Kickstart: Following ups and downs of European resin prices

Nearly all Plastics News readers are familiar with our North American resin pricing. Now we're also offering the same information for Europe.

David Platt, correspondent for our sister publication Sustainable Plastics, has been tracking polymer pricing for our plastics brands in Europe since 2005. He started with virgin resins, including different grades of polyethylene, plus polypropylene, PVC and polystyrene. In late 2021, he added coverage for recycled resins.

I'm a big fan of David's pricing coverage. He does a good job explaining the market and the forces impacting supply, demand and pricing. While the trends are often similar to what we see in North America, there are often major differences.

While we had years of excellent data and analysis, we haven't been doing a very good job of sharing it. So when we tackled some major improvements to our North American prices section online, we took the opportunity to add the European data, too.

For a primer, check out the column that David wrote explaining how he covers pricing. We launched the European prices on Plastics News' website this month, and we'll introduce the section on the Sustainable Plastics website very soon.

In the meantime, if you're one of the few Kickstart readers who isn't familiar with PN's North American pricing, check out our resin prices page and Frank Esposito's column about how he covers pricing. Frank's had the pricing beat since 1997 (even longer than David) and I swear he knows more people in the North American plastics industry than just about anyone.

Speaking of people who know everyone in plastics, I think Steve Toloken might give Frank a run for his money when it comes to industry contacts. Steve's been covering plastics and policy, in Washington, D.C., and around the world, for PN since 1997.

Our readers benefit from that institutional knowledge in our monthly Plastics in Politics editorial livestreams, where we talk about issues in the news and readers get to ask questions.

This month's livestream, which is happening today, has a full agenda and a special time. We'll start the broadcast at 10 a.m. Eastern time instead of our usual 2 p.m. because Steve will be at the Product Stewardship Institute's annual EPR conference for the latest on state-level producer responsibility policies for packaging.

Expect discussions on the first draft of the United Nation's plastics treaty, a possible Environmental Protection Agency risk evaluation for vinyl chloride and its impact on the PVC sector, and debate over new Toxic Substances Control Act rules covering pyrolysis-based chemical recycling.

It's time to sign up for Plastics News' annual Best Places to Work awards. We've been doing this special report since 2014, and it's a great way both to measure your company against its peers and honor the firms that stand out as great places to work.

The awards are open to plastics processors and suppliers that have at least 15 full- or part-time permanent employees working in the United States or Canada, and that have been in business for at least one year. Companies must generate a minimum of 50 percent of their revenue from plastics-related activities.

This year we're teaming up with Workforce Research Group on the awards. The deadline for registration is Oct. 13.

We will let the companies know who qualified as a Best Place to Work early next year, and we announce the rankings and honor all the companies at an awards ceremony in March at the PN Executive Forum in Clearwater Beach, Fla.