Kickstart: Covering growth in roofing

Switzerland's Holcim Ltd. has been busy in the North American roofing market. Already known as the world's biggest cement maker, the company purchased Firestone Building Products in 2021 for $3.4 billion and with it a stake in commercial plastic and rubber commercial roofs. Early this year, it doubled down with the $1.3 billion acquisition of Duro-Last Inc., a Saginaw, Mich.-based maker of vinyl roofs for commercial and industrial properties.

It hasn't slowed down much since then.

In August, it purchased FDT Flachdach Technologie GmbH, the former Cooper Standard Technical Rubber GmbH, which, despite the name, is a leading manufacturer of thermoplastic roofs in Europe. It also acquired a fiberglass mat facility in Maryland this year.

Andrew Schunk from our sister paper Rubber News sums up all of Holcim's growth during the past two years, including $12 million in improvements at its thermoplastic polyolefin plant in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

"By 2026, our ambition is for the Holcim Building Envelope roofing and insulation segments … to see net sales of $6 billion," the company said in an email interview with RN. "Holcim's ambition to become the global leader in advanced roofing systems means growing through organic and inorganic channels."

Yosemite National Park in California made a big push to go single-use plastic-free in 2023, an effort led by the private company that supplies the park's foodservice operations.

Yosemite Hospitality LLC, part of Aramark, is the authorized concessioner of Yosemite. It cut single-use plastic bottle sales starting in January, offering items in glass or aluminum as an alternative, marking a "huge step forward in our sustainability efforts," Weston Spiegl, vice president of operations for Yosemite Hospitality, said in a news release.

Other efforts included replacing single-use plastic wrap for pallets with a heavy-duty reusable wrap; compostable packaging for sandwich, salad and snack packaging; and compostable packaging for s'mores kits.

The company said it is on track to cut all single-use plastics sales at Yosemite "well ahead" of a federal target of eliminating them on public lands and national parks by 2032.

First came friendship bracelets. Now crafty fans of the musician Taylor Swift — newly named Person of the Year for 2023 by Time — are taking on Christmas, creating garlands for Christmas trees out of plastic fishing line, plastic ball pit balls and foam that mimic the look of the bracelets.

While The Beadery, a Rhode Island-based injection molder of craft items including beads, says it's hard to specifically say if Swfties are responsible for a surge in bead sales, the craft shop Michael's told USA Today it saw increases in sales of up to 500 percent when the musician came to town.

The Christmas take on the bracelets is hard to measure at this point, although social media includes posts from individuals and groups about the program. Students at Caldwell Arts Academy, an elementary school in Tyler, Texas, created one as a fundraiser for Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital.

"If this were my tree, it would stay up all year," one student told the Tyler Intermediate School District.