Kickstart: Whatever happened to those anti-plastics activists in Ireland?

Remember the locals in Skibbereen, Ireland, who, a year ago, stopped plastics compounder RTP Co. from building a factory in their community?

Well, Save Our Skibbereen raised quite a bit of money for what they expected to be a long fight, including sales from one of the most unusual protest songs I have ever heard (more on that in a minute).

But after a relatively quick victory, what to do with the cash?

Last month, SOS announced that it will donate 20,000 euros that it raised to Skibbereen community organizations seeking financial assistance for worthy projects.

The grants will range from 500-5,000 euros (about $600-$6,000).

Sounds brilliant. Now, about that song, "Plactory," by Simon Blewhouse. Probably the first song in history with lyrics that mention "thermoplastic compound facility." And yes, he manages to rhyme with that. Click on the link if you dare.

The BBC documentary Blue Planet II raised public awareness of plastics marine debris. But new research says that doesn't necessarily translate to people choosing to use less single-use plastic.

That may be surprising, because the program is widely credited with pushing European legislators to ban many plastic products. It also created a boom in interest among young people wanting to study marine science.

But researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford say that although volunteers who watched the program were more aware of marine conservation issues, it did not change their behavior when it came to selecting snacks packaged in plastic.

"Our results support the hypothesis that, due to the complexities of human behavior, exposure to a single documentary is unlikely to lead to a distinct increase in individual pro-environmental actions," they wrote in a paper published in Conservation Science and Practice, the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

Many readers have been with Plastics News since we started publishing in 1989. For you longtime subscribers, here's some news about an editorial alum.

Adam Lashinsky was our Washington, D.C.-based reporter in the early 1990s, covering the early days of plastics bans and the industry's response. He's had a string of business-reporting jobs since then. Most recently, he's been at Fortune magazine for 19 years, including three as executive editor.

Adam has made a name for himself covering companies like Apple in Silicon Valley. Now he's moving on. He has three "new" gigs: editor-in-chief of World 50, an organization that builds peer communities for CEOs at leading global corporations; contributing writer for Business Insider; and a regular contributor to the Fox Business Network.

Watch for Adam's name, and remember that he first got his feet wet writing about business by writing about plastics.