Government failing on immigration issue
While I generally agree with the Christmas list that Plastics News printed this year (``How will Santa Claus stuff your stocking?'' Viewpoint, Nov. 28, Page 6), I would like to add just one item: an immigration policy that works!
How can the government require employers to guarantee that every worker hired is legitimately eligible to work in the United States when the government will not guarantee that each applicant is legally applying for employment in the first place? Government resources are far greater and much more efficient at determining the employment eligibility of a person than a small business. Can we get some help?
Chris Dickson
Mountain Valley Recycling Inc.
Morristown, Tenn.
ACC: plastics kept in chemical campaign
We wanted to respond to your Dec. 12 Viewpoint, ``APC's quiet demise leaves behind ad legacy.'' In this piece, Don Loepp states that plastics processors will miss APC's ads. There are few of us involved with chemistry and the myriad of chemistry-based industries, including plastics, who would deny the success of the plastics advertising program. The campaign lifted a beleaguered industry during a time when product bans loomed and public animus gave a good material a bad name.
But pressures on the products of chemistry have changed almost as much as the industry itself in the years since the plastics advertising first hit the air. The trade association and its programs have changed, too, though not before taking stock of the critical elements of success achieved by our predecessors, including the ad campaign. Based on feedback from our member companies and the public (queried through an incredible amount of research), we are confident that the equity of the plastics brand is retained in our current campaign. We look forward to building on that legacy to promote a better appreciation of all chemistry-based industries, including plastics.
Change may be inevitable, but it does not have to be regrettable. We hope your readers share our aspirations for a better name for all products of chemistry.
We invite Plastics News readers to look for our new advertisements while watching some of their favorite television programs, reading popular magazines and newspapers or driving on various highways. We think that they will see many familiar images, and will enjoy the new ads as much as some of the former campaigns that have celebrated plastics in recent years.
Jack N. Gerard
President and CEO
American Chemistry Council
Arlington, Va.
MBA's China move devalues U.S. grants
So now that MBA [Polymers Inc.] has opened in China (``MBA partners with local firm to recycle in China,'' Nov. 28, Page 4), are they going to repay the various grants they have gotten?
After all, the money was to develop recycling technology for use here in the USA. Something seems wrong with this setup.
Daniel Hoyer
Denton Plastics Inc.
Portland, Ore.