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: 2002.
January
The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration targets the plastics industry for additional scrutiny after recording 129 citations for amputations involving workers in one year. Sheet metal work is the second highest industry, with 113 citations.
Border towns in Texas and Mexico are seeing major growing pains in the wake of manufacturing investments in the region.
February
Kmart Corp.'s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing has its suppliers scrambling. “There could be some vendors who go under because of this,” says an analyst.
PepsiCo bows to pressure to invest in recycled content and sets a goal of having 10 percent post-consumer recycled content in its future plastics, matching the target of top competitor Coca-Cola.
Concern over concussions among NFL players could lead to more sales for ProCap, a flexible polyurethane-based product to reduce head and brain injuries.
March
The pioneer in plastics e-commerce, PlasticsNet, is up for sale. Commerx Inc. first launched the web portal in 1995.
Plastics donated by Genova Products Inc. are used for a PVC “Sonobuoy” used to listen in on whale songs and dolphin clicks.
April
Martha Williams is struggling to retain control of StyleMaster USA Inc. when the company is forced into bankruptcy following its customer Kmart's own bankruptcy filing.