Kickstart: Recycling your boat

We're only halfway through February, but for anyone dreaming of days on the water, boat builder Brunswick Corp. is out with news that it is developing a recyclable composite boat using Arkema's thermoplastic liquid resin in all of its composite parts, core and adhesives.

"The project is part of Brunswick's enterprise-wide sustainability program and is expected to allow for hull and structural components to be fully recycled at end of life and reintroduced into production processes, reducing the amount of disposable material and sourcing of virgin raw materials," Mettawa, Ill.-based Brunswick said in a news release.

The Boston Whaler-brand boat will be shown during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in October in Florida. The companies have not disclosed what model of boat will be shown, or when it would potentially go into production.

A global auto supplier may be in trouble.

Bloomberg reports that Marelli — the company created from the merger of Italy-based Magnetti Marelli and Japan's Calsonic Kansei in 2019 — is in talks with its lenders to restructure its debts.

Marelli had at least $9.5 billion in debts as of September, Bloomberg reports.

Marelli, with more than $100 million in injection molding sales in North America, putting it at No. 80 in Plastics News' most recent ranking, has been investing in technology that will make it a leading player in future vehicles. That includes "smart" exterior panels such as grilles and bumper fascia that integrate lighting, sensors and advanced driver assistance systems.

But the company has been badly hurt by the combination of COVID-19-related shutdowns, computer chip shortages that have caused turmoil in production schedules and its debt load.

KKR & Co., the private financial company that owns Marelli, told Bloomberg it "believes in Marelli" and its work.

On March 28, Plastics News will have its second listing of the most interesting social media accounts in the plastics industry. That could include LinkedIn posts used to keep your customers — and potential customers — up to date on new technology, or Twitter posts to let your neighbors know about community service days.

I always get a kick out of seeing company Facebook posts on staff picnics or Halloween costume contests. (There are a lot of creative machine operators out there.) Maybe you prefer Instagram to keep in touch with your employees.

PN staffers see a lot of social media accounts. I've found a lot of content for Kickstart from social media mentions, too.

What exactly falls under the term "interesting" is very flexible. Perhaps you enjoy following posts that are not specifically about the industry, but instead posts that reflect the concerns of people related to sustainability. That could be from major nonprofits such as Oceana and Greenpeace or individuals like "traashboyyy" on TikTok, who documents his daily walks around his neighborhood to collect trash and recyclables.

We'd love to hear from you about what you find interesting. You can nominate yourself or someone you follow at plasticsnews.com/social. Nominations are open until March 7.