Kickstart: Robot truckers

Here's an idea to both accommodate the ongoing job shortage and facilitate an overloaded supply chain: robot trucks.

No, this isn't a Simpson's reference, although an episode in the 10th season of the cartoon TV series did see Homer taking a temporary job as a truck driver, only to discover there was an autopilot feature in the truck. In the real world, a University of Michigan study shows that autonomous trucks could potentially replace 90 percent of human driving needed in U.S. long-haul trucking.

A Bloomberg report on the study notes that there are a "handful of big ifs" to making the system work, but the bulk of freeway driving could be transferred to autonomous systems, especially in Southern states.

"If trucking companies focused only on America's Sun Belt, they could fairly easily offset 10 percent of human driving, the study shows," Bloomberg's Kyle Stock writes. "If they deployed the robots nationwide, but in warmer months only, half of the country's trucking hours could go autonomous."

Packaging suppliers of bowls used for meals made to go from the freezer to the microwave may benefit from future trends.

Consulting group Freedonia says demand for frozen specialty food packaging increased 5 percent in 2020 from 2019, partially driven by consumers who rediscovered frozen food as they began cooking more at home during the pandemic.

At the same time, consumers started looking for innovation in premium prepared foods categories, "think cauliflower pizza, zucchini pasta and organic and vegan meal bowls driven by shifting consumer perceptions about the healthfulness of frozen foods," Freedonia said in a news release.

Packaging suppliers ready with bowls for those meals — especially those that can be recycled — should be well placed for growth with those products.

Italy may be moving toward a national bottle deposit program.

Our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes that a coalition of local community governments, Association Comuni Virtuosi (ACV), is spearheading an effort along with environmental groups calling for the deposit system.

ACV says 7 billion beverage containers fail to be recycled each year and end up as litter. "This equals 119 beverage containers wasted by each Italian a year. A waste, says ACV, that Italy could reduce by 75-80 percent by adopting a deposit system," Sustainable Plastics writes.

Other countries in the European Union with a deposit program boast a 90 percent recycling rate for PET bottles, ACV says.