Kickstart: Nice slogan for recycling. What will it mean in practice?

I suppose you can file this under the "glass half full/half empty" category.

On the one hand, it's good that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a very specific goal for recycling, calling for the U.S. to hit the 50 percent level by 2030.

On the other hand, even as EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the goal on Nov. 17, recycling and municipal leaders noted that EPA has set no specifics or funding about how to meet that goal.

In addition, Wheeler and other Donald Trump administration officials will be leaving their jobs Jan. 20, 2021, so what longevity will that "50 by 30" goal mean in the long run?

"We're at a critical stage regarding recycling in the U.S.," Rick Kriseman, mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., and chair of the environmental committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said during a national recycling summit. "Local governments have been the backbone of our nation's recycling efforts, with millions of dollars being spent every year.

"Unfortunately, up to now, we've done all this with little to no help from others who are key to this discussion," he said.

Check out Steve Toloken's story for more details on what is, and isn't, part of the new target.

Automotive production and sales in North America have been showing a strong recovery since auto plants reopened. The seasonally adjusted annual rate — best known as the SAAR, and used throughout the auto industry to gauge how the auto market is doing — settled in at 16.2 million in October. That's below last year's market of a little more than 17 million cars sold, but far better than the SAAR of about 8.5 million in April.

Erin Pustay Beaven from our sister paper Rubber & Plastics News covered a virtual briefing from Bernard Swiecki of the Center for Automotive Research about the state of the auto industry.

Of course, sales and production are better for some corners of the U.S. auto industry, such as trucks, SUVs and crossovers, than for cars. But Swiecki is careful not to write off sedans just yet.

"Earlier this year, I was going through some old work files and I found a column I had written, and this column was titled 'Is this the death of the sedan?' And I wrote that column back in 2006," Swiecki said.

"The news of the death of sedan has been with us for a very long time now, and yet they remain. They are going to decline, and they are still going to stick around."

Next year, your fast-food meal may come with a biodegradable plastic straw.

Georgia-based Danimer Scientific and private label manufacturer Eagle Beverage Products of Kent, Wash., have announced plans to produce biodegradable drinking straws made from Danimer's Nodax PHA for the quick-service restaurant industry.

Eagle Beverage Vice President Aisha Kabani said in our sister paper Sustainable Plastics that the new straws will "provide a cost-effective solution for restaurants to deliver guilt-free beverage enjoyment to their customers."

Eagle also plans to look at ways to use biocompostable plastics in containers and other packaging.