Kickstart: A year of 'topsy-turvy' business

We've heard a lot about the shortage of bottles and other containers for hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and other cleaning products.

Catherine Kavanaugh has the story from the perspective of machinery makers who found themselves part of a very tight supply chain.

At W. Amsler Equipment Inc. in Bolton, Ontario, orders started pouring in for bottle-making machines in the February to March time frame, CEO Bruce Coxhead said.

"Business went topsy-turvy because of COVID-19," Coxhead said. "I sold two machines from my house on a Saturday night off my shop floor. That's how crazy the market demand went."

The same was true for suppliers to food packaging companies.

"People staying at home are buying more products to cook at home, and many of those come in plastic packaging," R&B Plastics Machinery LLC CEO Fred Piercy said. "Food and personal care applications have increased."

Read more about 2020 from the machinery perspective here.

Usually a headline about "swimming in plastic" means you're about to read something about marine plastic again.

This story is kind of about that, but not really. Instead, as our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes, this is about a Dutch company making swimsuits from materials recovered from the ocean, especially nylon fishing nets.

Italian nylon maker Aquafil also supplies automakers and dressmakers with its recycled resin. Netherlands-based Save The Wave is not the first swimwear maker to use materials sourced from marine debris, but is the first in Europe, the companies said.

You may have seen the news that Cleveland's major league baseball team will be changing its name. The players will no longer be Indians. This follows a decision in 2018 to remove a certain character whose name rhymes with "moo" from team representations.

"The team called the decision 'phase one of a multiphase process' that will include choosing a new name and brand development. The undertaking, the club said, is 'complex and will take time,'" our sister paper Crain's Cleveland Business writes.

But what will the name be after 2021?

Sure you could go with some reference to Cleveland's location on Lake Erie, but how about something to honor the region's strong history in plastics and rubber? After all, Pittsburgh has the Steelers and Green Bay has the Packers. The minor league team in nearby Akron, Ohio, is the RubberDucks.

So what do you think, the Cleveland Molders? Or since the Midland, Mich., minor league team went with the Great Lakes Loons, the Cleveland Chemists is up for grabs.