Kickstart: Now batting cleanup, SC Johnson

Just as it feels like winter will last forever, boom. Pitchers and catchers report for spring training this week. (The bulk of them today or tomorrow.)

Consumer products company SC Johnson wants to get off to a cleaner, greener start for major league baseball this year, teaming up with the Milwaukee Brewers to turn plastic cups used at Miller Park into bottles for its Scrubbing Bubbles-brand cleaning liquid.

The park uses an estimated 1.3 million plastic cups per year, according to SC Johnson, which is headquartered in nearby Racine, Wis. Scrubbing Bubbles already uses post-consumer recycled material. As part of the project, Scrubbing Bubbles packaging will be switched to PET from high density polyethylene.

The continuing coronavirus epidemic still has many manufacturing sites in China shut down, but big companies are beginning to produce something new: surgical masks.

Our sister publication Automotive News Europe reports that companies as wide ranging as carmaker General Motors Co., electronics firm Foxconn and oil and chemical supplier Sinopec are installing lines to make millions of surgical masks.

The masks are recommended for use in some regions, including Wuhan, where the virus first appeared in late December. Millions of other people are wearing them as an extra layer of protection when they're out in public.

In addition, truckmaker Shaanxi Automobile Group started making safety goggles Feb. 9 and is capable of producing more than 3,000 a day, according to local media reports.

Maybe you think Plastics News should cover more stories about mold makers. Or recyclers. Or public policy. Maybe you want to see more PN show dailies at trade shows. Maybe you think Kickstart is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

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