Nypro wins acclaim at home and abroad
The U.S. plastics processing industry has a worthy global ambassador in Nypro Inc., featured this week as Plastics News' 1997 Processor of the Year.
The Clinton, Mass., firm has established a reputation for quality molding for tough customers, including medical-device manufacturers.
Few U.S. processors have anywhere near the international range of Nypro. The company has a far-flung network of molding and assembly plants, many of them joint ventures, in locations including China, Russia, Turkey, Singapore, Wales, Ireland, Puerto Rico, India and Mexico — and more to come. The industry is full of firms that talk the talk about global competition and customer service. Nypro walks the walk.
The 42-year-old company also has taken a leading, proactive role on issues of employee education and training.
We initiated the Processor of the Year award in 1996 to recognize outstanding performance by a company involved in North American captive, custom, contract or proprietary plastics processing. Entries are judged by Plastics News' editorial management based on entrants' financial and quality performance, customer and employee relations, environmental record and public service.
A total of 13 companies were nominated for the 1997 award, and they included some outstanding candidates. Congratulations to Nypro, which joins the elite company of 1996 winner Bryan Custom Plastics of Bryan, Ohio. Plastics News will present the award Nov. 1 at the Society of Plastics Engineers' Processor Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
Industry leaves itself open to EDF criticism
Will the plastics industry look back someday and cite 1994-95 as the high watermark for plastics recycling? Let's hope not.
Recycling is in a depressed state, as the Environmental Defense Fund correctly pointed out in its Sept. 26 critique of the American Plastics Council's 1996 recycling rate data.
EDF's report, ``Something to Hide: The Sorry State of Plastics Recycling,'' hit on familiar themes. Virgin resin production is growing much faster than recycling. The collection rate for nearly all types of plastics packaging is pitiful. PET and high density polyethylene bottles are the only high achievers, and PET had an off year in 1996.
Industry has been reluctant to support radical steps that would improve its performance — pushing to expand bottle deposits, for example. Efforts to improve durable-products recycling and expand curbside programs are commendable, but hardly revolutionary.
Short of a change of heart, or a discovery of some technology that will make recycling radically more profitable, the plastics industry will be at the whim of the market forces — and a target of criticism from groups like EDF.
