Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2023 winners
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Bioplastics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Blog
January 13, 2020 08:30 AM

Kickstart: Gold, silver, bronze, recycling at the Olympics

Rhoda Miel
Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Tokyo 2020

    The bed frame at the 2020 Olympics athlete quarters will be made from cardboard. The mattress from polyethylene. Both will be recycled after the games.

    Organizers of this year's Olympic games in Tokyo have been very, very serious about recycling.

    First they reached out to consumers in Japan, who donated more than 6 million used mobile phones, which were then stripped down to their parts to source the gold, silver and bronze for Olympic medals.

    Now it has unveiled beds for the athlete village with bases made from cardboard and mattresses from Japan's Airweave, sourced from polyethylene. Both the bases and mattresses will be recycled after the Olympics and Paralympics.

    (And if you were worried, the cardboard beds are rated to hold more than 400 pounds and organizers say they will hold up to even the most raucus, champagne-soaked celebration party.)

     

    Beth Terry

    Beth Terry with the plastics waste she saw pass through her home in six months in 2007.

    For all your friends talking about "clean" starts to the year

    NBC's "Today Show" last week included an video with Beth Terry, an Oakland, Calif., resident who has written about her attempts to live an "almost plastic free" life for the past 13 years.

    The segment, part of a segment on getting a cleaner and greener start to the year, focuses on Terry's efforts to avoid plastic in the kitchen by using glass or metal containers and in the bathroom by using shampoo bars rather than shampoo from bottles.

    In an interview with Plastics News in 2013, Terry makes sure to point out that being plastic free isn't really possible.

    "I use plastic — I'm talking to you on a phone, which is plastic, my computer is plastic, all the technology I have is plastic — but I've bought very, very few new plastic things since I started this project five years ago. I try to make use of what already exists by getting things second-hand or by finding a way to rent or borrow, to repair things when they break," she said.

     

    The Processor of the Year finalists.

    Celebrating the best

    This morning, Plastics News announced four companies who are finalists for the 2019 Processor of the Year: Diversified Plastics Inc., Intertech Plastics Inc., MMI Engineered Solutions Inc. and PTI Solutions Inc.

    Intertech also was a finalist for the 2018 award.

    Editor Don Loepp and reporter Bill Bregar will visit all four companies as part of the judging, but here are a few tidbits on each company to explain why they're finalists:

    • Diversified Plastics is owned by employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and company officials say that gives it an advantage. The ESOP stock price has jumped 72 percent in last three years and revenue per employee went up 12.4 percent.

    • Intertech draws talent from the Eaglecrest High School robotics team, which the company sponsors. The first apprentice, a robotics team member named Kevin King, came in his junior year and built vision system that uses two cameras. "Today, Kevin is a full-time automation technician and [we] are paying for his engineering degree."

    • MMI scored the highest marks in the employee relations criteria. Management has worked hard to make MMI an "employer of choice" and develop a career path for advancement. Employees have seven "tracks" in leadership, warehouse and technical track, with several job categories in each track.

    • Investing in a closed-loop water system with in-house water treatment means that PTI cut water consumption by 40 percent, or 80,500 gallons. For the last three years, the company has invested about $60,000 in lighting upgrades, including automatic shutoff. Even waste oil and lubricants get recycled. By working with the local electric supplier, PTI sends that to a local farm to heat its barns through a 99 percent fuel and waste-efficient furnace.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Avient, Eaton, Vitamix, Mum land in top workplaces list for Cleveland area
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Clean Vision to spend $50M on West Virginia pyrolysis plant
    2
    Plastics treaty talks get down to specifics
    3
    PP resin prices saw a big drop in May
    4
    At plastics treaty, designing bottle bills for the 'Global South'
    5
    MGS adds product design to offerings with acquisition
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2023 winners
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Bioplastics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified