Kickstart: No one said returning to school would be easy

Adapting to school during COVID-19 isn't easy. The Seattle Times has a story from central Washington's Wenatchee and Eastmont high schools on how staff and students are managing their return in 2021.

The work has been worth it, Eastmont Principal Lance Noell told the Times, saying it was "like walking into a dark room and turning on the light."

"Completely rejuvenating. We are recharged. We feel like we're educators again. It has been spectacular," Noell said.

But what caught my eye in the story was the photo of band students at Wenatchee High School who were using small personal tents, complete with clear plastic windows, for their classes, which worked a little better for the players of some instruments (think the flute) than others. As PN Special Projects Editor Jordan Vitick put it: That poor sousaphone player.

Starting a new business in the early 1970s would not have been easy. That period in U.S. history includes the oil embargo of 1973 that created long lines for limited gas at service stations. It also hit the flow of raw materials, impacting the entire supply chain — including resin suppliers.

But for Mass Polymers Corp., having a stock of polyethylene purchased for 9 cents per pound at that time that it could sell at $1 per pound helped the company thrive.

"The company became very successful overnight," President Steve Dazzo said.

Founded by Herb Mass in 1971, the company, based in Bridgewater, N.J., is marking its 50th anniversary this year, Frank Esposito writes. The company has grown from a regional distributor to national standing with more than 35 warehouses in North America and offices in eight states.

"We're not the biggest, but our approach is to be the best," Dazzo said. "We believe in quality and in doing the right thing to give our customers the consistency that they want."

The Remade Institute, which is affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy, has multiple plastics projects included in $43 million worth of funding to support recycling and new technology.

The funding includes 24 projects. The March 2 announcement follows another funding round in 2020 worth $20 million. Another round of funding valued at $50 million will be announced by late spring, the group said in a news release.

"Our mission is to reduce energy consumption and decrease emissions, while increasing the U.S.'s manufacturing competitiveness," Remade CEO Nabil Nasr said. "Our experts are working diligently to reach these critically important goals and, in the process, accelerate the U.S.'s transition to a circular economy."

Projects picked for the funding include:

• Dynamic cross-linking to enable EVA recycling from a project with Braskem America, Case Western Reserve University and shoe maker Allbirds Inc.

• Identifying mixed plastics and electronics for recycling, from the University of Miami and Lid Vizion LLC.

• Recycling of PET in food packaging, from MuCell Extrusion LLC, Plastilene SAS, Wingate Packaging, Sugar Creek Packaging Co., Center for Innovative Food Technology and Ohio State University.

Find the full list and more information here.