Kickstart: A recycling push from ... North Korea?

Recycling has a new international fan: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The country has both mandates for post-industrial recycling and rewards for post-consumer recycling, according to a report from Reuters. The increased push to turn in bottles and other products comes less from an interest in sustainability than a massive slowdown in international trade with China linked to the pandemic.

"[Party officials] should learn from those who carried out technical innovation for renovating production lines and equipment, for using domestic resources in production and recycling," Kim said during a conference in April, Reuters reports.

State-run television has promoted recycling as well, with a film called "Treasure I Found" featuring a factory worker upset with his wife's recycling until he discovers other uses for the recycled resin. And yes, of course you can watch it on YouTube.

The pet products maker Automated Pet Care Products Inc. has been busy adding to its product line, expanding in-house production (including injection molding) in Wisconsin and preparing for a rebranding.

That work includes hiring another 200 employees this year with a target of bringing on another 300 in the next five years.

Obviously, we all know how hard it is to find workers. And the company's chief operating officer says labor is in big demand in Juneau, Wis., where it does manufacturing and assembly. So how do they find workers?

Through pay and flexibility, COO Jacob Zuppke told our sister paper Crain's Detroit Business.
"At the start of the pandemic from March to June last year, the company told employees they could stay home and still receive two-thirds of their pay or go to work and receive $2 more per hour," CDB reporter Kurt Nagle writes. "Since then, the company has kept the pay increase for employees with perfect attendance, putting starting pay at $17-$18 per hour."

Zuppke noted that the flexibility and wages has also helped AutoPets recruit workers from neighboring plants.

Plastic spoons and other foodservice cutlery are destined for a museum display, but the artists aren't exactly praising the engineering that went into creating them.

Instead, German designers Kai Linke and Peter Eckart have created a piece called Spoon Archaeology that will go on display as part of the London Design Bienniel taking place this month. The project uses a "huge collection of these ubiquitous items ... treated like historical artefacts," according to the website It's Nice That.

"Plastic cutlery is a global phenomenon and also a global problem," Eckart told the website. "As disposable products, they are mass-produced, cheap, easy to transport and can be disposed of just as easily as they have been used. Ultimately, they are a symbol of our globalized logistics and throwaway culture."

The pair also said they picked plastic spoons because the European Union is set to ban plastic foodservice ware starting July 3 as part of a measure to reduce plastics pollution.

For those not in London, you can check out Spoon Archaeology on Instagram.