SALEM, ORE. - The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced that the state exceeded its goal for recycling rigid plastic containers in 1994. The department's figures show that 32 percent of all rigid plastic containers were recycled - 7 percent more than the 25 percent mandated in the state's 1991 law. The law required compliance by 1995 via recycling, reuse or recycled content.
The American Plastics Council of Washington provided $1 million to finance part of a plastics recycling facility in Oregon in 1994. However, APC President Red Cavaney questioned the 32 percent figure.
``Our estimates show that rigid plastic containers were recycled at a rate between 24 and 25 percent for 1993, and APC forecasts that the rate for 1995 will be between 28 and 29 percent,'' he said. ``It is important to note that Oregon calculates its recycling rate in a manner different from a methodology used nationally.''
Cavaney said APC believes that DEQ's calculations may have included post-consumer plastic products that were not rigid containers. He also said the growth rate of plastic resin projected for use in Oregon during the next few years is optimistic.
Ropak directors reject Linpac offer
FULLERTON, CALIF.-The proposed acquisition of Ropak Corp. by Linpac Mouldings Ltd. is on hold, after a special committee of Ropak directors rejected the offer.
The future, however, is still unclear for Ropak, a Fullerton-based manufacturer of plastic pails and materials-handling containers. Because some stockholders - including members of the Roper family, which founded Ropak - already had agreed to the offer, Linpac now owns about 50.5 percent of outstanding stock of the publicly held firm.
Linpac, based in Birmingham, England, in September offered $10.50 per share for Ropak, or about $50 million. Privately held Linpac makes injection molded products for the automotive and materials-handling markets.
Equitable Bag reorganization under way
NEW YORK-Equitable Bag Co. Inc.'s reorganization plan became effective Dec. 16, the New York-based plastic and paper bag manufacturer announced.
The company filed Oct. 14 for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, with a prepackaged plan of reorganization as a result of its inability to meet interest payments on outstanding notes and a default on its revolving credit agreement.
Diamond price-fixing trial thrown out
COLUMBUS, OHIO-U.S. District Judge George C. Smith on Dec. 5 threw out the Justice Department's charges of industrial diamond price fixing against General Electric Co., cutting short the antitrust trial in Columbus.
Although he was not charged, the case implicated Glen Hiner, former head of GE Plastics, who testified during two days of the trial. Hiner is now chairman and chief executive officer of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.
The judge ruled that the Justice Department failed to prove its case. The government had alleged that GE Superabrasives, a unit of GE Plastics, conspired to set industrial diamond prices with DeBeers Centenary AG.
GE consistently denied the charges. Former Superabrasives executive Ed Russell, a key government witness who testified early in the trial and implicated Hiner, had recanted his accusation of price fixing earlier in 1994 when he settled his own lawsuit against GE. GE fired Russell in 1991 for poor performance.
Briefly ...
GenCorp Inc.'s Heavy Truck Business Group in Ionia, Mich., has been selected as the major supplier of all sheet molded composite applications for Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. of Greensboro, N.C.
Stockholders of Revell-Monogram Inc. of Morton Grove, Ill., have approved a $6.38 per-share cash merger offer from Hallmark Cards Inc. of Kansas City, Mo. The approval, in conjunction with Hallmark's acquisition of outstanding common stock of Revell AG, the company's 51 percent owned German subsidiary, completes the acquisition.