Kickstart: Picking the right bottle

Packaging can tell a story. Just think of the Coca-Cola Co. bottle, if you want one example.

But during the coronavirus pandemic, the rush to get hand sanitizer out to consumers, along with a shortage of traditional bottles for sanitizers because of the heavy demand, has meant that some companies are using whatever bottles are available.

Plastics companies have jumped in to fill the bottle shortage needs much as they have embraced production of face shields, masks, gowns and other health care needs. Sidel, for instance, was able to convert a 500-milliliter bottle mold it had on hand into production to supply a French hospital's sanitizer needs.

But Consumer Reports says some of the ad hoc containers have been confusing, especially those used by breweries and distillers who used the bottles they had on hand when they converted from drinking alcohol to medical alcohol.

"Some manufacturers are putting the hand sanitizer into plastic and glass bottles that could be easily mistaken for regular alcohol or another beverage," Consumer Reports said, adding that calls to the National Poison Data System in March related to hand sanitizer consumption increased 79 percent.

And on the subject of hand sanitizers, materials company Ineos has pledged to open two plants in the U.S. to make the cleaning liquid within 10 days.

The first bottles from a Jacksonville, Ark., plant have already been delivered to Baptist Health-Little Rock and Arkansas Children's Hospital, both in Little Rock, Ark.

A plant in Neville Island, Pa., will supply hospitals across Ohio, New York and New Jersey, officials from London-based Ineos said.

Each plant will make 1 million bottles of sanitizer each month.

Ineos says its materials are used in medication and medical equipment as well as personal protective equipment. In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has described Ineos acrylonitrile as "critical to national resilience."

We have two different angles on how companies normally making pens are now turning out protective equipment.

First, Frank Esposito has a story from a project by Eastman Chemical Co. and Rotuba Extruders Inc. to make protective face shields for health care workers at a Linden, N.J., plant that normally is the only pen manufacturers in the U.S.

Add to that a project by Bic North America, part of the French pen maker, making 2,000 medical-grade face shields per day at its site in Milford, Conn., by using scrap left behind from packaging production for lighters.

Bic North America says it has received requests for nearly 25,000 shields from Connecticut hospitals, nursing homes and first responders.

In addition, it has donated 87,000 razors through community service groups, veterans groups and food banks; 7,000 multipurpose lighters; and more than 28,000 stationery products and 4,000 shavers to the respiratory care department of the Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital in Michigan.