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: 2005.
JANUARY
A long-awaited U.S. Green Building Council report finds that PVC and vinyl building products are no worse and no better than alternative materials. “The available evidence does not support a conclusion that PVC is consistently worse than alternative materials on a life cycle environmental and health basis,” the group writes. “PVC does not emerge as a clear winner or loser.”
Demag Plastics Group's Bill Carteaux is named to replace Don Duncan as SPI president.
FEBRUARY
San Francisco is planning the first-ever tax on plastic and paper bags. A proposal before the city would slap a 17-cent tax on grocery stores per bag.
Vinyl siding manufacturers fear a new competitor could be headed their way: fiber cement.
A polystyrene piggy bank dating to the 1950s — which has served as the mascot for Canada's Design Exchange — is stolen during the show. Once word of the theft leaks out, the Reliable Toys division of Viceroy Rubber & Plastics Ltd., which molded the original bank, supplies a replacement.
MARCH
The Gates, a 7,500-piece exhibition at New York's Central Park by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, closes. The Gates had used more than 750,000 pounds of PVC, 75,000 pounds of nylon fabric and 10,000 pounds each of high-impact polystyrene and polypropylene. All the materials are being recycled.
APRIL
Ford becomes the first automaker to begin use multi-shot molding when Visteon Corp. uses a two-shot process to make the instrument panel for the new Mustang sports car.
MAY