Kickstart: Revving up interest in sustainability through racing

Sustainability is a good story, but it's not always the most exciting. Life cycle analysis studies supporting the role of plastics will often be shoved aside in favor of familiar — if not accurate — claims about islands made of plastic.

But Formula 1 car racing? That'll get some attention. To be specific, DuPont Co. is part of a partnership supporting Formula E, which uses electric-powered race cars on Formula 1 courses, to help accelerate new technology for electric vehicles.

Tina Wu, vice president and general manager of DuPont's advanced solutions group, says the partnership will allow motorsports to "function as a proving ground" for new technology, our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes.

When Sarah Kominek covered the rollout of the newest F-150 pickup truck by Ford Motor Co. last year, she noted how the automaker took advantage of sheet molded compound to add more function in the truck bed.

In the wake of the storms and power problems in Texas, there are now reports from truck owners who have found even bigger ways to add functionality. They're using the truck's built-in power supply (housed within the bed and originally intended for the use of power tools) to power heaters, refrigerators, phones and coffee makers.

"You're living your life normally and all of a sudden you're thrust into the dark. I think it got around 9 degrees. It's been in mid-20s and low 30s. You don't expect that in south Texas," Randy Jones told the Detroit Free Press. "The truck gave us light at night, TV access to catch the news and weather. It helped give us a little bit of heat and a good pot of coffee."

That story reminds me of molder near New Orleans who used the OnStar satellite communications feature in his General Motors vehicle to call family and staff after Hurricane Katrina.

And while we're speaking of power problems in Texas, Plastics News is trying to reach molders in the region to get an idea of what it's like on the ground for them and their workers. We have a brief survey to help us track the story. If you have time to fill it out, it'll help us cover the story.

The PlastiVan has gone virtual.

The education program from the Society of Plastics Engineers, with the support of a $60,000 donation from the Detroit chapter, is launching PlastiVideos.

Just as it sounds, the program brings many of the same activities from live sessions to a virtual classroom, but for a remote setting, with a series of short videos. There are PlastiVideos for middle school and high school students.

The SPE automotive division, Plastics Pioneers Association and color and appearance division also are supporting the program.