Kickstart: Automotive fashion

The North American International Auto Show has two major elements: the preview days with press conferences and supplier events — beginning today — and the public days when anyone can buy a ticket and check out the cars and trucks for themselves — running Sept. 17-25.

But between those two big showcases is the Charity Preview, a black-tie event that isn't too far off from Detroit's version of a red-carpet showcase for fashion and industry. This year, at least one element of that fashion event will involve recycled plastics.

On Sept. 16, International Automotive Components Group Chief Administrative Officer Iwona Niec Villaire will wear a bespoke gown made using a microfiber derived from recycled polyester and jewelry made from molded-in-color ocean plastics.

Materials were selected by Susan Kozora, IAC's director of advanced engineering, and Michael Behnke, director of innovation and advanced technology in Europe. Urszula Olkiewicz, a junior trim engineer at IAC's Opole, Poland, facility, then used those materials and an initial design from Villaire to create the gown. Olena Korolova, sewing production operator in Opole, also developed a tie from those same materials that will be worn by IAC Chief Commercial Officer Sebastian de Coster.

The latest supply chain complication for the U.S. may be the railroads.

As you likely already have heard, the 57,000 members of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) is threatening to strike railroad firms BNSF and Union Pacific.

A federal "cooling off period" between the workers and rail companies ends Sept. 16, raising the potential of a strike by the end of this week.

The sticking point seems to be sick time and other paid time off.

Union Pacific officials said it "continues to push for a prompt resolution that provides historic wage increases to employees and allows the railroads to prevent further disruption to the struggling supply chain," according to CNBC.

In a column from Plastics News Economics Editor Bill Wood that will appear in next week's print issue of PN, Wood notes that "any strike by railroad workers would result in pressures on the U.S. supply chain to rise again."

Film recycling programs aren't easy to implement. Bags and other film get caught in the machinery of standard plastics recycling equipment. They contaminate bins filled with otherwise good PET bottle.

But that doesn't mean it's impossible to create one.

PN's Catherine Kavanaugh has a story about a small community recycling program in northern Michigan that added a film recycling program in 2010 that moves 20 tons of polyethylene film per month in the warm summer months when the population swells because of tourists in Emmet County. During the colder months, it manages to collect and recycle 20 tons every 45 to 60 days.

But to make that happen — and make money — the county had to create a very specialized collection system and spend a lot of time educating residents.

"We would never accept a recyclable without having an end market. That's something we've learned after doing this more than 30 years," Lindsay Walker, market development and commercial accounts manager at Emmet County Recycling, told Catherine. Find out more about the program here.