Kickstart: It's infrastructure week

President Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion infrastructure plan on March 31, and plastics and manufacturing organizations are generally on board, although with some caveats.

One item missing from the plan at this point is specific funding for recycling, which organizations representing the industry had hoped to see.

"We need further investment in recycling infrastructure to bring us closer to our shared goal of sustainability, but we are disappointed this was not made a priority," added Tony Radoszewski, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association.

That doesn't mean that recycling won't get funding, just that it's not currently highlighted. But the plan does include investments in other key areas that would benefit plastics firms, including money for water and sewer lines, transportation and electrical systems.

Steve Toloken has more.

Italian packaging machinery companies are stepping forward to volunteer their plants as vaccination locations.

The manufacturing organization Confindustria put out a call to supply vaccination sites following discussions with Italy's COVID-19 emergency commissioner. So far a total of 37 packaging industry companies have offered to host a vaccination center.

"This operation will allow millions of people working at the companies and belonging to the local communities to be vaccinated simultaneously," UCIMA, the Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers' Association, said in a news release. "A faster and more structured vaccination program will enable Italian companies to once again offer their renowned expertise and know-how to all international markets and respond rapidly to their customers' needs."

Consumer product company Henkel and nonprofit group Plastic Bank first joined forces in 2017 in Haiti with a program that pays people to collect plastic trash for recycling.

The program was successful enough that it opened branches in the Philippines and Indonesia. Now it is opening the first of three waste collection operations in Egypt with a site in Cairo.

The two groups have set a target of collecting 5,000 metric tons of plastic waste by 2023 and creating 1,000 jobs over a two-year period while supporting a long-term recycling infrastructure in the country.

Henkel uses plastics collected through the program — called "social plastic" — for packaging. It's Beauty Care brand Nature Box was the first from Henkel using social plastic, with the material used in bottles.