All of our most popular blog posts of 2016

Our blogs have a serious side, and a silly side. And apparently our readers do, too, because both types of posts were popular with PlasticsNews.com blog readers in 2016.

We have 10 staffers blogging for Plastics News, plus I get regular contributions from others, including Hollee Keller, that I use in my section, The Plastics Blog. I've been blogging for as long as I can remember, but most of the other blogs are just about a year and a half old.

Just like last year, rather than a straight countdown, I'll highlight the most popular item from each of the blogs, plus a few extra from the Top 10.

Staff reporter Kerri Jansen's most popular post of 2015 was about an unusual experience she had at Fakuma 2015 in Germany. She nearly followed that up with a similar offbeat story this year from K 2016.

But the key word there is almost.

Kerri's most popular blog of 2016 was on a more serious subject: Is plastic 'authentic'?

It looks at issues that industrial designers, plastics companies and consumers have with plastic products, and how they sometimes have a negative connotation in comparison to conventional materials.

Kerri's blog is called Reactions.

Jim Johnson covers recycling, packaging and sustainability topics in his blog, named No. 7, after the resin code for “other.”

Jim's most popular post of 2016 was on a serious topic, but included a bit of his dry sense of humor: Wal-Mart touts reusable plastic crates that look like wood.

Bill Bregar's blog, Heavy Metal, had the second-most-popular Plastics News blog post of 2015. He didn't quite duplicate that this year, but he had a very memorable item just before the November U.S. presidential election: Don't talk to me about American politics.

Steve Toloken was just a few page views behind Bill with another political topic, Will Mexico get a bigger piece of NAFTA auto pie? Despite the headline, this wasn't a post-Trump-election think-piece. It was written in March, and looked at Mexico's growing importance as an auto manufacturing hub, particularly for smaller cars selling for less than $20,000.

Steve's blog is called BRICS and Plastics, and it's updated very regularly.

Another one of our most prolific bloggers is Frank Esposito, who writes the One Good Resin section. His most popular contribution this year was Now playing for the Browns, a PolyOne executive?

No, don't blame PolyOne for the Brown's sub-par season (putting it mildly). It just happened that Kyle Rose, PolyOne Corp.'s vice president of communications, shared the same name with a rookie free agent defensive tackle from West Virginia University.

Catherine Kavanaugh cracked the Top 10 posts of 2016 list again this year with an important topic, Flint seeks '21st century approach' to water but rebuffs free plastic pipe. Cathy's coverage of the Flint, Mich., water crisis was outstanding in 2016, delivering some scoops to Plastics News readers even with so many journalists locally and around the world focused on the city's lead contamination problem.

Cathy's blog is called From Pillar to Post, and she covers the construction and medical end markets.

News editor Rhoda Miel's blog, Pop Goes Plastics, also is back in the Top 10 this year. Her most popular post: Stephen Curry nails a three (year endorsement deal with Brita). We can only imagine how much more popular it would have been if Brita had gone with Lebron James....

Nina Ying Sun is another long-time Plastics News blogger. Her January post, Why did they destroy 320,000 plastic toy guns? was our fourth-most popular blog of 2016. Did you know it was illegal to make and sell plastic toy guns in China?

Thanks to Nina for all her posts over the years, in The Other Side and Plastics News China. Nina is leaving the publishing industry for a new opportunity in 2017, and we wish her the best of luck.

Our No. 2 blog post of 2016 was certainly our most memorable (and arguably the most unusual): Live blog: 'The Bachelor' shows rotational molding from Step2 visit. 

Jeremy Carroll's Behind the lens blog went to uncharted territory with that February post ... and I don't mean rotomolder Step 2 Co. LLC in Streetsboro, Ohio. I mean watching "The Bachelor," since Step 2 CEO Chris Quinn's daughter was a featured "bachelorette" that night.

Caila didn't get picked, unfortunately, and she wasn't selected for the next season of "The Bachelorette," either. So Jeremy's live blogging was a one-time thing. Too bad.

As promised, here are the other Top 10 blog posts of 2016. If you missed one, I encourage you to check it out! And thanks to our readers for all your support.

No. 9: Plastic packaging and the peeled mandarin.

No. 7: How plastics help the environment.

No. 6: Who are the big winners in the North American injection molding sector?

No. 5: Resin pricing, recycling and survival.

No. 3: Most popular stories of 2016 … so far.

No. 1: Edible six-pack rings? Not so fast!