Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
      Machine builders meet pressing needs for plastic in 2020
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
      Plastic Globes ask: Was there a lighter side in 2020?
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Kickstart: Another push to reduce plastic packaging
      Kickstart: People bought a lot of refrigerators in 2020
      Kickstart: RVs gain ground as 'tailor-made' social distance vacation option
      Kickstart: Building a foam platform
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Chase expands giving campaign in 2020
      McDivitt will showcase Ascend's COVID-19 work on CNBC's Mad Money
      Move over, Plastic Man: Here comes Plastic Woman
      Star in spotlight with West Virginia philanthropy award
    • The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
      As scrap exports drop, will plastics recycling rate fall?
    • Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
      A timeline of the industry's COVID response
    • Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
    • Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
      Perspective: Reflections on a decade of global industry collaboration on marine litter
    • Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
      Mailbag: Oil-plastics connection is overstated
      Mailbag: Plastics recycling not cost-effective
      Mailbag: Price increases hurting North American PE buyers
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - August 2020
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - September 2020
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • White Papers
    • Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
      Sponsored By CDS MACHINES
      Facing medical equipment shortages during COVID-19 outbreak?
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Transform your molding capabilities with the Canon Shuttle Mold System
    • Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
April 14, 2015 02:00 AM

Keeping the NPE 2015 momentum moving forward

  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Michael A. Marcotte
    Final registration for NPE 2015 in Orlando, Fla., last month topped 65,000.

    WASHINGTON — By most accounts, NPE 2015 was a blockbuster.

    The show — and the plastics industry — are back after some tough economic years, and show organizer, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., has released numbers backing up that claim. But now that the parties are over, the booths are broken down and it's back to business as usual for three years, how can plastics keep that NPE 2015 enthusiasm going? The industry's top associations hope to do so with a little more togetherness.

    Final registration figures for NPE 2015 hit 65,810, up 19 percent from three years ago, according to Washington-based SPI. Some 26 percent of the registrants came from outside the United States, representing 130 countries, with nearly 5,000 from Latin America, SPI said.

    SPI counts registrants rather than actual attendees at Orlando, Fla.'s, Orange County Convention Center March 23-17, making comparisons to previous shows difficult. The 2000 NPE show in Chicago holds the record for the most registrations — about 90,000. While observers don't believe that was an accurate measure of actual attendance, the trade show's 2000 iteration is remembered as one of the most successful NPEs on record. Through the 2015 show's run, NPE veterans proclaimed it unofficially on par with the 2000 show.

    NPE 2015 did officially top the 2000 show with records for exhibit space and number of exhibitors. According to SPI, the OCCC had 2,029 exhibitors with more than 1.128 million net square feet of exhibit space — exceeding the previous records of 2,009 exhibitors and 1.041 million net square feet set in 2000 at Chicago's McCormick Place.

    NPE2018 will be held May 7-11, 2018, at the OCCC in Orlando.

    In the meantime, industry leaders are working behind the scenes to keep the NPE momentum going, pulling the plastics industry together to keep growing and improving plastics' public image.

    It's a challenge because the plastics industry is not monolithic — as those in the business already know, points out Steve Russell, the American Chemistry Council's vice president of plastics.

    “NPE is an amazing event once every three years, and it does give a chance for us to come together. But the purpose of NPE is not to strategize about the future. The purpose of NPE is the business of the plastics industry and to make the wheels work,” Russell said. “What's happening at the same time and every day in Washington and in the association headquarters is that we are, on a daily basis, working to advance our members interests in advocacy.”

    Joe Wilssens

    Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. CEO Bill Carteaux, center, with students from the Savannah College of Art of Design who participated in a fashion show using recycled plastics during NPE 2015.

    After years of working separately and sometimes butting heads, association leaders have found common ground in recent years, working together in “associations of associations” such as the North American Plastics Alliance (NAPA), the North American Plastics Recycling Association (NAPRA) and the growing Plastics Association Leaders (PAL) group.

    “There was no doubt countless dollars were being wasted in what I call cannibalizing each other's projects,” said Jay Gardiner, president of Gardiner Plastics Inc., president of the Plastics Academy and one of the driving forces behind PAL. “If Association One is going to look at an issue and spend money on it and Association Two is going to look at [the same issue] and spend money on it, there is a synergy in the two associations working together.”

    PAL has grown to about 20 organizations from across the plastics business, Gardiner said, “from large ones to small ones,” fostering such synergy. In addition to sharing ideas and pooling resources on advocacy, workforce development and sustainability, at NPE, Gardiner said he worked up a “matrix of issues” for PAL, gathering a list of issues that reach across different sectors of the plastics industry — from bag bans to green building standards to programs for young engineers — and cross-referencing completed studies, ad campaigns and any work that's already been done by any plastics group.

    “Our industry may be the third largest component of the manufacturing sector on the GDP, however to find our industry, you have to pull together a lot of points,” Gardiner said. “But if you know who has been working on what … you become part of the much bigger picture. It will unite everybody so that you can get the best bang for the buck.”

    SPI President and CEO Bill Carteaux said getting that bang for the association buck is a big consideration for all the plastics associations, particularly when a message is meant for those outside the industry.

    “Associations, that's typical, we do all this work but we don't have the budget to tell people about it. And that's what we're trying to overcome,” Carteaux said in an interview in Orlando. “[Plastics is] very, very diverse, from still-family-owned businesses to hundred billion dollar corporations. And we touch every part of human life. And I think it's hard for people to rally around that. But we need to. We are moving the needle; we could move it faster with the general public.”

    Sharing ideas, making deals and celebrating the industry as a whole every three years at NPE is an important part of that, Carteaux said, and so is carrying a more monolithic shared vision for the industry beyond the triennial trade show.

    “The recognition that has happened recently is that each of us, no matter where we are in the plastics industry, whether it's an additive supplier or a machine maker or a processor or a resin supplier, we are all impacted when the public is presented with misinformation about plastic because that can lead to loss of confidence, materials specifiers specifying other materials, consumers rejecting or just deciding not to use a particular plastic,” Russell said.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • Processor of the Year submissions
      • White Papers