Plastics News by the year: 2001

 As Plastics News marks its 25th year of publication, we take a year-by-year look back at some of the events, people and curious coincidences that have shown up its its pages. Check back through the end of the year (not including holidays) to follow along. This year: 2001.

January

California's electrical system woes with rolling blackouts and other shortages is hitting processors hard. Molders UPM and Poly-Tainer both said they lost power for at least 14 hours on three or four separate days during January, which lost UPM a sizable order.

APC leader Ron Yocum stepping down from the trade agency. His tenure was marked by worsening relations with SPI.

February

Where does a former politician go after he leaves office? How about plastics? Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich signs on as a “communication and management consulting services” supplier with Las Vegas biodegradeable plastic company Millennium Plastics Corp. Gingrich won't be lobbying, the company says, but will help with long-term strategies.

 “If we could use some new blend of peanut butter and bananas that would perform, we'd use that.” Former DaimlerChrysler technology exec Tom Moore on the automaker's investigation into the potential of thermoforming for plastic body panels.

March

The growing demand for bottled water has Coca-Cola bottler Western Container Corp. increasing capacity by 30 percent for Coke's 2-year-old Dasani water brand.

April

Textron Inc. is considering selling its automotive unit. Textron Automotive is North America's largest injection molder.

Plastic Technologies Inc. rolls out the first all-post consumer PET bottle.

Mattel Inc. is ending U.S. production when it closes its Murray, Ky., plant, which now makes Barbie Jeeps, car seats and playground equipment. Manufacturing will move to Mexico.

May

PepsiCo Inc. is facing heat for its lack of recycled PET in its bottles. Activists are trying to push through an initiative with shareholders to demand 25 percent recycled content.

SPI is worried that the new Bush administration isn't taking the plastics industries' concerns strongly enough, especially when it comes to rising energy costs.

June

Resin distributor Prime Alliance Inc. is the main sponsor of a new cycling team. “From a business perspective, it hopefully allows us to create a new audience, with a different level of people in this industry,” says President Tom Irvine, “the designers, the engineering the younger up-and-coming thinkers within this business who are more interested in active participation in sports vs. going to the country club and playing golf.”

Valerie Wilcox, the only executive director in the history of the National Plastics Center & Museum, is ready to retire. “It's time for someone else's ideas and a different vision,” she says.

July

A battle is brewing in New York, one of the last states to ban plastic pipes. Both pro-and anti-pipe advocates are preparing ad campaigns to boost their side of the issue.

Gerber Products Co. has made its first major shift in packaging in decades as three flavors of its baby food swaps out glass for thermoformed plastic

APC and the American Chemistry Council are in talks that could lead to a merger.

August

Industrial Services LLC strikes a deal to buy HPM Corp., and pledges to keep operations running at HPM's home of Mount Gilead, Ohio.

Collins & Aikman Corp. is ready to buy Textron Inc.'s automotive unit, a move to become a “Mega Tier 2” auto supplier and the largest injection molder in North America.

September

Robert J. Hayes, a manager of Netstal Macinery Inc.'s sales to the CD/DVD market is on American Airlines Flight 11 when it is hijacked on Sept. 11 and flown into the World Trade Center. Thomas E. Burnett Jr., a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, was a senior vice president and chief operating officer of Thoratec Corp., a developer of PU-related medical devices. Robert A. Jalbert, a passenger on United Flight 175 was a sales engineer for plastics and rubber foam converter Roger Foam Corp.

Near Washington, D.C., attendees at an SPI conference in Arlington, Va., watch as a plane hits the nearby Pentagon

The American Plastics Council and the American Chemistry Council announce a merger deal, although details are still being worked out.

October

Security has been tightened at Chicago's McCormick Place in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Plastics USA is the first major trade show at McCormick since the attacks.

Robert Bosch Corp. is pulling out of the Society of Automotive Engineers' annual show in Detroit, joining a rising number of Tier 1 companies leaving the show. Defectors have questioned the cost and the quality of carmaker attendance.

November

Welch Foods Inc. becomes the first major fruit juice company to switch to plastic from glass for its single serving bottles. The company picked polypropylene over PET.

December

Environmental activists are now taking on electronics with the National Computer Takeback Campaign which wants computer makers to take responsibility for their products at the end of their lives.

Call it hype or a breakthrough (mostly hype) the Segway scooter uses plastics extensively, with six different materials from supply partner GE Plastics.