Kickstart: Falling — and winning — at the Olympics and in recycling

The 2022 Winter Olympics may be coming to an end, but a Finland-based energy company is using recycled plastics to honor a moment from an Olympian in 1972 who fell, got back up and still won the gold medal.

Fortum Oyj is using its Circo-brand recycled plastic in the Virén chair, named for Lasse Virén, a Finnish long-distance runner who took gold and set a record at the 1972 Munich Olympics in the 10,000-meter run — despite falling about halfway through the race. It was one of four gold medals Virén won.

The chair's shape and weighted base allow it to right itself if it falls, Fortum says, using Virén the runner as the inspiration.

Fortum, based in Espoo, Finland, says that the chair is also attempting to rewrite the mindset for plastics.

"For the past decade the industry has been misdirected to discuss reducing the use of plastic, when focus should in fact go to increasing its recycling rate," the company said in a news release.

The Virén's design echoes the Scandanavian furniture of the 1950s and 1960s, and the chair is positioned as a high-end object, not a downcycled park bench.

It's kind of hard to picture what a "self-rising chair," to use Fortum's phrase, means, so check out a promotional video on YouTube to see it yourself.

If you're visiting Denver and plan to get takeout, make sure to ask for your plastic cutlery.

A new ordinance approved by the Denver City Council in 2021, referred to as #SkipTheStuff, went into effect in January. It says restaurants and third-party delivery services such as Uber Eats can only provide single-use items like utensils and condiments if a customer asks for them.

Businesses that do not comply will get a warning for a first offense, then face fines of up to $999, according to Rocky Mountain PBS.

The state of Colorado may be considering a similar rule, according to the Denver Business Journal. A proposal in the State House of Representatives was debated briefly before being set aside, potentially to come back with more stringent requirements.

Supply chain delays have prompted a Tennessee dairy company to bring a piece of auxiliary equipment made by Conair in the 1960s back into use.

Purity Dairies of Nashville contacted Conair about some maintenance issues for its receiver when it found that a new receiver wasn't readily available, a Conair spokesman said.

"If there were no supply chain issues, a receiver like that usually ships in one week, but in this current climate, we are pleased that a 60-year old Conair receiver can pinch-hit when needed," said Sam Rajkovich, Conair vice president of sales and marketing.