Kickstart: Celebrating women in science

Welcome to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. For 2021, the United Nations has set the day to focus on the role women are playing in fighting COVID-19 but also notes that the pandemic has put extra work onto women who typically handle more of the burdens of childcare and remote schooling.

"[It is] particularly affecting those at the early stages of their career, and thus contributing to widening the existing gender gap in science and revealing the gender disparities in the scientific system, which need to be addressed by new policies, initiatives and mechanisms to support women and girls in science," the UN said.

Women are involved in every level of the plastics industry. Ilham Kadri is CEO of French material supplier Solvay, Erin Kane is president and CEO of AdvanSix and Lori Ryerkerk is president and CEO of Celanese.

On the machinery side for one example, Mayumi Kotani, president of Kyoto, Japan-based Yushin Precision Equipment Co. Ltd., will be joining the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2021. The Procter & Gamble technical molding subsidiary Imflux counts Mary Wagner as its CEO.

Thirteen of this year's Rising Stars are women.

And if you've ever heard anything about sustainable material from Ford Motor Co. — such as biocomposites or recycled plastics — there's a good chance that Deborah Mielewski was involved with it. (Mielewski is the first woman named a Ford Technical Fellow.)

While it's on your mind, keep an eye out for the 2021 Women Breaking the Mold nominations. Profiles for the class of 2021 will run in late July. We'll alert you when submissions open.

Things are looking up for suppliers to the homebuilding and renovating industry.

The National Association of Home Builders' economist, Robert Dietz, says new home starts were up 11 percent in 2020 and are expected to continue growing in 2021.

Much of the credit for the growth is the pandemic, as people put money into their homes rather than using it on travel.

"Also, more new houses will be built in the suburbs and rural areas now that employers are more open to people working from home. The benefits of lower density and lower costs put rural construction ahead of the suburbs in 2020, according to NAHB," reporter Catherine Kavanaugh writes.

All of that is good news if you're supplying contractors. If you're on the buying end, though, watch out. Lumber prices soared from $350 per thousand board feet in April 2020 to more than $950 by September. At least that should be good news for makers of plastic lumber for decks.

The pandemic is continuing to disrupt planned trade shows and conferences.

Organizers of the triennial Plast show in Milan have canceled the live event that had been set for June 22-25. The June date was postponed from early May. With vaccine rollouts moving slower than hoped, which is impacting international travel, organizers said it made it impossible to adequately plan and prepare for a major event like Plast, which can attract up tens of thousands of visitors.

Rather than try to push off the date a few months, organizers said they likely will aim to move the event into 2022.

Today also marks a banner date for Editor Don Loepp. It's his 30th anniversary with Plastics News. Yes, that means he's been writing about plastics longer than some of this year's Rising Stars have been alive.

I'm sure he's not planning any party, but if you want to drop him some congratulations on Twitter (@donloepp) or email [email protected], he'll appreciate it.