Kickstart: Rougher roads ahead

Auto suppliers have always walked a tightrope when it comes to getting enough profit to support their growth, but not so much that automakers abandon them in favor of cheaper alternatives.

That tightrope may be shrinking.

A new analysis by the consulting firm AlixPartners notes that supply shortages — especially for computer chips — are likely to continue in the auto industry through 2024. Suppliers also haven't yet recovered from higher material costs.

Beyond those issues, though, suppliers may find themselves cut out of some future vehicle production. Automakers are making their own investments to produce battery systems and other new parts for electric vehicles. That's a switch from current practices that see suppliers making key under-the-hood parts like ducts, tanks and engine parts.

"Suppliers are particularly vulnerable ... including battery and technology suppliers ... as automakers chose to make more of the new components themselves to transition plants and people skills to [EVs]," the report notes, adding that suppliers will have access to only 28 percent of new powertrain production.

Turning used plastic bottles into new plastic bottles has been a sustainable goal for years. Maybe turning waste plastic into plastic waste bins falls into that same category.

One of the winners of the 2022 Plastics Recycling Awards Europe on June 23 was Dutch housewares molder Brabantia Branding BV for its StepUp Pedal Bin trash can, made with 91 percent post-consumer polypropylene.

The bin also is 99 percent recyclable, the company says, and it is available with labeling that makes it easy to also use it to store plastics for recycling back into new products.

You can find a wrapup of all the awards here from Karen Laird of our sister paper Sustainable Plastics.

 

James Bond — or at least one of the actors who has portrayed 007 — is taking on the importance of disposing of your plastics using environmentally-appropriate practices.

Pierce Brosnan and his son, Paris, appear in a new public service announcement from the United Nations Environment Program calling on viewers to encourage their governments to sign a global plastics treaty.

In the video, both father and son note plastics that have already entered the environment, but also acknowledge the important role plastics have played in helping to combat COVID-19 and other issues.

The video is part of an advertising campaign called "Plastic is Forever… so it's time to get clever about managing it."