Plastics News by the year: 2011

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: 2011.

JANUARY

A new law that goes into effect on Jan. 1 made San Jose, Calif., the largest U.S. city to ban single-use plastic carryout bags.

Stephen Vannais and James Polewchak, two salesmen with connections to Davis-Standard LLC, die in a Jan. 5 plane crash in Midlothian, Texas.

FEBRUARY

Springfield, Ohio, injection molder Tech II Inc. said it would start producing thermoformed packaging with in-mold labels — the first in North America.

The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. was seeking donations to buy portable toilets after an earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand. The disaster killed 185 and rendered the public sewage system inoperable.

MARCH

Modern Plastics Worldwide a monthly magazine that dated back to 1925, publishes its last regular issue.

In an auction in Mount Gilead, Ohio, Chinese machinery company Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery Co. Ltd. buys the intellectual property of defunct company HPM. Yizumi said it would reintroduce a line of HPM injection molding and die-casting machines.

APRIL

Author Susan Freinkel publishes “Plastic: A Toxic Love Story,” focusing on eight well-known consumer products to discuss issues environmental and health issues related to plastics.

NURRC LLC, a joint venture PET recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C., partly owned by Coca-Cola Co., shuts down temporarily. Coke said the plant would resume making food-grade PET in a few months.

MAY

The University of Massachusetts at Lowell announces that its new Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center will be the new home of the Plastics Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame had been homeless since the National Plastics Center moved from Leominster, Mass., to Syracuse University in 2008.

JUNE

Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd. announced that it outbid Silgan Holdings Inc. for Graham Packaging Co. Inc. The winning bid was valued at $4.5 billion.

JULY

Phillips Plastics Corp. buys European injection molder Medisize Corp. for about $143 million. Prior to the deal, all of Phillips Plastics' 14 plants were in Wisconsin.

AUGUST

Brazilian plastics giant Braskem SA makes a big acquisition in North America, buying Dow Chemical Co.'s polypropylene business for $323 million.

Plastics were on the mind of auto industry executives at the annual Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich., thanks to an agreement with the U.S. government that called for the corporate average fuel economy — or CAFE — standards to climb to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

OCTOBER

Fortis Plastics LLC tells local officials in Fort Smith, Ark., that it will close its injection molding plant there. Within weeks the company discloses plans to shut down by the end of the year, blaming an inability to secure capital.

DECEMBER

The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. assumes the major responsibility for fighting local efforts to ban or tax plastic bags, taking over from the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council.

Coca-Cola Co. announced it would invest millions in three companies that were developing technology to make plastic resins entirely from plants.