Kickstart: Who needs a stiff, sustainable drink?

Does tequila taste better out of a bio-based, biodegradable bottle? Or is that bottle a marketing gimmick?

We may be finding out soon as Bacardi & Co. Ltd., the maker of spirits sold under the Bacardi, Patrón, Bombay Sapphire, Grey Goose and Dewar's labels begins rolling out packaging using polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) made by Danimer Scientific in place of standard plastics by 2023.

As our sister paper Sustainable Plastics reports, Bacardi currently produces 80 million bottles from standard plastics each year. It will save 3,000 tons of traditional materials in favor of PHA.

PHA will degrade within 18 months in compost, soil, freshwater and seawater, leaving no trace, the company says.

Bacardi will also eliminate plastic closures within bottles.

"It may sound small," said Jean-Marc Lambert, senior vice president of global operations, "but add that up across every bottle produced globally and we're talking many tons of plastic every day. Once we've fixed the problem, we'll be open sourcing the solution for the entire industry to use. This isn't about competitive advantage; it's about doing the right thing for the planet."

Shell Polymers is on track to finish a massive polyethylene project in Monaca, Pa., one that will make 3.5 billion pounds of PE annually. Corporate parent Royal Dutch Shell is a global colossus, measured as the third-largest company in the world in 2018.

But during the Global Plastics Summit virtual conference on Oct. 22, a Shell executive provided a different point of view.

"We see ourselves as a startup inside a larger company," Emma Lewis, global chemical strategy general manager, said.

Lewis said that Shell Polymers "is thinking like disruptor companies like Amazon and Uber."

How? Frank Esposito has more on the startup point of view within the company.

Here are three items from our sister paper Automotive News that show the changing state of things in the auto industry, a business that is often a bellwether for other parts of the economy.

First, after a spring pandemic shutdown, followed by a summer ramp-up, Toyota Motor Corp. says its Toyota and Lexus production in North America is at nearly the same level it was a year ago. The 94 percent capacity rate is a sure sign that the industry is returning to "normal."

But what's "normal"?

Story No. 2 is a report that the New York Auto Show is moving from April to August for 2021, becoming yet another event moved due to COVID-19 for next year, something that appears to be the new normal.

But what will people be looking for at the shows? Maybe something different. Consider story No. 3: It took only 10 minutes for General Motors Co. to sell reservations for every one of its 2022 Hummer EVs in a special preorder event.

Granted, the 2022 GMC Hummer Edition 1 is being produced in small numbers for a very niche audience, namely those willing to spend $112,595 for an electric truck. But maybe those sales, rescheduled auto shows and production moving ahead at near full capacity signal that as things return to normal, despite the need to make a few adjustments, consumers will at least be interested in spending money on something new.