Plastics New Zealand asks for help

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 [email protected], 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.