Kickstart: A golden anniversary in film

In the last days of December 1969, the Keiswetter family took a gamble and incorporated a new business in their hometown of Petoskey, Mich.

Production of polyethylene film would begin in 1970, but the official launch date of Petoskey Plastics Inc. was this week, 50 years ago.

The company has gone on to become a key recycler of PE film and a global leader with more than 4,000 customers worldwide (as well as winning PN's Processor of the Year award in 2018).

But first it had to survive some very lean moments. A few years after it launched, the company was upside down and bankrupt, but pledged to keep producing as long as it could while founder Paul Keiswetter convinced suppliers to support it. "The show would be over when the sheriff locked the door," Keiswetter said in a video on the company's anniversary. "I just said, when he does, it's over. If he doesn't show up? We just needed time."

The commercial truck business has always been cyclical. When manufacturing is strong and companies need to get their products to market, they buy more trucks. When there are new safety or regulatory developments for trucks, trucking companies invest.

And then there's 2019. Business Insider noted earlier this month that hundreds of trucking companies have shut down, leaving thousands of drivers without a job. Ten days ago, one of the country's biggest shippers, Celadon, abruptly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move that stranded some drivers far from home, halfway through a delivery.

As a result, truck makers have been announcing cutbacks. Navistar International Corp. is cutting 10 percent of its workforce. Cummins Inc. is cutting 2,000 salaried jobs.

What does this mean for plastics suppliers to trucking companies? That's probably a question a lot of companies are asking themselves now. Stay tuned for further developments.

But let's not leave things on such a depressing note. For bio-based materials suppliers, it's play time.

Mattel Inc. announced that it has set a target of 2030 to have all of its toys and packaging materials made of recycled material, bio-based plastics or be recyclable. The first toy to get a bio-based makeover is the Rock-A-Stack line of toys, which first debuted in 1960.

Mattel will join Lego A/S which has also set a 2030 deadline to convert its ABS building bricks to a more sustainable, bio-based material.