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April 29, 2020 08:30 AM

Kickstart: So much for the open office

Rhoda Miel
Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
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    Rhoda Miel

    The Detroit editorial offices for Plastics News.

    So much for the open office

    We've all spent a lot of time thinking about what a post-COVID factory will look like. But what about the office?

    For those workers whose employers embraced the open office setting with low — or no — cubicle walls, how safe will you feel when one of your nearby coworkers starts sneezing or coughing?

    Office furniture giant Steelcase Inc. is warning companies they'll need to make changes as their employees return to their desks. That may mean creating one-way traffic in hallways, removing chairs in break rooms, rotating desks to face away from each other to create more space or adding new, higher barriers between desks. Those barriers will have to be easy to clean, so expect more acrylic and other hard surfaces rather than fabric walls.

    Providing a 6-foot safe work zone in an office is a big shift for companies that had been steadily shrinking individual desks to put more emphasis on creating a collaborative working environment.

    "Infection control is a new priority," Steelcase CEO and President Jim Keane writes in a 30-page primer on the post-COVID office. "Employees will not return to an office that doesn't feel safe, and most of today's high-density workplaces ... will need to be modified."

    Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Steelcase also will host a webinar on preparing offices, at 11 a.m. Eastern on April 30.

     

    175th WG - Maryland Air National
    Crowdsourcing recovery plans

    We're looking for your input again, this time on how recovery looks for you and your company.

    Hollee Keller has a questionnaire up at plasticsnews.com/virus with a few questions on the steps you're taking to reopen businesses.

    These surveys she's posted the past few months help us take a pulse of what's going on out there so we know what questions to ask to help you. Please swing by. It'll only take a few minutes.

    PT Tridi Oasis Group
    A production line in the Jakarta factory of PET bottle recycler PT Tridi Oasis Group.
    Investing in sustainability in Asia

    Some of the money pledged by materials suppliers and consumer brands to improve sustainability in developing countries is being spent.

    Circulate Capital invested $6 million of the $106 million it has under management in two plastics recycling companies in Asia: India's Lucro Plastecycle Private Ltd. and Indonesia's PT Tridi Oasis Group. The money will help the companies scale up operations, Steve Toloken writes.

    Investments by Circulate have been complicated by the coronavirus crisis, with the group needing to take new conditions into consideration, CEO Rob Kaplan said.

    "Our focus is on deploying capital as rapidly as possible and helping companies like Tridi Oasis and Lucro to not just grow and scale, but to weather COVID-19 and grow strong businesses as we come out of the crisis," he said.

     

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