March ... Dolco Packaging Corp. of Sherman Oaks, Calif., receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use post-consumer polystyrene in its foam egg cartons.
May ... Mobil Corp. creates a national program to recycle polyethylene grocery sacks.
May ... Monsanto Chemical Co. and Exxon Chemical Co. agree to merge their thermoplastic elastomer units into a company with anticipated first-year sales of $100 million.
June ... Chicago approves PVC pipe for use in drain, waste and vent applications. The city was the last holdout among major U.S. municipalities.
June ... A Gallup poll commissioned by Advertising Age, a sister publication to Plastics News, shows 43 percent of Americans favor a ban on disposable diapers.
June ... Seven state attorneys general sue Mobil for allegedly making false or misleading degradable claims about its Hefty trash bags, after the company declines to pay punitive damages. Hubert H. Humphrey III, Minnesota attorney general, is quoted: ``Unfortunately, Mobil's advertising claims break down faster than their garbage bags.''
July ... New Jersey inventor Jerome H. Lemelson threatens to sue nearly every U.S. maker and importer of computer-controlled injection molding machines, for alleged patent infringement.
August ... General Motors Corp. unveils its long-awaited, thermoplastic-laden Saturn.
September ... The first and only law in the nation to ban multimaterial aseptic juice boxes goes into effect in Maine. It is repealed four years later.
November ... McDonald's Corp., which introduced the PS clamshell in 1975, announces it will stop using PS foam containers.
December ... 60 Minutes airs a report implying resin makers and a polybutylene pipe maker ducked responsibility for faulty PB pipe systems that caused a ``cascade of failures nationwide.''
