare plan would mean to the plastics industry. First, obviously, he's based in D.C. and covers all the relevant trade associations. Second, Mike covers the medical sector for Plastics News, so he had sources ready with their take on how "Obamacare" would impact their end market.

No. 10: Four processors named finalists for Plastics News annual award. Our Processor of the Year award is extremely popular, and this story from January 2010 announced the finalists. (The winner ended up being GW Plastics Inc., a Vermont-based processor that has transitioned into a medical molder.)

Watch our Web site around Jan. 10 for the release of this year's finalists.

Thanks to all our loyal readers, and best wishes to everyone for a healthy and prosperous 2011.

America may be the land of frivolous lawsuits, but England is host to a county council that's suing a supermarket chain over "excessive packaging."

Elisabeth Rosenthal of The New York Times wrote a story about the case on Saturday, and followed up with a post in the paper's Green blog yesterday.

According to the story, the suit was brought by the Lincolnshire County Council against Sainsbury plc, which packages its Taste the Difference Slow Matured Ultimate Beef Roasting Joint in plastic wrap, atop a plastic tray, under a clear plastic cover surrounded by a cardboard sleeve.

Interesting, since Sainsbury has gotten quite a bit of publicity for its effort to reduce single-use plastic packaging, particularly with its reusable cotton "I am not a plastic bag" bags, which it sold for $10.

Packaging is one of those topics where everyone feels like an expert -- like the weather. So the topic seems to have struck a nerve, especially with the timing around Christmas, when so many consumers are struggling to un-pack things like toys and electronics.

Check the comments posted on Rosenthal's blog for a taste of what consumers think of the packages that some Plastics Blog readers have a hand in creating.

Todd Wynn, vice president of the libertarian Cascade Policy Institute, has a thoughtful column about plastic bag bans on OregonLive.com.

"Plastic Bags: It's time to get beyond 'ban, ban, ban,'" argues that plastic bags are not the environmental nightmare that some environmentalists make them out to be. Litter and marine debris problems are not the result of plastic bags existing -- they are the result of bags not ending up in the proper place -- landfills, trash cans and recycling bins, Wynn says.

The problem is littering, yet the only solution proposed is an outright ban.

The argument doesn't make much sense anyhow. Plastic doesn't just exist in bags. It is in a whole host of products that the world consumes. What's next? Banning all plastic on Earth?

It is unfortunate that supposedly well-intentioned advocacy organizations put all their efforts into outright consumer bans. These organizations could work towards creating public awareness of a perceived problem and organizing a grassroots movement to use alternatives voluntarily.

The only way to effect meaningful change is to change culture, which requires voluntarily winning hearts and minds.

The column doesn't have any reader comments yet, but I imagine that will change soon. The bag ban issue is heating up in Oregon. I'll be checking back on this debate.

Single-use plastics are the subject of a pretty entertaining song parody set to the tune of "Empire State of Mind."

The song, "Plastic State of Mind," starts with the typical grocery store scene -- a shopper buying a few staples is asked if he wants paper or plastic.

Suddenly, the entire scene becomes a music video, with rapper/activist AshEL Eldridge and singer Jenni Perez taking the parts made famous by Jay-Z and Alecia Keys in "Empire State of Mind."

Environmental activist group Green Sangha is behind the parody -- I discovered it thanks to the Rise Above Plastics blog.

The video does go too far by implying that plastic bags are toxic. That term is thrown around so much that it's starting to lose its meaning.

Still, the video is catchy and entertaining. It does a good job of reinforcing the message that consumers should use durable reusable grocery bags (I have a half dozen sitting at home, but, like the hapless grocery customer in the video, I rarely remember to bring them to the store.)

Music and video is continuing to move to all-digital formats, and that's hurting companies that specialize in "old-fashioned" formats like CDs and DVDs.

The Wilkes-Barre, Pa., CitizensVoice.com had a story on Dec. 19 about the Cinram International Inc. plant in Olyphant, Pa., that continues to shed jobs as consumer tastes change. "Cinram workers ready for goodbye" explains how the workforce there -- which once numbered in the thousands -- now is down to 500.

The job losses were expected -- Toronto-based Cinram in February lost its biggest contract, with Warner Home Video Inc. which had accounted for about 28 percent of Cinram's US$1.5 billion in 2009 sales.

But even with the loss of the Warner Home Video work, companies that manufacture plastic media for the entertainment industry are losing business -- to the convenience of digital downloads.

According to the most recent statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America, a total of 1.13 billion music singles were downloaded in 2009. That compares to 292.9 million CDs. (As recently as 1996, there were 778.9 million CDs sold, according to RIAA).

Every few weeks I notice a newspaper feature on the "rebirth" of music on vinyl, but that's really a niche market. Vinyl LP/EP sales rose to 3.2 million units in 2009, up from 2.9 million in 2008. But the 1996 total was also 2.9 million units.

Some music fans may lament the digital download trend. But it's really a sustainability story -- this is an industry that's done away packaging, solid waste, energy consumption and material use.

Not to mention a heck of a lot of jobs.

If you buy a Barbie doll for a Christmas present, how many trees should you plant to offset the carbon footprint?

TinyGreenBubble.com reported today on Barbie's carbon footprint, thanks to research from the California College of the Arts Design Strategy program.

The post doesn't answer the tree question, unfortunately. But it does include a bit of detail about Barbie's chemical makeup (she's got a PVC head, nylon hair,an ABS body and a thermoplastic elastomer waist).

It also notes that every Barbie consumes 3.2 cups of oil -- or 1.127 watts of energy.

TinyGreenBubble isn't a fan of Barbie (or plastics, it seems).

In the past couple of days I've received word of a couple of new plastics-focused blogs, plus I received results from a big resin company's experiment with social media.

The new blogs first.

Lavergne Group, a company with a well known project to recycle ink cartridges for HP, has unveiled a blog focused on recycling-related issues and the company's capabilities. Lavergne added the blog in a recent redesign of its web site. The company also added a Facebook profile, and it plans to add Twitter and YouTube sites in the near future.

AMAMCO Tool, a Duncan, S.C., custom tooling provider, has also made the leap into blogland with CustomCarbideTools.Com, a web log devoted to information about efficient machining of carbon fiber composite parts.

It's interesting to see more companies dipping their toes into social media. The biggest plastics-related move into this area in 2010 had to be Dow Chemical Co.'s ambitious effort at K 2010, the "Stronger, Together" project.

Midland, Mich.-based Dow built a portal for its efforts at www.dowstrongertogether.com that linked its Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages. The company updated the sites frequently before and during K 2010 -- I'm sure that was a key to the successful effort -- and it also did quite a bit of promotion of the project.

At the show, the company even had a staffer doing daily video reports from Dusseldorf.

How did it all work? Simon Dibb, who was involved with the project at marketing-PR firm Porter Novelli, said Dow was "pleasantly surprised" by the post-K metrics, and it is now evaluating the various channels to determine how to continue to use them to serve the online community it has built.

Key metrics to date include:

• 6,300 YouTube views of K-specific Dow videos, some featuring Dow managers expressing what Stronger, together means to them, plus the daily news updates (daily news videos accounted for 3,850 of the total video views).
• 1,771 page views on Dow's social media web portal www.dowstrongertogether.com
• 146 Dow at K 2010 Facebook fans, with 75 comments/likes generated in 4 weeks
• 129 Dow at K 2010 Twitter followers (including 20+ trade media)

Not huge numbers, to be sure, but Dow felt it had an opportunity to be a first-mover in social media compared to its rival resin suppliers.

Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical Co. is the most influential person in the global chemical industry. That's according to ICIS Chemical Business magazine, which has compiled a Top 40 Power Players for 2010 list.

Plastics have a lot to do with Liveris winning the top spot. The story (PDF) notes that Dow has adjusted its strategy, and now plans to sell some commodity plastics operations in the next couple of years -- perhaps HDPE and PP -- and keep its LDPE and LLDPE assets.

The No. 2 "Power Player" is Peter Bahnsuk Kim, CEO of LG Chem. An ICIS news release notes that South Korea-based LG Chem "is making big strides in the battery and electronics markets, and also capitalizing on the growth in demand for plastics in China."

Mohamed Al-Mady, CEO of Saudi Basic Industries Corp, is the No. 3 player.

The majority of executives on the "Power Player" list have plastics-specific ties. Rounding out the top 10, they include: Yoshimitsu Kobayashi of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings at No. 4; Kurt Bock of BASF on No. 5, James Gallogly of LyondellBasell Industries at No. 6, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries at No. 7, Jim Ratcliffe of Inneos at No. 8, Abdullah bin Al-Attiyah of Qatar Petroleum at No. 9 and Stephen Pryor of ExxonMobil Chemical at No. 10.

Plastic bag ban proposals continue to pop up anywhere and everywhere. This week the city of Long Beach, Calif., took a step toward adoping a ban, while a proposal surfaced 1,700 miles away in Arkansas.

The Long Beach City Council on Dec. 7 voted 6-2 to instruct the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would ban plastic bags. Local news reports say the proposal will be similar to a ban recently adopted by Los Angeles County.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram is reporting that the ordinance would ban plastic bags beginning Aug. 1 at large stores, and at smaller stores starting Jan. 1, 2012.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposal early next year.

Of course if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way and the state of California passes a ban, the debate could be moot. But he's a lame duck, so it may be unlikely that he'll get a ban passed before Gov. Jerry Brown takes over.

Meanwhile in Arkansas, Republican state Sen. Denny Altes filed "The Reusable Shopping Bag Act" this week. It would require large stores in the state to provide only paper bags and to sell reusable cloth bags.

Film manufacturer Toray Plastics (America) Inc. announced today that it has donated $1 million to support graduate engineering fellowships at the University of Rhode Island.

President and CEO Richard Schloesser noted that Toray's relationship with the university began more than 20 years ago. The company provides nearly four dozen scholarships each year to the best undergraduate engineering students at URI, as well as internships at the company's plant in North Kingstown, R.I.

"Toray is committed to promoting excellence in higher education and to building strong partnerships within our community that enhance the lives of the people who live here and help foster innovation," Schloesser said in a news release. The company is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toray Industries Inc.

Toray's donation was part of the University's "Making a Difference" capital campaign and directed to an initiative that specifically provides funding opportunities to prospective graduate students in engineering.

The College of Engineering's Dean Ray Wright added: "Toray is a highly-valued partner of the College of Engineering, and we are grateful for its long-standing support on so many fronts."

German designer Konstantine Grcic, who made the pages of Plastics News a few years ago for his work on the Myto cantilever chair made of plastic, was named designer of the year at DesignMiami this week.

The New York Times posted a Q&A interview with Grcic this week, noting that the honor was a surprise -- most previous winners were artists, while he is "known for his rigorous focus on logic, utility and simplicity."

PN readers may recall that Grcic worked with BASF AG on the Myto chair, which featured a then-new high-speed version of its Ultradur polybutylene terephthalate resin. For background on that project, check out staff reporter Rhoda Miel's story.

With Haiti suffering through a recent cholera outbreak, some companies with plastics ties are working to help out by empowering Haitians to properly treat their drinking water.

Deep Springs International, a Grove City, Pa.-based non-profit organization, was on the ground in Haiti for three years before the earthquake hit, helping to improve the health of the population by distributing safe water storage containers and liquid chlorine solution.

As the cholera epidemic continues to spread, DSI has responded by providing chlorine solution for the water distribution network in St. Marc and 353 schools in the Artibonite region - the epicenter of the outbreak - as well as 16 other communities where DSI previously had established programs.

DSI's corporate partners secured funds for the distribution of 900 additional gallons of liquid chlorine solution and 500,000 solid chlorine tablets. The partners include Lanxess Corp., Nova Chemicals and PPG Industries.

Following the January earthquake, Lanxess allowed Jeff Ritter, who works in the company's procurement department, to dedicate all his time to the relief effort. Since then,

• Lanxess has donated about $250,000 to help fund DSI's project, providing over 20,000 household water purification systems as well as tablets and other supplies that produced 20 million gallons of safe water for the relief effort.
• Nova Chemicals donated two containers of high density polyethylene, which will allow DSI to manufacture nearly 30,000 water purification systems in Haiti. Nova, through its Inspirion Ventures subsidiary, also is donating four collapsible containers store the systems in remote areas.
• PPG Industries provided more than 2,750 pounds of Accu-Tab tablets to treat water supplies.

To date, DSI has helped more than 450,000 individuals and 50,000 children under the age of five to benefit from clean drinking water. To date, according to the company, the project saved the lives of more than 100 children, who otherwise would have died of diarrheal-related dehydration. For more information, visit www.deepspringsinternational.org.

Fiji Water Co. LLC has reopened it bottling plant on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu, after temporarily shutting it down to protest a new 15-cent-per-liter tax on bottled water.

The company posted a brief statement about the decision on its blog:

Following discussions today with Fijian officials, Fiji Water will reopen its bottling plant, effective Wednesday morning, Dec. 1, at its regular start-up time of 8 a.m. Through our discussions, we have also agreed to comply with Fiji's new water tax law.

Moving forward, FIJI Water is committed to working with the Fijian government, and remains dedicated to helping the country's economy and its people.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today called on the state Legislature to pass a ban on plastic bags, possibly as early as December.

A bill that would have banned single-use plastic bags failed in the state Senate this summer. But Schwarzenegger said the state needs to reconsider in order to "terminate" plastic pollution.

"Of course we fell short a few votes, but we said, 'We'll be back,' and we are back again. And maybe in December we can do it. Who knows. And if we don't get it done in December, we'll get it done next year. We're going to try over and over again. Because we have seen in the past that when you don't give up, eventually you can be successful."

Check out the video below. Among other things, he criticizes the American Chemistry Council, saying that outside forces can say a ban would be too costly, but that does not take into account the costs that plastic bags create for shoppers, for local communities and for wildlife.

Fiji Water Co. LLC, a company that's long faced the ire of some environmentalists, might be looking for a new aquifer.

President and Chief Operating Officer John Cochran announced Nov. 28 that the Los Angeles-based company would shut down its factory in Fiji today, after the government there announced that it would impose a 15-cent-per-liter tax on water bottled at locations where more than 3.5 million liters per month are extracted.

Fiji Water, which currently pays 1/3 of a cent per liter, is the only bottled water producer in Fiji affected by the tax.

Cochran added:

As a leading exporter, Fiji Water has contributed greatly to the Fijian economy. We represent more than F$130 million in export revenue for the country and employ nearly 400 Fijians at our facility. Our investment in Fiji has created millions of dollars in value through direct employment and with our supplier network. We currently pay millions of dollars in duties and income tax to the government. We also contribute over F$1.8 million dollars annually in royalty payments to the Yaqara Pastoral Co. Ltd. and another F$250,000 annually to a trust that supports the six local villages surrounding our facility.

In addition, our company and the Fiji Water Foundation have worked tirelessly to help improve the quality of life for the Fijian people, including an annual investment of F$1 million to bring clean water to local villages, improve education, and provide access to health care services for those in need.

We consider the government's current action as a taking of our business, and one that sends a clear and unmistakable message to businesses operating in Fiji or looking to invest there: The country is increasingly unstable, and is becoming a very risky place in which to invest.

Fiji Water remains willing to work through this issue with the Fiji government, as it would be our preference to keep operating in Fiji.

Mother Jones, which has been critical of Fiji Water's business plan, is reporting that Fiji Water might have a back-up source of water in mind.

Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of Fiji Waters, already own the Spring Fresh brand of bottled water in New Zealand, and "Spring Fresh's website now uses many of the same selling points as Fiji Water, including a claim that the company's operations are 'carbon negative,'" according to Mother Jones.

Plastics and fashion came together in a cool and unexpected way last night, when rapper/songwriter/producer will.i.am wore a hat made from Lego blocks to the 2010 American Music Awards in Los Angeles.

I was hoping to post a video, but haven't found a good one yet that I can share. But here are some nice photos. This one shows the hat's brim, and this one gives you the ability to zoom in on the blocks by putting your cursor over the hat.

Finally, here's a video from CNN, with an interview where wil.i.am is wearing the hat.

It's a nice, colorful and creative departure from the usual bling.

Chicago's McCormick Place picked up some good news today: Solar Power International announced that Chicago will be home to its 2013 conference, the largest of its kind in North America.

According to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, the event will bring 27,000 attendees and generate at least $38 million in spending, according to this report from Crain's Chicago Business.

Plastics Blog readers will recall that it was a year ago this week -- Nov. 17, 2009 -- that the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. announced it was moving the 2012 and 2015 NPE trade shows to Orlando, Fla.

What a difference a year makes.

Today is a good day to check out some other plastics-related blogs.

The ICIS Chemicals Confidential blog has an entertaining post: "Will Royal Wedding be good for plastics demand?" The answer, from blogger Barbara Ortner, is a tongue-in-cheek "yes."

Injection moulding machines across the world are poised for a plastic souvenir bonanza, following yesterday's announcement of the Royal Wedding.

Amongst the acres of coverage about the design of the engagement ring and the wedding dress, and how they will inspire all of next year's brides to buy the same, there is so far little coverage of the containers full of plastic knick-knacks which will be heading for the impressionable markets of Europe and the US.

Britain's Guardian does have a story about the global rush to make souvenir mugs, plates, paperweights and other "collectables" to commemorate the wedding.

(If you haven't heard about the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton -- please don't look to Plastics News for additional coverage.)

Also from the blogosphere today, Alex Tullo in The Chemical Notebook has a fun post wrapping up his coverage from Dow Chemical Co.'s recent investor day.

The post, "Odds And Ends From Dow's Dog And Pony Show," shared with readers "some impressions and tidbits that won't make it into" Chemical & Engineering News.

The top two:

1. Dow CEO Andrew N. Liveris is not without his talents. CEOs of chemical companies often bring unique skills to their jobs. Jon M. Huntsman, for instance, is one of the industry's best negotiators. Liveris is at his best when he is moving his lips. He is a salesman of first rank. When you ask him a tough question, he acts as if he woke up that morning hoping someone would ask him that.
2. Even Andrew Liveris can be stumped. A reporter from Michigan Public Radio asked him about hypocrisy of investing in solar cells and lithium batteries in the U.S. while pursuing coal-to-chemicals in China. Liveris wobbled to his feet muttering things about best practices, Responsible Care, and planting lots of elm trees.

Check out the link for the rest of Alex's thoughts and observations.

The plastics industry's recycling record is the main focus of a multi-part report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s CBC News in Winnipeg, Manitoba, titled "The Predicament of Plastics."

Not a lot new here -- they reveal that most plastic that residents in Winnipeg put in their blue bins heads to China, where processors make durable goods like Barbie dolls and flyswatters.

The report also quotes from a Canadian Plastics Industry Association newsletter in a story titled "Plastics industry battles negative image."

There's also a story on plastic pollution, "Plastic waste polluting Manitoba lakes."

The "story comments" sections for the report are filled with reader opinions -- both on the pro and con sides of the plastics industry's environmental record. According to the site, additional comments are welcome until 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 18.

Compostable, biodegradable polylactic-acid bags may be too noisy for U.S. snack food fans. But Frito-Lay has decided that Canadians are willing to put up with a loud bag in exchange for the environment.

Still think it's too loud? Then you can get a set of earplugs from the company!

Check out this advertisement from the company about the plan -- it's interesting they call it a "public service announcement."

And if you want more information about SunChips packaging and PLA, check out the upcoming Sustainable Plastics Packaging conference, scheduled for Dec. 8-9 in Atlanta.

JoAnn Hines, consultant and Packaging Diva, plans to speak on the topic: "When green goes wrong: What happened with the SunChips compostable packaging failure?"

Plastic marine debris will be the focus of a summit meeting for high school students on March 11-13 in Long Beach, Calif.

The Plastics are Forever International Youth Summit is being organized by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation -- a group known for its research on plastic marine debris.

Right now the group is asking students to come up with solutions to plastic waste problems in their towns. About 100 students will be selected to attend the summit, along with filmmakers, scientists, ocean researchers and "media experts" who will train the students to become expert on reducing plastic in their communities. Submissions are due by Nov. 30.

I spotted information about the summit thanks to Southern California Public Radio, which did an "Everyday Heroes" story about a local student and environmental activist who plans to attend the meeting.

The plastics industry spent about $2 million on lobbying in California between July 1 and Sept. 30 -- as the state legislature was considering a bill that would have banned many single-use plastic bags.

More than half of that total came from Hartsville, S.C.-based bag manufacturer Hilex Poly Co. LLC, according to a report from The Sacramento Bee, based on recently released data from the California Secretary of State.

In addition to Hilex's $1.08 million, the American Chemistry Council spent about $942,000 on lobbying in that three month stretch. ACC was interested in other legislation too, including a bill that would have tightened restrictions on bisphenol A.

Both the bag and BPA bans failed. But with all that money floating around, you can be sure the legislature will take them up again next year.

Usually Plastics News reporters get to ask questions at trade shows, but at K 2010 one exhibitor turned the tables, interviewing Frank Esposito as part of a social media project.

Dow Chemical Co.'s Erin Kuhl interviewed Frank -- PN's senior reporter who covers materials companies -- for Dow's social media project that I blogged about a few weeks ago.

In the interview (see below), Frank talks about sustainable products and show attendance.

PN readers know Frank already has plenty of on-camera video experience -- he hosts our regular weekly Material Insights webcast.

Here's a common question -- what kind of plastic is "greenest." A researcher at the University of Pittsburgh has compared a variety of plant-based polymers -- along with some traditional commodity thermoplastics.

The results indicate the biopolymers are not necessarily better for the environment than traditional plastic materials -- mainly because conventional plastics can be environmentally less taxing to produce.

The analysis was conducted by Michaelangelo Tabone, who did the study as an undergraduate student in the lab of Amy Landis, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering.

The research team first performed a life-cycle assessment on each polymer's preproduction stage to gauge the environmental and health effects of the energy, raw materials, and chemicals used to create one ounce of plastic pellets. Then they checked each plastic in its finished form against principles of green design, including biodegradability, energy efficiency, wastefulness, and toxicity.

Conventional plastics took the top spots in the life-cycle assessments -- polypropylene was No. 1, followed by high density polyethylene and low density PE. A biopolymer polyhydroxyalkanoate -- placed No. 4.

According to the researchers, bio-based plastics scored poorly because of the pollution they create during the manufacturing process.

The team attributed this to agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, extensive land use for farming, and the intense chemical processing needed to convert plants into plastic. All four biopolymers were the largest contributors to ozone depletion.

Once in use, however, the biopolymers "cleaned up." Looking at the green design criteria, bioplastics took all the top positions: Two varieties of polylactic acid took the No. 1 and No. 4 spots, and two varieties of polyhydroxyalkanoate tied for No. 2.

Biodegradability, obviously, was a big advantage for the bio-based resins on the green design scale. And, using that as a criteria, conventional plastics took a beating. PP, for example, sank to ninth place as a "sustainable" material, judged by the green design criteria.

Their research will be published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The Wall Street Journal tackled bioplastics as part of a special report on the environment today.

The story offers a decent overview on bioplastics for Plastics Blog readers who need some help getting their arms around the topic -- which, understandably, has generated a lot of headlines in the past couple of years.

The story asserts that while bioplastics currently make up just 0.2 percent of the 350 million metric tons of plastics consumed annually, the volume could jump 30 percent annually over the next 10 years.

That growth will depend on continued and growing interest by consumer product companies, which are using bio-based resins in packaging and some products. It will also depend on the price of natural gas and oil, because bio-based materials tend to be more competitive with conventional plastics when the cost of energy is high.

The WSJ report also includes a nice slide show of products made from bioplastics, including packaging, foodservice and durable products.

The buzz in the Detroit sports/business circles is that Dow Chemical Co. might be interested in sponsoring a Professional Golf Association event next year in Michigan.

The Detroit News got the latest round of discussion started with an Oct. 9 story,
"PGA Tour could come to Detroit in fall 2011."

That story did not mention Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical, but it did say that the Detroit Golf Club had already had some serious discussions with an unnamed potential sponsor.

Detroit's WJRT-ABC TV affiliate made the connection between the PGA and Dow in an Oct. 11 report, "Dow may sponsor Detroit PGA event."

The WJRT report notes that GolfWeek magazine earlier this summer mentioned that Dow was interested in sponsoring a PGA event.

Add the Town of Telluride, Colo., to the list of U.S. municipalities with bans on single-use plastic grocery bags.

According to The Telluride Watch, the Town Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday to approve a ban, making it the first community in Colorado with such a law.

The law takes effect on March 1, and like many other bans it excludes bags used for meat and produce. The Telluride ban also does not apply to prescription drug bags or newspaper bags.

To encourage residents to use durable reusable bags, the Town also is requiring grocery stores to charge a 10-cent-per-bag "advance recovery fee" on paper bags.

According to the Watch's report, one local business owner asked the Town Council to delay implementation of the law and instead put the decision before voters, but the suggestion was rejected.

You might recall that "The Plastics Blog" reported back in 2008 that Telluride had been taking a different approach to the bag issue -- a friendly competition with nearby Aspen, Colo., to see which town could get residents to use reusable bags instead of plastic.

But now Telluride instead is joining the trend of municipalities and counties around the country considering -- and in this case adopting -- a local ban.

You should expect more resort towns in Colorado to follow suit.

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

A big trade show can be a good place to try a social media strategy. You've got thousands of people in the same place. Many are likely to be interested in what you've got to say about the event -- and about your company. Why not let them know what you're doing, and what you're showing, with tools like Twitter and Facebook?

Dow Chemical Co. is taking that approach at K 2010, the big plastics trade fair set for Oct. 27-Nov. 3 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Dow built a portal for its efforts at www.dowstrongertogether.com ("Stronger, together" is Dow's theme at K 2010) that links to its Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages, plus other relevant sites (including the Plastics Blog).

Dow's using Twitter to update its followers about the show. (A typical recent post: What does Tomás Fernández, Dow's LDPE Product Director, Latin America, think about K 2010? Find out at http://tinyurl.com/2uenb98 #K2010 )

Facebook is about interaction, so that's where the company is encouraging discussion, while at the same time sharing information. (As of today, the company has 84 people who "like" the site).

At the show, Dow plans to use YouTube to post daily video news updates.

How will this all work? Will it be worth all the effort? Dow will know in a few weeks, and the company will be able to fine tune its social media strategy for future events.

This might be the biggest leap into social media by a resin company that I've seen.

Congratulations to Silberline Manufacturing Co. Inc., a family-owned effect pigment manufacturer in Tamaqua, Pa., that is celebrating its 65th year in business.

Lisa Jane Scheller, the third-generation president and CEO, hosted guests (including 30-year veteran employees) in an anniversary party at the headquarters.

"Conducting business with integrity and adhering to a strong moral compass were always hallmarks of the company and it's an honor to carry on that responsibility," she said.

Scheller credited the company's longevity to the core values championed by the company's founder, her grandfather, Ernest Scheller, Sr., and by her father, Chairman Ernest Scheller, Jr.

The company is still based in tiny Tamaqua, but it's global in scope these days -- it has facilities in Indiana, Scotland, China, Mexico and Singapore.

California gets most of the attention related to plastic bag bans, but North Carolina actually passed a state-mandated ban that takes effect today.

The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va., has a pretty thorough feature story about the Carolina ban.

The ban applies to retailers on the Outer Banks -- specifically, businesses in coastal Currituck, Dare and Hyde counties.

Retailers can continue to use bags they already have in inventory, but they can't buy any more. Plastic is still permitted for meat, fish and produce. Shoppers are encouraged to bring reusable bags from home -- they actually get a discount on purchases if they do.

If they don't, then retailers must offer paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled content.

The bag ban on the Outer Banks is driven by environmentalism, and by tourism.

A spokesman for state Sen. Marc Basnight, who proposed the law, notes: "A littered-up Outer Banks is not what will continue to attract visitors from around the country."

California's Legislature failed to pass a ban on plastic bags on Aug. 31. But you should expect more municipalities and counties around the country to consider local bans in the coming months.

Five years ago, consumer product company Johnson & Johnson set some sustainability-related goals that it hoped to achieve by 2010.

Let's check in and see how J&J did on the plastics-related targets -- much of it related to trying to eliminate PVC packaging.

J&J's "Healthy Planet 2010" project set minimum requirements for using post-consumer plastics, glass and metals in its Consumer segment, as well as a goal to reduce use of PVC packaging across the company.

On the PVC front, J&J looks at primary packaging (which comes into direct contact with the product) and secondary or tertiary packaging (which does not come into direct contact), such as bottle cap seals.

In the company's latest report updating progress on sustainability goals, J&J notes that "validating alternatives to PVC packaging is time-consuming and expensive," but added that "we continue to make progress."

In the Consumer business, J&J has eliminated 100 percent of the PVC in primary packaging, accounting for 2,490 tons of material. It has also elimated 92 percent of the PVC from its Consumer unit's secondary and tertiary packaging, for 884 tons of material. The remaining 82 tons are in bottle neck bands, and J&J said it is evaluating alternatives.

In the Medical Devices and Diagnostics unit, the company has eliminated 100 percent of the PVC from its secondary and tertiary packaging.

The Pharmaceutical unit has seen slower progress: it has eliminated 55 percent from the PVC in its secondary and tertiary packaging, or 19 tons.

Procter & Gamble Co. made a splash with its announcement this week of sustainability goals, including many that will have an impact on the types of plastics packaging it uses in the future.

In P&G's case, the company plans to eliminate all of its PVC packaging within two years.

Kathy Shwiff had an interesting "Inside Track" column yesterday about executives at Spartech Corp. buying shares in the company -- after recent bad news sent the price plummeting.

Remember the Spartech story? The sheet extruder and compounder on Sept. 8 named board member Victoria Holt as its president and CEO, replacing Myles Odaniell. The change came the same day that the company released poor third-quarter financial results that sent its stock price tumbling more than 30 percent.

Shwiff, in her column in The Wall Street Journal, noted that some Spartech executives took advantage of the stock price dip and bought lots of shares.

Holt, for example, bought 72,000 shares for more than $500,000 on Sept. 14. Other senior executives also purchased shares.

The column notes that as a new CEO, Holt might choose to make moves right away that could create more short-term pain for the share price, such as taking charges against earnings. But the insider stock purchases could be a postive sign for Spartech's longer-term prospects.

Jonathan Moreland, director of research for InsiderInsights.com, told Shwiff that the insider purchases show confidence in the new management and are a reason for investors to consider the stock.

"Not in my backyard" is likely the cry of some residents of Clinton, Iowa, as some residents have filed a lawsuit against Archer Daniels Midland Co. complaining about the company's new plant that makes Mirel bioplastics.

The plant opened in March. According to this report from the Quad City Times, 47 plaintiffs who own or rent homes near the plant filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Davenport, Iowa, complaining about noise, odor, light, dust, traffic and vibrations from the plant.

The plaintiffs want damages, and they're asking the court to make ADM stop operating the plant from until the company can address the problems.

I expect the court will encourage ADM to minimize its impact on the neighborhood -- without shutting it down.

In the meantime, all the other depressed communities that would like to have a company invest hundreds of millions of dollars and bring 100 new jobs to their town can sit back and imagine how nice it would be to be in Clinton, Iowa, right now.

Bayer AG's new CEO, Marijn Dekkers, met with the media on Monday, a few days before he officially takes over the chemical giant on Oct. 1.

One of the big questions: what are Dekkers' plans for the plastics business, Bayer MaterialScience?

Some reporters wondered if he plans to sell plastics and use the money to invest in businesses with more perceived upside, like healthcare or crop sciences.

Dekkers told reporters that he has no plans along those lines right now.

"All three main divisions are of strategic importance to me. I don't see the need at the moment to change this portfolio," he said, in this Reuters report. "A fundamental change is currently not on my agenda."

Dow Jones paraphrased Dekkers, saying that the most important thing is for divisions to be competitive and market leaders.

Dekkers is replacing Werner Wenning at Bayer.

A blog post caused a minor disturbance in some plastics circles yesterday, after a political reporter wrote that a plastics show was moving back to McCormick Place.

The reference to plastics turned out to be a mistake, and the post has since been corrected.

Anyone who saw the original post may have wondered if the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. was having second thoughts about moving NPE 2012 and 2015 to Orlando, Fla.

Here's the story:

Greg Hinz, a political columnist for Crain's Chicago Business, wrote an item for his blog yesterday headlined "Reilly appears off to good start at McPier."

The post updated readers on the situation at McPier, the agency that runs Chicago's McCormick Place convention center, and was the result of a lunch that Hinz had with McPier boss Jim Reilly.

The post was largely positive, noting that Reilly "seems to be doing some of the right things that the mayor, governor and Illinois General Assembly hired him to do."

Reilly stressed that reforms at McCormick -- all instituted after SPI announced that it was moving NPE away from Chicago -- have succeeded in stopping the exodus of shows from McCormick.

"Once the dust settles, cost-wise, I think we'll be very competitive . . . at or below prices in Las Vegas and Orlando," Reilly told Hinz.

The confusing part for plastics industry readers was a brief reference in the story to a couple of shows that, thanks to the reforms, Chicago had managed to keep.

"...two big shows that had threatened to leave -- representing the plastics and industrial technology sectors -- instead renewed in Chicago..." Hinz wrote.

At least one of Hinz's readers jumped on that snippet, emailing Plastics News a link, saying it was proof that SPI had decided to come back Chicago.

SPI quickly put a wet blanket on that rumor.

SPI President Bill Carteaux sent us this statement this morning: "As announced November 17, 2009, SPI's NPE trade show will be held in Orlando for the next two show cycles: April 1-5, 2012 and March 22-26, 2015."

We pointed this out to Hinz today, and he's now added a short addendum to his original blog post:

"One correction in the above. I wrote down 'plastics' in my notebook about shows that now are staying in Chicago, but the correct show is 'housewares.' The plastics show is still gone to Orlando. Should have double checked."

We're glad to have played a small part in setting the record straight, and perhaps keeping a unsubstantiated rumor from starting to spread.

NPE is going to continue to generate a lot of interest from the political and labor community in Chicago.

You can be sure that they'll want another crack at winning back the shows, which have been such an important -- and lucrative -- business for the city since 1971.

But despite any rumors you hear to the contrary, don't expect that to happen before the 2018 cycle.

A long-anticipated civil trial got started this week in Philadelphia. The plaintiffs in the case allege that a chemical plant in Ringwood, Ill., dumped vinylidene chloride at the site, which caused about 30 residents to develop brain cancer.

The suit, which is actually the first of 31 related cases, is Joanne Branham v. Rohm & Haas Co. The trial is being held in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.

The defendants are Rohm and Haas, Dow Chemical Co. and Morton International. Morton was the original operator of the Ringwood plant,which Rohm and Haas acquired when it bought Morton in 1999. Dow bought Rohm and Haas in 2008.

The plaintiffs allege that vinylidene chloride dumped at the site broke down into vinyl chloride mononer, and caused residents in the area to have higher-than-expected rates of brain cancer.

Lawyers for Rohm and Haas will argue that contamination from the plant could not have reached levels in the water or air to cause cancer, and that studies do not link VCM exposure to brain cancer.

Frederick vom Saal is one of 10 recipients if this year's Heinz Awards.

The awards, presented by Teresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation, recognize extraordinary achievements in environmental issues.

Vom Saal is a University of Missouri professor and long-time leader in the field of research into bisphenol A safety. Here's an excerpt from the Heinz Award web site explaining his role in the issue:

Dr. Frederick vom Saal's groundbreaking research has significantly impacted public health policy as he has uncovered the risks associated with exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a commonly used chemical ingredient in consumer products, such as baby bottles, receipt paper, food and soda cans. ...

Frederick vom Saal has been one of the leading scientists in demonstrating that human health problems may be preventable by reducing exposures to certain common contaminants, including one, bisphenol A, for which he is, according to many, the world expert. His efforts have borne fruit in the United States and elsewhere around the globe.

Heinz Awards recipients receive a $100,000 cash prize. The awards were established by Teresa Heinz in 1993 to honor the memory of her late husband, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, a Republican who supported environmental causes.

Teresa Heinz is currently married to U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

A new TV comedy set to premier on Thursday on NBC is at least partially inspired by a real-life plastics executive -- someone many Plastics Blog readers may know.

The show is "Outsourced," about an American novelties company that moves its call center to India, where it is managed by a young American played by Ben Rappaport.

That name may sound familiar because Ben -- the star of the new show -- is the son of Howard Rappaport, global business director for plastics at resin industry consulting firm/conference organizer Chemical Market Associates Inc.

The idea of "Outsourced" predates Ben Rappaport's involvement -- the show is inspired by a 2006 film with the same name.

But nonetheless Ben Rappaport says he is basing his character on his father.

In an interview with TV writer Bruce R. Miller, Ben Rappaport said that when his father saw the pilot, "I could see the pride and see him registering things - he was very flattered."

"Outsourced" is starting the season with a prime slot -- right after the season premier of "The Office." So there should be plenty of Dunder Mifflin Inc. fans tuning in to see Rappaport and his colleagues at Mid American Novelties.

Plastics News readers know MBA Polymers Inc., the California company that's developed technology to separate and recycle plastics -- including engineering resins -- from durable products like computers.

Now millions more around the world know about MBA, as the company was featured on Sept. 18 by op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman in The New York Times.

Friedman's column, "Aren't we clever," highlights an oddity that Plastics News has previously covered: Although MBA developed its technology in the United States, right now it does almost all of its plastics recycling in Europe and Asia.

Why? Because even though the U.S. generates more electronic waste than any other country -- and more auto shredder waste than what's created in all of Europe -- there's no infrastructure or incentive for MBA to recycle those materials here at home.

"I employ 25 people in California and 250 overseas," MBA founder Mike Biddle told Friedman. "I am in the E.U. and China because the above-ground plastic mines are there or are being created there ... I am not in the U.S. because there aren't sufficient mines."

Some communities in Southern California are taking a low-tech approach to reducing plastic marine debris -- they're installing expensive screens on storm drains.

According to this story in the Los Angeles Times, 16 cities are installing the stainless steel screens on nearly 12,000 catch basins -- a project that officials expect to stop 840,000 pounds of debris from reaching the Pacific Ocean each year.

The screens cost up to $4,000 per catch basin -- and Charles Moore with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation is suggesting that the plastics industry should pick up the tab.

"You can't put this external cost to the throwaway society onto the municipalities and taxpayers," he told the Times. "They're asked to do all that work, when really, the plastic industry itself needs to be held responsible."

The screens aren't going to completely stop plastic marine debris -- far from it. According to the story, they won't stop small fragments of plastic, which will escape through the 5-millimeter mesh. And during heavy rains, the devices will swing open to avoid flooding.

Still, if the project is successful at reducing marine debris, expect to see other communities follow California -- and don't be surprised if they make the case that the plastics industry should be responsible for the expense.

America's Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing is building the prototype for a group of six identical 45-foot-long catamarans for team competitions in 2011 "world series" races. The 34th America's Cup event is planned during 2013 using team-built 72-foot-long catamarans possibly in the waters off San Francisco, Valencia, Spain, or Rome, Italy.

A Sept. 16 report in the Rodney Times says that BMW Oracle is manufacturing the scaled-down one-design AC45 fleet at a facility that it acquired on New Zealand's North Island in 2008. The factory in Warkworth, about 38 miles north of Auckland, has polymer-matrix-composite capabilities.

The BMW Oracle team, headed by enterprise-software entrepreneur Larry Ellison, won the 33rd America's Cup on Feb. 13 in Valencia using a trimaran to defeat two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland.

(And thanks to long-time Plastics News correspondent Roger Renstrom -- our resident expert on composites -- for this item.)

A leading plastics recycler, Envision Plastics Industries LLC in Reidsville, N.C., started a new blog yesterday that looks promising.

The company, which has long stressed that North American recyclers need more material, said the blog will address three key areas for plastics recyclers:

• Educate on current issues in post-consumer recycling (PCR)
• Provide clarification or additional information on issues related to PCR that may not have been presented accurately or been told the complete story by parties with vested interests
• Introduce and elaborate on benefits of using PCR

The blog (called "Save the Plastics") is already off to a good start -- the first post is titled "3 Reasons Why NC's 2009 Ban on Plastic Bottles to the Landfill is Crucial for Business Success."

Here's a taste, starting with a quote from Scott Mouw, environmental supervisor with teh state's Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance:

In simple terms, the disposal bans are precisely and primarily intended to divert highly marketable recyclable materials away from the waste stream and into the stream of commerce. We have some early indications that the legislation is having that effect and will have extensive data from local governments by late fall that indicate the actual situation.

The next blog post topic: "California's Plastic Bag Ban Legislation - What are the impacts so far?"

Stay tuned, and welcome to blogland.

The New York Times has a good story today on innovations in 3-D printing. The story, "3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution," highlights several companies including Bespoke, a California firm that uses the technology to make custom prosthetic limbs.

The accompanying video (see below) does a nice job demonstrating state-of-the-art 3-D printing. It also highlights how the price of the technology is becoming much more affordable, and how designers can use it to make moving parts, thanks to the ability to make items out of more than one material

Enjoy!

Here's a twist that may muddy the waters in the debate over plastic bag bans -- its a question about the safety of reusable bags.

The Wegmans Food Markets chain in Rochester, N.Y., announced Friday that it will stop selling two reusable shopping bags designs because testing that indicates that they contain elevated levels of lead.

The bags -- decorated with green pea and 2009 holiday designs -- are made in China. The supermarket chain has stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland.

A consumer group urged other grocery chains to test their bags for heavy metals.

Forbes magazine has an interesting little story in its Sept. 13 issue about Ford Motor Co.'s research into car interior odors.

According to the story, Ford employs five engineers "with exceptionally sensitive noses" who are focused on making sure their cars and trucks don't smell bad.

In fact, their "ultimate goal," according to the story, is to find a scent that "produces a sense of well-being inside a Ford."

This seems like an area where plastics materials suppliers and molders could create new products. My suggestions:

• Ford 150 trucks should smell like hot coffee and donuts, perhaps with a hint of chewing tobacco or unfiltered cigarettes.
• The Mustang should smell like Axe ... or Old Spice.
• The Fusion Hybrid should smell like granola.
• The Lincoln MKX should smell like bank lobbies and putting greens.

Suggestions, anyone?

Jim Kerstein, CEO of composite bridge manufacturer Axion International, believes there's an urgent need to start using recycled plastics in construction applications.

Kerstein wrote a passionate column on the topic for GreenTechMedia.com, headlined "Observations on Eco-Industrial Engineering -- One word: plastics."

A few excerpts:

• Incorporating more plastics into automobiles was possible in the 1940s -- Henry Ford was a proponent -- and the shift would have reduced manufacturing costs and increased carmakers' profits. But automakers were slow to evolve.
• America doesn't have 50 years to adapt to the idea of recycled plastic as a building material. "Couple concerns about the environment with almost unanimous agreement that the nation's infrastructure is in desperate need of repair, and you have what would seem like a perfect storm to drive market acceptance of new composite plastics that are capable of replacing legacy building materials," he wrote.
• "...the private sector is so focused on the bottom line that unless you're extremely competitive in the short term, long-term benefits have little value."
• Also, "being green doesn't seem to be very relevant when it comes to the decision-making process. While it is icing on the cake, a green solution is what sells the cake."

Recycling, litter, producer responsibility and related issues are on the table in Madison, Wis., where the state legislature's special committee on single-use plastics met for the first time a few weeks ago.

Rep. Spencer Black, chairman of the committee, said in a news release that the panel's job is to "find ways to keep more plastic out of our landfills as waste and out of our landscape as litter."

""Plastic is used widely because it is a very useful and convenient material for agricultural, industrial and commercial purposes. But its widespread use also poses a problem, both as litter and as a major source of waste for landfills," he said. "Plastic, as a petrochemical product, contains a valuable resource that we should seek to use again instead of using it once and throwing it out. Working with business in a cooperative manner, I believe we can draft legislation that will benefit both the environment and the economy."

The committee heard from local and national experts, including representatives from the American Chemistry Council and the Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers.

(Check this PDF for the minutes of the meeting.)

Black said the panel will meet again in October, and he hopes to finish its work with two additional meetings.

Just when we thought they'd disappear forever, the plastic shoes that many people seem to love to hate are making a comeback.

The U.K. newspaper the Guardian has a feature story on the comeback today, "Crocs steps back from the brink of business oblivion: A sudden turnaround at Crocs proves the world never really fell out of love with its ugly plastic shoes."

The newspaper cited the company's most recent financial report for the "back from oblivion" reference:

After racking up huge losses in 2008 and 2009, Colorado-based Crocs Inc became a Wall Street joke, with one investment manager comparing the firm a year ago to a zombie. But, in an abrupt turnaround, Crocs has seen its stock leap by 130% in eight months. The company recently delivered a $32m (£21m) quarterly profit following a 31% jump in sales to $228m, prompting its chief executive, John McCarvel, to crow: "We hope those who published our obituary a year ago will now take some time to give us our due."

It goes to show you, you can't predict style trends.

For those who don't remember the plastics details, Crocs are made out of a proprietary closed-cell resin that make them soft, lightweight and odor-resistant.

Yesterday I blogged about how California residents feel about their legislature failing to pass a ban on plastic bags. Today, we'll let columnists from several California newspapers weigh in.

One common theme: The American Chemistry Council won this battle with a strong lobbying effort.

Patty Fisher of the San Jose Mercury News attributed the Senate's "no" vote to "the lobbying blitz of the American Chemistry Council."

I think she's right on target when she says the debate will now shift to local communities. "Before long, there will be individual ordinances all over the state," she wrote in a column today, "The bag ban debate? There's only one way to make it go away."

Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times wrote "It took an army of lobbyists to kill California's ban on plastic bags." ACC spent millions opposing the bill, he wrote, adding: "It would have made neighborhoods cleaner and waterways safer for wildlife, but Sacramento is often where good ideas go to die."

John Bogert of the Torrance, Calif., Daily Breeze let legislators have it with both barrels. His column, "Plastic bag lobby shows politicians come cheap," draws a bright line between the contributions given to politicians by the ACC and its members, and the bag ban vote.

But what really bothers me isn't that elected officials appear to sell out. No, what gets me is how they aren't open for competitive bids. C'mon, $1,500? A politician will wag his little doggie tail for an amount a single concerned citizen could raise outside a post office with a tin can and a photo of a sweet otter smothered in a grocery bag?

That's outrageous! The least they could do is open up for online bids so we can all have a chance at being heard. Fact is, I would have paid $1,500 for a vote in favor of a bill to stop this one tiny assault in a massive war on our own planet.

Working together, can plastics and agricultural researchers help create a polylactic acid resin that's capable of handling hot-filled liquids?

That's the aim of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, which is reporting that USDA chemist William J. Orts is working with Lapol LLC, of Santa Barbara, Calif., in an effort to make corn-derived plastics more heat-tolerant.

The team is developing a 90 percent corn-based modifier that is fully biodegradable that can be blended with PLA to make it more heat-tolerant.

The story quotes Randall L. Smith, chief operating officer at Lapol, who says there currently are no commercially available heat-deflection temperature modifiers for PLA.

Smith said ARS and Lapol are seeking a patent for their invention.

There's a group of consumers who aren't in love with plastic packaging and gadgets, and social networking web sites are helping them share information and ideas.

The latest? Perhaps it's the Plastic Crap Wall of Shame Facebook page, created by Beth Terry of FakePlasticFish.com fame.

Terry started the "Plastic Crap" site in July. The mission:

To pull back the curtain and reveal this plastic "convenience" shit for the inconvenient, unsustainable mess it really is.

Upload and tag your photos. Post your links. Include a company address so we can write to them. This page is open to anyone to participate.

I stumbled across the "wall" today via a link from Siel Ju's Mother Nature Network blog.

Siel calls the wall "a fun way to rage against plastic waste."

As of this writing, the wall has just over 1,100 people who "like" it (using the terminology of Facebook), and a pretty active "wall," mostly filled with examples and photos of plastic products that someone, somewhere, doesn't like.

Instead of resorting to bag taxes and bans, some communities and retailers have tried voluntary efforts to reduce bag consumption. Let's check on the status of two -- one small-scale effort, and one on a very large scale.

On the small side, an IGA grocery store in Lennox Head, Australia, announced this week that it is bringing back plastic bags, after 12 months of being bag-free.

The store manager told The Northern Star newspaper that the decision was made due to overwhelming customer feedback.

"Due to customer feedback over the past 12 months we have reintroduced customer choice," the manager told the newspaper. "We have boxes, green bags, paper bags for 17 cents and reusable, biodegradable plastic bags."

Meanwhile, in Britain, groceries are reporting dramatic success with a voluntary effort.

Since the program started four years ago, British retailers say they have cut the number of plastic bags used by 4 billion annually.

Some 6.1 billion carrier bags were handed out in the first five months of 2010, a 43 percent drop from the 10.6 billion handed out 2006, according to the British Retail Consortium.

The Daily Mail -- which is sponsoring a Banish the Bags campaign -- reported that BRC said the figures are a "ringing endorsement" of the voluntary approach taken by supermarkets.

A designer in the United Kingdom is developing a plan to collect and recycle chewed gum and turn it into a plastic that can be molded into new products.

Gross, I know, but interesting.

The designer is Anna Bullus, who, according to her biography, left a job at Chase Furniture in 2008 to set up her own company, Gumdrop Ltd., "to tackle the global problem of gum litter."

Her web site is filled with statistics about the problems caused by gum litter, including the cost of cleaning it up that burdens big cities like London.

For example, she claims that Britain creates, on average, 7,000 metric tons of used gum each year.

More "gum facts" from her site:

• On average 30,000 pieces of gum are irresponsibly discarded everyday on Oxford Street in London.
• If everyone in the UK stopped irresponsibly discarding their gum on Oxford Street today, it would still take over 4 months to clean the existing gum off the street.
• Cleaning chewing gum off the streets in the UK, on average, costs three times the price of a piece of gum.
• Three and a half billion pieces of gum are disposed of irresponsibly each year in the UK.
• The British Government spends £150 million each year on cleaning gum off the UK's streets.
• Nine out of ten city paving stones have gum stuck to them.

Bullus has a solution to the problem: using recycled gum to make a gum-derived plastic that she calls "Bullus Recycled Gum Polymer," or BRGP.

Right now, in several pilot projects, BRGP is being molded into brightly colored pink bins where consumers can toss their used gum. (Not exactly closed-loop recycling, but let's not go there...)

When the bins are full, both the bins and their contents are collected and recycled into new BRGP.

I'm guessing the bins smell sort of fruity.

Eventually, Gumdrop Ltd. hopes to develop other applications for BRGP.

For Plastics Blog readers outside California, here's the advertisement that the American Chemistry Council prepared to fight AB 1998, the bill that would ban plastic bags.

The ad is tough on the state Legislature, accusing it of focusing on a relatively minor issue (banning plastic bags) while it failes to act on more important problems.

The ad also says the ban would be bad for the economy, a burden on consumers, and that it would kill manufacturing jobs.

The North County Times in Escondido, Calif., recently editorialized against the proposed California plastic bag ban with a column that blasted the legislative "nanny state" trend.

"... if plastic grocery bags can be banned, what other popular consumer items will the nanny state try to take away from us? After all, if plastic grocery bags are bad, then plastic trash bags can't be much better. Or perhaps the gurus in Sacramento will decide that we all have to purchase our movies and music digitally to keep CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays out of our landfills," the editorial asserts.

"Keeping plastic out of our landfills (and more important, our ocean) is a good idea, so be a good steward and recycle that plastic. And offering tax credits for those who invest in research into biodegradable or recyclable alternatives to the many plastics would be a wise government policy indeed.

"But micromanaging our lives and imposing what amounts to a regressive tax on the poor and middle class -- while fundamental government tasks like passing a budget remain undone -- is, to put it as kindly as possible, irresponsible."

For more on the "nanny state" argument against plastic bans, check out this funny story from the San Francisco Chronicle, which notes that Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is using a similar tact against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Maldonado sponsored a booth at the state Republican party convention with a table of products "banned in San Francisco," including plastic water bottles.

"With a pen and piece of paper and an executive order, he bans Pepsi and Coke," Maldonado told The Chronicle. "You know what? If I don't like Pepsi and Coke, I just don't drink it. But if Gavin doesn't like it, he bans it for everybody."

A video that mimics a nature channel documentary is getting attention in California, where the state Senate is preparing to vote on AB 1998, which would ban plastic bags at some retailers.

The "mockumentary" is narrated by actor Jeremy Irons, and it follows the "migration" of a plastic bag from a grocery store to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The project was created by advertising firm DDB Los Angeles, working with Heal the Bay. DDB's Regie Miller told Advertising Age's Karen Eglof that the team wanted to create a fun video that would engage consumers.

"You can lecture and scold people all you want, but these fist-shakings rarely get passed around," Miller said.

Did you ever try to sneak a chip without anyone hearing? Apparently it's just about impossible with the new Sun Chip bags from Frito-Lay.

That's according to a story from Page 1 of today's The Wall Street Journal: "Snack Attack: Chip Eaters Make Noise About a Crunchy Bag."

I love the subhead on this one: "Green Initiative Has Unintended Fallout: A Sack as Loud as "The Cockpit of My Jet."

Brad Rodgers, Frito-Lay's North American manager of sustainable packaging, fingers the biobased plastic, polylactic acid, as the cause of the very loud packaging.

The new polymers have a higher "glass transition temperature," which is when a polymer goes from a harder, glasslike state to a rubber state. Because the transition to rubberiness happens a bit above room temperature, the bag is "kind of crispy and crunchy," says Mr. Rodgers.

Don't believe the Sun Chips bag is really all that loud? Check out the video and judge for yourself.

Potato Chip Technology That Destroys Your Hearing from heathaplexVISION on Vimeo.

Duro Bag Manufacturing Co. was OK with the city of Brownsville, Texas, banning plastic bags. But now that the city may extend the ban to paper bags, the company is threatening to close its plant and leave town.

Plastics Blog readers may remember that earlier this year, Brownsville became the 12th U.S. city to ban single-use plastic grocery bags.

At the time, we connected the dots and pointed out that Brownsville was home to a big Duro Bag plant that employs 120 and makes about 9 million paper bags a day. The company touts itself as the world's No. 1 paper bag maker.

When the plastic ban was adopted, a Duro official told The Brownsville Herald that the ban was "for the good of the community, for the good of the people and the environment."

But now the tables have been turned.

According to the Valley Morning Star, an amendment to the plastic bag ban, proposed by city's Environmental Advisory Committee, would remove language in the original ordinance that specifically exempts "recyclable paper bags" from the ban.

City Commissioner Edward C. Camarillo told the newspaper that the change is not aimed at banning paper bags.

"Nobody is trying to ban paper bags," he said. "We are not banning paper bags."

But that's not how Duro is reading the latest developments. The newspaper says that Chris Klein, Duro's environmental director, thinks the revision is clearly aimed at banning most paper bags.

"Company officials said the company would have no choice but to move if paper bags were banned," the story says.

What happened to bag bans being "for the good of the community, for the good of the people and the environment"?

The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. calls the passage of the Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010 "a hard-earned victory for job creation and the competitive hopes of American plastics manufacturers."

I blogged earlier today about SPI President Bill Carteaux attending the White House ceremony today (Aug. 11) where President Barack Obama signed the act into law.

Here's what SPI has to say about the law today:

SPI's advocacy team worked tirelessly over two-plus years to strongly encourage Congress to pass the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (H.R. 4380). The legislation renews a number of expired tariff measures and reduces duties on manufacturing materials (including several essential to the plastics industry) that are not produced domestically, thus lowering costs for U.S. manufacturers. The bill, now formally named the Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010, was approved by both the U.S. House and Senate in late July.

"It was an honor to attend the ceremony today and the occasion marks real progress toward leveling the playing field for U.S. plastics manufacturers competing in the global marketplace," said Carteaux. "This law will cut the cost of doing business for SPI members and the entire U.S. plastics industry. Free from the burden of tariffs on manufacturing inputs not produced in the U.S., plastics companies will find it less challenging to maintain or increase their current workforce, spur investments and eventually help turn the tide in the nation's economic recovery."

Obama highlighted a few plastics-related examples in his remarks:

"The Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010 will create jobs, help American companies compete, and strengthen manufacturing as a key driver of our economic recovery," Obama said. "And here's how it works. To make their products, manufacturers -- some of whom are represented here today -- often have to import certain materials from other countries and pay tariffs on those materials. This legislation will reduce or eliminate some of those tariffs, which will significantly lower costs for American companies across the manufacturing landscape -- from cars to chemicals; medical devices to sporting goods. And that will boost output, support good jobs here at home, and lower prices for American consumers."

Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. President Bill Carteaux and Senior Vice President, Government and Industry Affairs Jonathan Kurrle will be at the White House this afternoon at a ceremony as President Obama signs the Manufacturing Enhancement Act.

The law will renew some reductions or suspensions of tariffs, including tariffs on some chemicals related to plastics manufacturing.

Every so often, I come across a plastics-related idea that's so ridiculous that I try to ignore it, rather than sharing it with Plastics Blog readers.

The "Recycled Island" is just such an idea.

You may have seen stories on this project. Whim Architecture, a Dutch firm, has suggested using plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean to create a massive floating island.

The island -- check out the colorful illustration -- would use 44 million kilograms of plastic waste to create 3,861 square miles of "sustainable living space," where islanders could live on fishing and agriculture.

The aim is to create a floating environment for 500,000 people, powered by solar energy and wave motion.

When I first saw news reports about "Recycled Island" in June, I tried my best to ignore them. Seriously, no one is going to use recycled plastic to build a 3,861-square-mile island for 500,000 people in the Pacific Ocean.

This is not the answer to the plastics industry's marine debris problem -- it's a pipe dream.

But the project continues to generate headlines around the world. So I'm going on the record and saying -- enough. Please.

To help support my case -- that "Recycled Island" should be known as "Ridiculous Island" -- consider today's blog post from Miriam Goldstein, a doctoral student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Her post, "'Recycled Island' not a cure for plastic trash in ocean," notes that there are "a number of issues with this rather romantic plan."

The main problem is this: The vast majority of plastic bits (>90%) are smaller than a pencil eraser, and are spread out enough to be mostly invisible to the naked eye. It is therefore extremely hard to remove the plastic without catching a lot of ocean life. ...

The "Recycled Island" folks may be able to build a giant island out of recycled plastic - I am not an architect and I have no idea if this is feasible. (Though I hope they know that there are hurricanes in Central Pacific...) But I do know that it would be very, very difficult to remove a significant percentage of the plastic without catching a ton of zooplankton. And catching and killing tons of marine life would not be a good way to meet the criteria of the project.

Which happens to be to save marine life.

I could say a lot more about how little is known about the impacts of plastic in the North Pacific Central Gyre, or about the ridiculous notion that adding a giant land mass would "return more balance" to the open ocean - but I've got to sleep sometime. So to summarize, I do not think Recycled Island is feasible because it would be environmentally damaging to collect enough plastic in the North Pacific Central Gyre to build their enormous island.

Hear hear.

Projects like "Recycled Island" may help focus attention on the marine debris problem, which could be a good thing.

But there's also a risk that some sector of the public will think, "Hey, we don't need to worry about this any more, because I read a story about some Dutch conservationists who are building an island with all of our plastic waste."

Creating an island out of recycled plastic may be "romantic," or at least visually exciting. But the real solution to the marine debris problem is to stop creating marine debris.

After my post yesterday about the bag ban debate in California, Plastics News staff reporter Mike Verespej pointed out another column on the topic worth sharing with blog readers.

Kevin Kelly, president of the California Film Extruders and Converters Association, wrote an opinion piece for the San Jose Mercury News headlined "Banning plastic bags will kill California jobs, won't help the environment."

It's a strong column, which you'd expect from Kelly, a former BusinessWeek reporter, and now CEO of Emerald Packaging Inc., a family-owned firm in Union City, Calif., that makes printed plastic produce bags.

Kelly says the immediate impact of a bag ban would be the loss of jobs:

Today, plastic bag manufacturing employs thousands of Californians, including the 175 workers at my factory in Union City. These good-paying manufacturing jobs -- many of my workers make more than $20 an hour with health and dental benefits -- are at risk if this bill becomes law. Several thousand more of our residents working for suppliers to the industry could also be on the way to unemployment, and their families to public assistance.

Not to worry, says Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Woodland Hills. She insists that there won't be job losses because companies that produce plastic bags will "retool" to make reusable bags.

What a joke. The type of reusable bag that Brownley wants can be competitively made only in China because of labor cost. Today, China and other low-wage Asian countries make virtually 100 percent of the reusable bags in the United States. If Brownley has a secret business plan for allowing domestic companies to compete with low-wage Chinese firms that face almost no regulation and are underwritten by the government, she should detail it. Until then, simply flipping the switch to produce reusable bags is not a realistic option.

The truth is Brownley has made her peace with sacrificing jobs during the worst labor market since the Great Depression in exchange for a supposed environmental benefit. The tragedy is that benefit won't materialize.

Kelly makes some good, common-sense points about why banning T-shirt bags would not result in the reduction in bag use -- despite what proponents of the ban are predicting.

Kelly asserts that, for hygenic reasons, meat, fish and produce would need to be wrapped separately in plastic bags. On top of that, reusable bags must be washed periodically, requiring water, energy and polluting soaps.

In addition, consumers who currently use "single-use" bags to line their garbage cans and to pick up pet waste would have to start buying those bags, he says.

Check the link for more of Kelly's thoughts on the issue.

The debate is heating up on a proposal in California that would ban some plastic grocery bags.

Assembly Bill 1998 would ban grocery stores from giving out plastic bags and require customers to pay at least 5 cents for each paper bag.

Let's take a look at some of the viewpoints expressed about AB 1998 on various news-oriented websites today.

Thomas D. Elias, a syndicated columnist who writes about California state issues, is in favor of the ban/tax. His column today, "Plastic bag fee is a tax you don't have to pay," cites three reasons: "Oil, crowded landfills and the persistence of plastic."

Plastic comes from oil; each plastic bag not used is a small step toward energy independence. Meanwhile, using fewer paper bags would contribute to reducing greenhouse gases by keeping more trees intact.

Plus, many landfills are near capacity and the more trash piled into them, the greater the pressure to create new ones farther and farther out from where urban residents actually produce their trash. Then there's the ubiquitous nature of plastic bags: What swimmer hasn't washed up against one at an ocean beach; who hasn't seen them blowing in the wind?

But here's the real reason the so-called bag tax and the partial plastic bag ban are good ideas: This is one tax you don't have to pay. Reuse existing plastic or paper bags and there's no charge. Use cloth or rattan bags, backpacks or some other container, and you'll also avoid any levy.

Elias has a bias in favor of paper bags that isn't fully explained. He says: "Paper bags are neither as pernicious nor as persistent as plastic. They can be used several times if their bottoms stay dry and they decompose in landfills."

Is he aware of the lifecycle studies that give an edge to plastic over paper? I don't see the logic behind treating them differently.

Tim Shestek of the American Chemistry Council is opposed to the ban-tax bill.

In his column "Give Recycling a Chance: California shouldn't ban plastic bags," Shestek calls the proposal "a nearly $1 billion hidden grocery tax," and suggests that it would eliminate the jobs of nearly 500 Californians who make bags.

Shestek writes:

As you consider this issue, keep in mind that this year, the Vacaville Police Department has to cut nearly $1 million from its budget. A budget cut of this size takes uniforms off the streets. But fear not -- AB 1998 will create its own force of "bag police." They won't keep our streets safe, but they'll be sure to fine any mom and pop store giving out grocery store bags -- up to $10,000. It's just another layer of misguided government bureaucracy.

We need jobs. We need teachers and real police. We need a state budget. Lawmakers should focus on these urgent problems facing Californians, not "paper or plastic?"

This looks like ACC is taking a page out of its successful playbook from Seattle, where it emphasized the cost of the bag tax to consumers and convinced voters to reject a proposed 20-cent fee on both plastic and paper bags last year.

On top of that, ACC is stressing that the industry has made an effort in California to recycle plastic bags -- and the Legislature should give that a chance to succeed rather than pulling out the rug and banning plastic bags.

Recycling creates jobs, after all, and if consumers can keep their bags and recycle them too, perhaps that can be a long-term solution to the state's marine debris and litter problem.

This is shaping up to be an interesting debate.

The Plastiki -- the all-recycled-PET catamaran that's been sailing across the Pacific Ocean since February -- has reached its destination in Sydney, Australia.

The last 200 nautical miles of the 10,000-nautical-mile journey were made with the help of a tow, after the main sail was damaged off the Queensland coast.

Captain David de Rothschild told the Sunshine Coast Daily: "To date we have made a number of routine and unplanned stops during the voyage and this tow and stop will be no different."

For more background, including a video and lots of links, check these earlier Plastic Blog posts that featured the Plastiki:

Plastiki plug for Seretex

Plastiki almost ready to go

Video on how the Plastiki was built

Another voyage to the garbage patch

Get ready for the Plastiki

Add Mark and Melanie Rummel to the list of bloggers who say they're trying to live a plastics-free lifestyle.

The newlywed couple from Texas has a goal of buying nothing made of plastic for the next year, and they've set up a blog, nonewplastic.com, to share their story.

Susy Solis from the NBC affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth has a story on the couple that sheds some light on the 4-month-old experiment.

According to the story, the Rummel's are continuing to find new ways to use less plastic --- but they say living completely without plastic is almost impossible.

"For us, it's more about, 'This is how we see a sustainable way of living, and that's how we want to live,'" Melanie Rummel said.

Here's an excerpt from their blog -- one of my favorite entries, called "I cried for cheese (and other food experiences)."

The other day, Mark and I went to our beloved Whole Foods to get groceries. As always, we made our way to the cheese counter and munched on the samples, bemoaning our inability to find plastic-free cheese. Then, I had an idea. I asked Brian behind the counter if there was a certain day they cut the wheels of cheese so we could get some not wrapped in plastic. He explained to us that they cut different wheels every day. Then, he asked if there was a certain cheese we would like that he could cut fresh for us right there. Heck yeah! I asked him about the cheese I'd already taken several samples of, a sharp cheddar, and he pointed out to me that even the wheel doesn't have plastic on it! Mark and I agreed to get a pound of the cheese.

We watched Brian get the cart to carry the large wheel of cheese to the counter. He peeled away the canvas it had been shipped in and used a wire cheese cutter to cut it open for us. As soon as he cut the wheel, he used a tool to dig out the first bite and gave it to us to taste. Several months ago, Mark and I took a Tour of Italy's Wine and Cheeses class at Whole Foods, and we learned that the cheese tastes the best within 20 minutes of the wheel being opened. It certainly was incredibly delicious!

After it was cut, Brian agreed to put it in our cloth produce bag. After weeks of not buying cheese, I was so thankful, I cried a little.

There are also quite a few posts about their efforts to potty-train their cat -- all to avoid the plastic components of kitty litter bags!

Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne has long had a political streak, and today he made headlines in the U.K. for comments about bottled water.

Browne has a column on the Daily Mail's website titled "I Blame bottled water for the oil spill!"

He links the BP oil spill to the marine debris issue, pointing out that according to some estimates, "the amount of oil used to produce plastic every day is the same amount as the oil that is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico every day from the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling rig."

Browne then ties marine debris to bisphenol A safety, charging that plastic water bottles are made from BPA, "a known 'endocrine disruptor', which can mimic the body's hormones and can have side effects."

Despite the level of detail in the column, there's no evidence here that Browne knows that BPA is a precursor to polycarbonate, or that most plastic water bottles are made from PET, not polycarbonate.

In fact, he writes that last year his touring production company "decided to eliminate plastic water bottles from the list of things we are provided in the venues we perform in. Now we carry two five-gallon coolers, and each of the band and crew carries a stainless-steel water bottle."

It is more likely, of course, that those five-gallon coolers are made from polycarbonate than the single-serve bottles they replaced.

My favorite snippet from Browne is what he has to say about recycling:

The plastics industry insists that all we have to do is recycle. But why should we bear the cost and responsibility of recycling it? Why should we buy the stuff and then pay to dispose of it? In the case of the oceans, we will never be able to clean them up faster than the rate plastic is going in.

The answer is to stop producing it, to stop buying it. A few years ago I was on a remote beach in Spain and spent the day cleaning it up with another guy there, a German. It was mostly plastic. He muttered that the locals didn't appreciate the natural beauty of the place.

Both of us assumed it had been thrown away there carelessly, perhaps dumped there. But now I don't think so. I can see now that it had all washed up there. Humans are slobs.

There's no way around it. We are slobs. I know surfers who travel the world and ride the planet's most remote waves. They say there are plastic bottles washing up in Antarctica, in Patagonia, and all of the most distant and pristine beaches in the world.

Interesting take. Is that a popular opinion among environmentalists, that the public can't be trusted to recycle, so the answer to litter problems is to stop manufacturing products?

In my regular searches for news about plastics, I tend to see a lot of comments from celebrities about plastic packaging. I read them all, but I share very few with readers of the blog.

But Browne touches on so many issues in his column today, I made an exception.

Washington, D.C., has generated more than $1 million in revenue to date from its 6-month-old tax on plastic and paper bags.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Washington collected about $150,000 from the 5-cent-per-bag tax in January -- the first month -- and revenues have increased each subsequent month, reaching $226,000 in May.

Revenues totaled $942,000 for January through May, so they've certainly topped $1 million by now. The funds are earmarked to clean up the Anacostia River.

The headline on the Monitor's story, "Plastic bags: Untapped tax gold mine?" is sure to attract attention.

So is it a "gold mine"? Not exactly.

While nearly $1 million is not chump change, in the context of that city's $6.1 billion general fund budget, it's no windfall, either. Perhaps the more significant result of the measure is that plastic bag use decreased sevenfold in the city after its implementation. Only 3 million bags were distributed in January (the first month of the tax) compared with 22.5 million per month in 2009.

The same was true in Ireland - the only country to institute a plastic bag tax, back in 2002. Plastic bag use dropped 94 percent within weeks of its passage.

The story quotes an expert from the Tax Foundation, who says that no matter how much money the tax generates, supporters will claim it a success.

If the tax brings in a lot of money to clean up the river, supporters will applaud. If it brings in little revenue, they'll say the tax is successful because it's discouraging people from using single-use bags.

There's no mention here of the Tax Foundation's report that I previously blogged about, "Bag taxes disappointing in debut."

Pete Grande, president and CEO of Command Packaging in Vernon, Calif., wrote a powerful defense of plastic bags in an op-ed column published today on the Los Angeles Times Web site.

Headlined "The unintended consequences of a plastic bag ban," Grande writes that if California adopts a ban on plastic bags, consumers would switch to environmentally unfriendly paper bags, and the state would lose jobs.

"Simply put, the phrase 'Ban the bag' is a sound bite, not a solution. It's a proposal that will make legislators feel good rather than do good. In fact, it will do much harm," Grande wrote.

Here are the facts. First, the ban will have an immediate impact. I disagree with those who say that banning plastic bags won't be effective. I believe it will be effective -- at killing jobs. At my factory alone, 200 people will lose good-paying jobs almost immediately. This comes at a time when our state budget is running a $19-billion deficit and when our state economy has an unemployment rate higher than 12%. Obviously, this is not the time to be pursuing regulatory policies that will kill jobs and hurt our economy.

Second, this ban will not only be bad for the economy, it will be bad for the environment. Studies demonstrate that plastic bags leave a lighter footprint on the earth than paper bags. Yet the proposed law would promote more paper bags and harm our ability to recycle. Ironically, stores and consumers shifted to plastic bags was because of environmental concerns about using paper bags. Now, in a complete reversal, we are on the verge of passing a law that will greatly increase the use of paper bags, thus destroying trees and increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, the leading cause of global warming. Is that smart environmental policy?

The goal of the bill may be to reduce first-use bags, but the net effect is simply a replacement of plastic bags with paper bags. And that's bad news for anyone who cares about the environment. An Environmental Impact Report by Los Angeles County acknowledges that if plastic bags are banned, 85% of consumers would switch to paper bags instead of reusable bags. We have seen this to be true in places where plastic bags have been eliminated, including San Francisco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. And what would this switch to paper bags mean for global warming? According to the figures in the report, 85% of Californians switching to paper bags would be the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of between 250,000 and 550,000 more cars on the road every year. That's because life-cycle analysis calculates that paper bags result in more than three times the greenhouse emissions as plastic bags.

Grande writes that he opposes the excessive use of packaging, including plastic bags, and he urges readers to reuse or recycling bags, and not take more bags than they need at the store.

"That's the right way to curb plastic bag use. The wrong way is with a piece of legislation that ignores the facts and stirs fears. Any solution to this issue must be grounded in reality and deal with the fact that a ban on plastic bags will lead to job losses and more paper bags that will negatively affect the environment.

"Let's not ban the bag; let's bag the ban."

Grande's column is a response to the LA Times' own editorial on the topic, published June 24, which supported a state ban on plastic grocery bags.

"Banning plastic grocery bags" made the case that plastic bags "are a nuisance to the land, sea and animals. The state Senate should stand up to the bag industry and ban them by passing AB 1998."

The state Senate's Environmental Quality Committee took a step toward that goal yesterday, when it approved the Assembly bill.

Next up: the Senate Appropriations committee, then the full Senate.

Here's one of those stories that just doesn't sound right, courtesy of the Canton, Ohio, Repository:

Amish World adds furniture made from recycled milk jugs

PLAIN TWP. -- Amish-built outdoor furniture made from recycled plastic milk jugs is now available at Amish World, 3939 Everhard Rd. NW.

The "poly lumber" furniture is equivalent in weight and size to traditional hardwood patio furniture. The company says it has a 20-year warranty and will withstand all types of weather.

This is odd on so many levels:

• There's a store called Amish World.
• They sell products made from recycled plastic.
• They have a Web site.