Kickstart: Another case study about the difficulties of recycling

What does it mean when even high-profile recyclers struggle?

CarbonLite Industries LLC has filed for bankruptcy protection as it deals with low prices for its material and a delayed opening of a Pennsylvania plant due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The Riverside, Calif.-based company bills itself as "the worldwide leader in bottle-to-bottle recycling" and counts Coca-Cola Co., Nestle Waters North America and PepsiCo Inc. among its customers.

Company leaders maintain that CarbonLite can continue recycling and production without interruption and it plans no layoffs.

"Our customers, all of whom have steadily increased their commitments to the use of recycled plastic in their products, have expressed confidence in this process and our carefully considered decision," CEO Leon Farahnik said.

Seems to me it's another sign of a need to focus on the recycling infrastructure if we're ever going to make headway in bringing more post-consumer recycled material to the market in a circular economy.

My apologies if this photo is unwelcome in your morning email, but this is a spider with a plastics connection.

Peter Jäger, a scientist at Senckenberg Naturmuseum Frankfurt in Germany, has just named 25 new spider species in the genus Thunberga, which was itself named after Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

One of them is named in honor of Boyan Slat, who has been working on a series of projects to collect and recycle marine plastics.

Thunberga boyanslat joins spiders named for Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, a children's rights activist and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari from India, who carried her injured father on her bicycle over 1,200 kilometers to his native village where he could undergo treatment.

"Thanks for the honor," Slat said on Twitter, alongside a photo of the spider named for him. "I hope we never meet."

Sure you love your dogs. But are you willing to buy them special filtered water in a BPA-free recycled plastic bowl? (Priced at $1.50-$2 for a single serving, $6 for a six-pack.)

Waggin Water calls itself the "first of its kind." The 12-ounce plastic bowls are made with "certified plastic-neutral" material sourced from curbside recycling and ocean plastic.

"Humans have clean [and] safe bottled water, and our pets have [had] nothing, up until now," Founder Drew Whited said. "Whether it's for convenience, emergencies and everything in between — our pets need water every day."

Whited said he developed the idea for Waggin Water while traveling with Mickey, his 4-year-old long-hair Chihuahua. The company says it diverts 4,000 pounds of waste plastic from landfills through its products.

With the cancellation of NPE2021 (and so many other shows), Plastics News will be running a series of "Showcase" stories allowing companies to present their new products offerings they had planned to roll out at NPE.

The stories will run starting in April. We've extended the deadline to submit items. Just head to plasticsnews.com/showcase to fill out a form that will help us include your company.