Plastics News by the year: 2012

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: 2012.

JANUARY

California lawmakers eliminate a loophole which allowed container manufacturers to switch to a lighter resin to avoid the state's bottle deposit law.

Decades after the yo-yo craze slowed in the United States, Duncan Toys Co., launches its first products for China after a rise in yo-yo playing by Chinese children.

FEBRUARY

PolyOne Corp. announces a group to focus on the health care market, with plans to double revenue in the market by 2015.

MARCH

York, Maine, celebrates the construction of a vehicle bridge made of recycled plastic. It's the first recycled-plastic vehicular bridge in the country.

Styrofoam cup, meet the red party cup. Dart Container Co. announces it is buying rival Solo Cup Co. for $1 billion.

Medical device makers are concerned about a looming 2.3 percent excise tax that is part of the Obama administration's health care plan.

APRIL

After 40 years of being held in Chicago, NPE holds its first show in Orlando, Fla. Attendance is up over 30 percent from recession-ridden NPE 2009, and vendors and organizers call the first show in Orlando a success.

Concord, Mass., passes ban on PET water bottles, the first of its kind in the country.

MAY

To the chagrin of the plastics industry, Los Angeles city officials pass a ban on single-use plastic bans.

JUNE

Coca-Cola Co. and half a dozen Mexican bottlers team up to open a $34 million recycling facility.

JULY

Rexam plc is getting out of the personal-care packaging unit, selling the division for $709 million to two different groups: Sun Capital Partners for its toiletries and personal care products and Silgan Holdings Inc. for its food packaging.

A new report from environmental advocacy group As You Sow says that U.S. packaging firms lag behind their global peers when it comes to taking back packaging for recycling. A new study of marine debris says plastics make up 80 percent of the top 10 items found in the water.

AUGUST

Plastics industry leaders take part in SPI's “fly in” to Washington, D.C., to meet with legislators and express concerns about business.

GE Appliances will make more than 90 additional plastic parts for its dishwashers in-house at its Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky., which will make the site the largest injection molder in Kentucky.

SEPTEMBER

Resin companies along the Gulf Coast are recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Isaac.

iPhone case maker Hard Candy Holdings LLC makes a gamble and wins when it introduces a case for the new iPhone 5 which matches the new generation phone. Apple Inc. changed both the size of the phone and the size and location of its new power cord, but Hard Candy's gamble for its polycarbonate case means it delivered the case to the media a full hour before Apple even made its official announcement.

Anti-Japanese protests sweep China, prompting injection press maker Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd. to temporarily shut down production at its firms in China.

OCTOBER

Private equity firm Onex Corp. buys KraussMaffei AG for $732 million.

Pat Franklin, who founded the Container Recycling Institute at her home in Maryland, is killed in a traffic crash.

NOVEMBER

PolyOne Corp. is buying Spartech Corp. for $393 million, creating a company that will have $4 billion in annual sales.

Brookline, Mass., passes two bans focused on plastic, on both polystyrene food and beverage containers and a limited ban on plastic bags.

DECEMBER

Dart Container Corp. will spend $47 million on a new headquarters in Mason, Mich., reflecting its growth.

Canada's federal government slashes funding for plastics training due to lack of funds.

SPI says the U.S. plastics industry saw its first increase in employment since 1999. In 2012, the industry employed almost 885,000 people, an increase of 9,000 since 2010.