Kickstart: They're not used shoes, they're 'refurbished'

Anyone with older siblings has used hand-me-downs in one form or another, whether that means clothing or toys or bicycles. So maybe Nike's latest sustainability plan — Nike Refurbished — is another way of handing things down to be used by someone else, but on a larger scale than just your family stash.

Nike Refurbish allows consumers to return their Nike-brand shoes when they're no longer using them — currently at 15 shops located across the U.S. The shoemaker inspects the shoes, then either cleans them to sell them again, at a reduced price, or recycles them for use in future shoes. (I don't see any mention of the consumer getting a cut of the sales of their refurbished shoes.)

Recycled shoes go into the proprietary Nike Grind material and may be used in running tracks, artificial turf, carpet backing or even another pair of shoes, such as the "Space Hippie" model with 15 percent Nike Grind.

The program is all designed to keep shoes out of landfills, Nike says.

One familiar comment from Plastics News' Rising Stars, no matter the year, is that young people want to help make the industry more sustainable. They're interested in pollution, in preventing pellet spills and in recycling.

So it seems appropriate one of the top schools training future leaders in the plastics industry, Penn State Behrend, hired a sustainability coordinator who is an expert on plastics pollution.

Don Loepp profiled Sherri Mason, who saw the extent of plastics pollution in the Great Lakes during a 2012 environmental survey. Conditions, she says, are only getting worse, and the need for the industry as a whole to be aware and act is growing stronger.

"There is an awareness, not only in the industry, but within [Penn State Behrend], about end-of-life issues with plastics. And I think they have an honest interest in really looking at that and thinking about it and finding an honest solution to it," Mason said.

Maybe you're tired of hearing about sustainability and plastics pollution, but I can guarantee you, the next generation of engineers and leaders are not. So don't be surprised if your alma mater decides to duplicate the work Mason is doing for their own students.

Pine-Sol is good for business. At least making it is good for business as brand owner Clorox Co. has contracted a small Canadian company to make an additional 12 million bottles per year.

To make that happen, Dimachem Inc. of Windsor, Ontario, is investing more than $3 million to modify its facility, add blow molding equipment and create a new line to produce the bottles.

Dimachem will add 14 jobs to its current staff of 40.

Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox says Pine-Sol kills the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on surfaces, according to outside reports. As a result, Clorox is seeing a big jump in sales for all of its cleaning products, including Pine-Sol, with market watchers expecting the company to post an increase in sales of more than 4 percent for the first quarter of 2021 vs. 2020.