Kickstart: As Arburg looks globally, Connecticut heads to Lossburg

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont paid a visit to injection molding machine maker Arburg GmbH + Co. KG's German headquarters on a recent overseas trade trip.

Executives from Arburg, which has its U.S. headquarters in Rocky Hill., Conn., and Lamont and his aides met July 17 and talked about the German firm's apprenticeship training program, how the U.S. is the largest market for Arburg outside its home country and, of course, the U.S. presidential election, Arburg said in a news release.

And, while this wasn't in the official talking points, I'm sure Lamont and his economic development staff were keenly interested in a recent announcement from Arburg that the company will start building its first manufacturing plants outside Germany.

Arburg, which long bucked the trend from its competitors for global factory locations, now says China will be first but then it will consider options in North America. You can get an idea of Connecticut's pitch here, touting the state as a "social and economic culture that feels 'genau wie zu Hause,'" or just like home.

Here's another kind of political visit revolving around plastics.

Advocates for addressing climate and plastic pollution – and more importantly their kids – came to Washington July 23 for a "play-in" and congressional lobby day.

Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres held a "play-in" at the National Children's Museum in Washington, where the kids had a chance to explore and everyone else heard from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va.; and Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of Beyond Petrochemicals.

The group also heard from Eva Lighthiser, one of 16 youth and teen plaintiffs who won a lawsuit against the state of Montana requiring it to give more consideration to climate impacts on future generations in its environmental reviews.

Then, the adults and kids took an electric school bus to Capitol Hill to press their case for legislation to reduce emissions from petrochemical plants, cut plastic pollution and address climate change.

"We must do something to ensure the future of our children and public health, especially protecting children of color who are some of the most vulnerable to the effects of petrochemicals," said McTeer Toney.

The average foodservice transaction in a U.S. national park generates eight disposable items. As a regular visitor to our parks, that's disturbing.

But building out reuse systems in beautiful, remote locations has always been a challenge. Now, with a $400,000 grant, Grand Canyon National Park wants to be the first.

The iconic park in Arizona, working with the reuse advocacy group Upstream and concessionaire partners, say they aim to build the first reuse system for both dine-in and takeout foodware in a national park.

The two-and-a-half-year project, funded by the National Park Foundation, aims to be replicable in other parks. It's part of a bigger Department of the Interior effort to phase out single-use plastics on public lands.

"This is a huge win for the reuse movement and a win-win-win for our national parks and its surrounding communities," said Upstream CEO Crystal Dreisbach. "Our project team is not only going to show significant positive impact in Grand Canyon National Park from a waste, carbon and jobs standpoint, but we're creating a microcosm of the circular economy that we want to see everywhere."