Kickstart: Turning bottles into ink cartridges

Your printer may just have a bit of the Caribbean inside it.

Consumer electronics giant HP Inc. has been using bottles collected from the island nation of Haiti and using them in cases for its ink cartridges, along with other items, as part of its drive to use 30 percent recycled plastics in all of its computers and electronics.

The project in Haiti is especially important, Ellen Jackowski, HP's head of sustainability strategy and innovation, told Christina Nunez at The Hill.

Haiti has no municipal garbage collection, and the lack of a reliable, safe municipal drinking system means many people rely on bottled water.

"If we don't create a collection community for that plastic, the plastic ends up on the beaches and flowing into the ocean," Jackowski says. "Instead of those plastic bottles being waste, they can be a job or an income opportunity."

You've probably seen one of the seemingly thousands of advertisements for a "bed in a box." You know, the companies that deliver a mattress — typically made with compressed polyurethane foam — to your home, rather than forcing you to schlep out to a furniture store and try to find one.

Now one of the first big companies in the business, New York-based Casper Sleep Inc., plans to go public. But as our sister publication Crain's New York Business reports, it's not gone smoothly so far. The company with an estimated value of $1.1 billion a year ago now may be worth something closer to $750 million.

Trading is set to begin today under the stock name CSPR.

Organizers of Chinaplas are postponing the 2020 edition, that had been set for April 21-24 in Shanghai.

While the show is still more than two months away, organizers said they are making the decision now due to health and safety concerns and a government call banning large-scale gatherings.

Obviously, the change will be a big hit on the global plastics industry, since Chinaplas is possibly the largest trade show in the world. But at the same time, it would have been hard for companies to begin moving forward with plans to transport equipment and people to Shanghai with the potential for a last-minute cancelation hanging over those plans.

PN is continuing to track the latest updates on the epidemic's impact. We'll have free access to the bulk of these stories on our website to keep everyone aware of changes.