Kickstart: Can you guess what may impact 2020 rankings? (It's not hard)

Let's face it, school will look a lot different this year. It may, in fact, look like home. Students of every age will likely be spending at least part of their school year learning from home.

And that home schooling may lead to new business for rotomolding companies that make plastic play tables, desks and other items for young students.

In her new blog taking a look behind PN's new ranking of top North American rotomolders (in this week's print issue), Hollee Keller, our editorial research coordinator, writes that there are signs that next year's numbers for 2020 will show changes.

"We're expecting a large gain for rotomolded learning and play products," Hollee writes. "Streetsboro, Ohio-based Simplay3 Co.'s products have been popular during quarantine. During our special report research, Simplay3 said they are anticipating more growth and planning to add employees."

Let's assume that when you go to the store, you want to be a good consumer. You try to buy healthy food (mostly) that supports local farmers and businesses. You may even select a brand based on whether its packaging is easy to recycle.

But picking the most sustainable package isn't always easy to determine. Machinery maker Reifenhäuser Group is trying to make that issue much easier to understand, as our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes.

Cheqpacs is a free smartphone app that lets you scan an item's barcode and get instant feedback on the package's efficiency, recyclability and recycled content. You can also use the app to find a more sustainable alternative if your first option isn't.

Cheqpacs is the first time Reifenhäuser has worked on a program aimed directly at consumers, which is why it teamed with Cologne, Germany-based digital specialists Spacepilots on the app.

"We want to make the results of the worldwide sustainability initiatives transparent and understandable for every user. The app can help us do this because it touches a nerve in our society," said Spacepilots CEO Christoph Bresler.

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the plastics industry during the past five months to take on new roles. Maybe your company was part of the Arsenal of Health headed up by automakers. Or you dedicated workers to making face shields. Or you donated masks to front-line workers. Maybe you gave employees time to volunteer at local food banks.

We've written about a lot of these projects, but we know there are so many more.

On Oct. 26, Plastics News will publish a special issue focusing on what we're terming "Rapid Responders," the individuals and businesses who stepped in to provide what their communities needed.

We'd like your help to identify more companies and more projects. Please fill out a brief survey at www.plasticsnews.com/response to aid us in making connections.