Kickstart: Bill Nye the Recycling Guy

Bill Nye has a lesson to share about recycling and PET bottles.

Nye, best known as the host of TV's Bill Nye the Science Guy and Bill Nye Saves the World, is now presenting information on bottle recycling in a video from Coca-Cola Co. presented by stop-motion animators Mackinnon & Saunders, who worked on the feature film Fantastic Mr. Fox. (Nye appears as a stop-motion animated character created out of recycled plastics — complete with Coca-Cola flexible packaging standing in for his trademark bowtie — in the two-minute spot.)

While Nye's narration mentions "our good friends" at Coke, the video focuses on explaining what happens during the traditional mechanical recycling process, rather than promoting a specific drink. It includes how steel and aluminum are separated from plastics in a material recovery facility, including mentioning MRFs specifically, and goes on to discus how MRFs create bales of recovered plastics, the process of turning bottles into PET flake and even a discussion on how to make bottles, with an explanation of preforms.

"There are a lot of reports out there. There are a lot of acronyms. There's a lot of complicated and sometimes mind-numbing stuff," Christine Yeager, director of sustainability at Coca-Cola North America, told the website The Drum. "One of our biggest hurdles [was] changing the narrative about recycling to something that was simple and can be digested, understood and relatable."

From microchips to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there are a lot of things that can impact carmaker Toyota Motor Corp.'s production plans. As of late March, there were at least 70 threats to the production and delivery of Toyota and Lexus vehicles to U.S. dealerships.

The guy trying to keep track of it all is Bob Young, group vice president of purchasing supplier development for Toyota Motor North America, whose office whiteboard in Saline, Mich., keeps an eye on possible weather interruptions, COVID-19 flare-ups, labor shortages and war.

"Normally, our world is some level of controlled chaos, but the last few years, it's been a little more chaotic than what we're used to," Young told Larry P. Vellequette from our sister paper Automotive News.

Toyota is well known for its finely tuned just-in-time delivery process, but making that happen has been much harder recently, which means that the pressure is on Young and his team to try to keep an eye on all those variables.

Obviously not every company can afford an entire team dedicated to tracking parts as deep into the supply chain as Tier 5, but it's an interesting read that may provide some ideas for your own planning.

Can a toy recycling truck interest kids in sustainability?

As part of its efforts to become greener, toymaker Mattel Inc. is introducing a recycling truck for its Matchbox collection, made from Sabic's Trucircle recycled polypropylene. It is also using the material across its product offerings, including a Mega Bloks Green Town, our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes.

"As a global leader in the toy sector, we strive to develop innovative products that are better for our planet by integrating sustainable materials and principles of product stewardship and circular design," said Pamela Gill-Alabaster, head of global sustainability at Mattel.

Mattel says it is the first toy company to use Sabic Trucircle.