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November 08, 2021 08:30 AM

Kickstart: Looking for a hero

Rhoda Miel
Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
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    Ball Corp.
    Looking for a hero

    Competing in business is hard enough, but how are you going to compete against Aquaman?

    Not the fictional DC comic book superhero, of course, but Jason Momoa, who plays the character in movies, including the 2018 Aquaman and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, due out in 2022.

    Momoa already had a water brand that uses aluminum cans rather than PET bottles, Mananalu, and now he's a spokesman for Ball Corp.'s aluminum cups, a product taking on Solo Co.'s red cups in an ad campaign.

    As Steve Toloken writes, Kristin Kelley, global head of communications with Amcor Rigid Packaging, brought up the new competition during the Plastics Packaging Summit.

    "They have certainly put a lot of dollars and a lot of resources behind education, awareness and marketing, and that is something we can lift and shift, and we should, if we expect to have that same sort of impact," she said.

    Her comments got the Plastics News staff thinking about who might bring star power for a plastics PR campaign. The bad news is, we couldn't name anyone offhand who is not a culturally divisive personality.

    If we take a path leading us to celebrities whose brands have been involved with recycled plastics, plus add a comics connection to keep up with Momoa's credentials ... Jessica Alba? The actress portrayed Sue Storm in Fantastic Four in 2005 and 2007 (although neither of those movies was well accepted), and her health and beauty line, The Honest Co., uses post-consumer recycled plastics and encourages recycling, although it also brags about how it allows consumers to use fewer plastic bottles each year.

    Maybe the answer would be to go straight to comics, but Plastic Man doesn't have the same cache as Aquaman, despite PN's Frank Esposito's best efforts.

    Do you have any ideas? There are a lot of people in the industry who would be interested to hear them.

     

    An honor for Agri-Industrial

    Blow molder Agri-Industrial Plastics Co. has been named Manufacturer of the Year by the Fairfield (Iowa) Area Chamber of Commerce.

    "We accept this award on behalf of our 200 employees, who work together every day to exceed our customers' expectations," said Agri-Industrial President Lori Schaefer-Weaton.

    Agri-Industrial was founded in 1978 by Dick Smith with four employees and one used blow molding machine. Schaefer-Weaton represents the second generation of the family in the business.

    The company has been a leader in developing multilayer fuel tanks for the agriculture industry, adapting technology first developed in the auto industry to help reduce emissions from tractors and other heavy equipment.

    Earlier this year, AIP pledged $100,000 to a local effort for expanded child care in the region.

    It also has invested in solar power at its facility, becoming one of the first manufacturers to use a Tesla Powerpack solar array, chamber officials said.

    Check out this 2019 video profile with Schaefer-Weaton for more on the family and the company.

     

    Plastics and the backyard rink

    Now that we're moving into winter (here in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), maybe it's time to think about hockey.

    Boston-based EZ Ice Inc. has set a goal to "get 1 million kids on the ice and off the device," and it sells a modular blow molded and injection molded system to set up backyard rinks without the need for tools.

    The high density polyethylene parts simply slide together and are held in place by a series of straps — rather than needing to hammer stakes into the frozen ground. A plastic sheet is then added for the base layer.

    When COVID-19 shut down many public skating rinks, EZ Ice added a network of molders to help supply an expected boom in business, expanding its capacity by 500 percent, CEO and founder Dylan Gastel told the New York Times earlier this year.
     

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