Kickstart: The hard work of cleaning up

It isn't surprising that individual resin pellets are very tricky items to keep track of.

Even companies following every recommendation of Operation Clean Sweep, doing their best to seal off any point where pellets can slide out from gaylords or zip past filter systems, must know that a small minority of them still leak out from the manufacturing floor.

While there are bad actors out there who simply ignore pellet protocols, I think the majority of firms do their best but still struggle.

As PN's Steve Toloken writes, PolyJohn Enterprises Corp. — the self-proclaimed world's second-largest maker of portable toilets — has invested more than $100,000 on new equipment and staff to try and prevent spills into Lake George from its Whiting, Ind., plant.

But since pellets were first spotted at Lake George in 2020, continued scrutiny by the state has turned up other pellets and, just last month, gray rotomolding powder. The company handles 18 million pounds of resin each year, and if only a very, very small perentage of that escapes, it's still too much.

"The goal is zero, absolutely," Chief Operating Officer Sam Cooper said. "We cannot let our material leave the property. It's not being a good neighbor to the community."

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It's time to nominate the Women Breaking the Mold for 2022.

In writing about the process (and why we have the program), I mentioned that the few negative comments we receive whenever we focus on women or diversity come from men, but I should add that one of the most lingering words related to women in the workplace I have heard came from a woman who referred to a Plastics News staffer as a "little girl."

I point out to her that the person was a valued employee, not a child. While it's been a few years since then, I still get frustrated thinking about that exchange.

It wasn't just about that woman's comments and their implication that women are supposed to sound a certain way to be competent at their jobs. It was also a realization that I wasn't immune to that same line of thinking on occasion, making a biased assumption based on someone's voice or sense of style. I've worked on improving my internal judgments since then, though like everyone I'm not perfect. It's a process.

It certainly helps to read more about the variety of women in the industry and widen my own horizons. So let me prompt you again to nominate women in your organization, whether they are leaders today or if they may be the leaders of tomorrow. The deadline is June 20. Go to plasticsnews.com/wbmsurvey to start the process, and then be sure and read some profiles of past Women Breaking the Mold.

Additive manufacturing processes, including 3D printing, are getting some attention from the White House as President Joe Biden's administration pushes for support of an "AM Forward" strategy.

The "AM" refers to additive manufacturing. In a May 6 statement and a visit by Biden to a metal AM facility near Cincinnati, the president also said the processes help ease inflation by allowing more manufacturing close to home, reducing reliance on global supply chains.

To help small and midsize companies invest in AM, the Biden administration is pushing for programs to provide funding and technical assistance.