Kickstart: Focusing on the future as the eurozone economy struggles in the present

Fakuma 2023 opens today in a very different European economy than its last session, in 2021.

Two years ago, companies were roaring back after pandemic shutdowns. Prices were going up, but inflation was just a whisper of a warning at that time. Russian troops mostly remained on their side of the Ukrainian border.

Now inflation is up, the workforce is under stress and promises of a more sustainable plastics future in Europe are coming up against demands to cut costs.

"The eurozone economy feels like it is teetering," Bill Wood, Plastics News' economics editor, writes in a column appearing in the first show daily of Fakuma 2023. "It is too early to say the entire economy is in a recession, but certain sectors are either already in contraction or very near to being in contraction."

That doesn't mean the entire economy — and the plastics industry as a whole — will post big drops in sales and revenue. Michael Wittmann, president of Wittmann Technology GmbH, said the Vienna-based machinery company may show an increase in deliveries because of sales booked in 2022 and early 2023.

And, Wittmann added, the company already is seeing signs of improvements for 2024.

Bill agrees the long-term economic signs in the eurozone appear strong as the industry redefines and reinvents itself.

"I am confident we can all get to a future that is sustainable and circular with a rising standard of living for everyone, and I am certain the bridge to that future is built mostly of plastic," he said.

You can find the full column online here or download PN show dailies from Fakuma 2023 — which is free — here.

When the massive AquaDom aquarium in Berlin burst in late 2022, killing 1,500 fish and damaging the building that housed it, early speculation was that cold temperatures outside the acrylic structure and warm water inside it caused damage to the structure.

Plastics researchers from IKT in Stuttgart now know that temperatures weren't to blame but say the cause of failure isn't clear.

As PN correspondent David Vink writes, Union Investment Real Estate GmbH, the owner of the building housing the aquarium and a Radisson hotel, called in IKT in January. Christian Bonten, who heads the institute, said in a new report that researchers have ruled out temperature difference, incorrect cleaning agents, seismic activity and sabotage.

We've been hearing a lot about autonomous driving on the roads. Honda wants to take autonomous driving to commercial lawn care.

For now, the Honda Autonomous Work Mower is a prototype, but the company holds the promise to help lawn care companies cope with labor shortages by allowing the equipment to run without the need for a worker driving it.

Mowers are manned the first time across a piece of land, then it can replicate the pattern in the future on their own. Cameras housed within a clear plastic box onboard scan for unexpected objects — including people wandering into the path — and will bring the mower to a stop as needed.

Top speed for the mower is 10 mph when it's manned, 6 mph when it's operating in autonomous mode, our sister paper Automotive News writes.