Kickstart: The future is bright

I have some bad news to share. For many of you, looking through this week's print issue of Plastics News may create some "imposter syndrome" issues. Sure you may be a president, but this year's group of Rising Stars also includes CEOs, and they're younger than you.

You may have some patents from your work. So do a lot of these industry professionals ranging in age from 22 to 35. You're fluent in two languages? Arnaud Amouroux, a 33-year-old key account director for Berry Global Group, speaks five languages, including Catalan.

These are the future leaders of the plastics industry, and as PN's Jordan Vitick, who wrote profiles of this year's Rising Stars, notes in this week's viewpoint column, the future is in good hands.

And there's more good news within these profiles. While some Stars were raised around the plastics industry, a lot of them first gained exposure during school visits and presentations by someone else in the industry. That means that outreach efforts are working. Currier Plastics' Jacob Fry, for instance, got his first exposure from a high school class involving plastics that also would offer him the chance to get college credits.

Even chance encounters have led to new careers. Consider the story of Lauren Sousa, who was doing some masonry work with her father at a home owned by a vice president at MTD Micro Molding. He saw that she was a hard worker and asked if she was looking for a job.

So if you want to be humbled, astounded and excited about the next generation of industry leaders, be sure and check the profiles in print or extended stories with Q&As at plasticsnews.com/topic/rising-stars.

A lot of communities and states have banned plastic bags, straws and foam foodservice containers. There have also been bans on bans (such as a vote Feb. 23 by the Kansas State Senate to ban local municipal bans).

But Florida wants to ban butts on its beaches. No, not a ban on nude sunbathing, but rather a bill under consideration by state legislators that would ban smoking at public parks and beaches.

The reason? Cigarette filters are made with tiny amounts of plastic, which add to a plastic littering problem along shorelines and in waterways.

While snack food wrappers are the biggest source of litter found during beach cleanups, butts are No. 2.

Volvo has always had a reputation for auto safety. But now its Polestar brand is setting itself up to be known for something else, by becoming the first climate neutral car and reaching that status in less than 10 years.

It's not just planning to buy carbon credits to offset the carmakers' emissions by planting trees.

"Offsetting is a cop-out," Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement. "By pushing ourselves to create a completely climate-neutral car, we are forced to reach beyond what is possible today. We will have to question everything, innovate and look to exponential technologies as we design toward zero."

To make it happen, Polestar is working with key suppliers, including plastics companies, to cut emissions in production of lighting, electronics, airbags and seat belts.

Our sister paper Automotive News has more on the collaboration for an auto industry "moonshot."