Kickstart: The MVP of sustainable foodservice products

Maybe no one is about to claim that plastics had an MVP performance at the Super Bowl, but there definitely is a relationship between bio-based plastics and the game's MVP.

Cooper Kupp, a wide receiver for the champion LA Rams, is the nephew of Stephen Croskey, the CEO of materials company Danimer Scientific, whose PHA resin was used in the Phade-brand straws used at the game.

"Sustainability and the conservation of our planet is as important a mission as any," Kupp said in a social media post from Danimer Scientific. "I'm so proud that my family and my Uncle Stephen are an innovative part of this vital movement."

SoFi Stadium, the home of the LA Rams and the site of the Feb. 13 game, has used compostable and biodegradeable WinCup Phade-brand products in foodservice products all season. Danimer Scientific supplies the PHA to WinCup.

Thermoformers may not have had quite as strong a year as a football MVP, but as Hollee Keller, Plastics News' editorial research coordinator, points out in her blog this week, they did have an extremely good one.

Data collected for the 2021 ranking of North American thermoformers, posted in this week's PN print issue, showed sales soared 15 percent on average in 2021. That's the second-highest jump for the processing group since an 18 percent climb in 2011.

"In fact, the total reported thermoforming sales this year is nearly triple that of 20 years ago," she writes. "After the surveys came in, I took a preliminary look and found an average packaging gain of 21 percent.

"Food packaging, including cups and lids, was expected to increase due to the pandemic, with more people dining at home, but really this trickled into all end markets — as seen with the average sales per company gaining 15.7 percent to reach $74.4 million," she added.

A social media influencer is taking her money to plastics. Kaitlyn Amouranth, who is identified as "one of the biggest female streamers on Twitch" with 5 million followers on the livestreaming platform, announced via social media (of course) that she invested "seven figures" in a maker of plastic balls for ball pits, playgrounds and other sites.

While Amouranth did not identify the company, she said she took a minority stake in "one of the few players with a low cost structure outside of China [and the] emerging markets. I think domestic [production] is an increasingly important part of the equation."

The company is a supplier to other businesses, rather than a direct-to-customer business. Amouranth also recently invested in a gas station and 7-Eleven stores, according the the website Dexerto.com.