Kickstart: Capturing plastics

Not every project created to keep plastics out of the environment needs to be big.

While visiting family in Florida last week, I happened across a small collection net and buoy system at a local park that is part of the Texas-based Watergoat trash barrier. Watergoat creators note that their systems are easy to deploy and maintain.

But how much difference, I wondered, could one small net make?

Quite a bit, it turns out. The Watergoat at that park collected nearly 2,400 pounds of trash — including plastics — during 2023, its first year in action. And it required only 97 volunteer hours vs. 1,300 hours previously spent on manually collecting trash along the water.

Bigger collection programs, obviously, do lead to bigger results.

TerraCycle Global Foundation — part of recycler TerraCycle, best known for partnering with global brands to collect hard-to-recycle plastics — said in a Feb. 6 news release that it has hit a milestone of diverting 2 million pounds of waste from waterways in Thailand.

And just this morning, United Kingdom-based Prevented Ocean Plastic Programme announced it has stopped 2.5 billion bottles from reaching waterways through its network of 19 collection centers along coastlines since it launched in 2019.

Obviously, it would be a lot better if plastics didn't escape into the environment in the first place, but it's good to see that backup systems are making a difference, too.

Mergers and acquisitions seem to be picking up speed in the medical industry.

Sweden's Trelleborg AB just wrapped up the acquisition of Baron Group, an injection molder of silicone and plastics for products targeting sleep apnea, respiratory care and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Baron has manufacturing in Australia and Asia.

Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Stryker Corp. told analysts in late January that it intends to become more active in M&A in 2024, due, in part, to growth in outpatient surgery centers.

CEO Kevin Lobo said Stryker has "a long list of [acquisition] targets and we're going to be active now that we've gotten our [debt levels] back to where we'd like to be," our sister paper Crain's Grand Rapids Business reported.

In addition, C2Dx Inc., a "serial acquirer" of specialty medical devices in Schoolcraft, Mich., recently received a cash infusion from private equity that will support its growth through M&A, Crain's Grand Rapids noted.

Country musician Toby Keith once said his 2011 hit "Red Solo Cup" was "the stupidest song that I have ever heard in my life," but it still went triple platinum, selling more than 3 million copies. For the company making the iconic plastic party cup, the song cemented the container's status as an icon in American pop culture.

Keith, who died of stomach cancer on Feb. 5 at age 62, did not write the song (it came from a team of four songwriters: Brett Warren, Brad Warren, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers) but it fit well with what the New York Times termed Keith's "in-your-face persona."

Solo Cup has been in business since 1936, with the plastic cup patented in 1976. The company was purchased by Dart Container Corp. in 2012.