Kickstart: A Honeywell trip down memory lane

I wrote a story last week about Honeywell International Inc. that prompted memories of a story I wrote back in 1999.

I interviewed Larry Bossidy, chairman and CEO of AlliedSignal Inc., for a feature for Plastics News' 10th anniversary.

An opportunity to talk with Bossidy was a big deal. He was one of several former General Electric managers who were running Fortune 500 companies. Other notable ones included Glen Hiner at Owens Corning and Stanley Gault at Rubbermaid. It was interesting for PN that all three were running companies with significant plastics businesses, just like Jack Welch at GE.

I flew to New York and rented a car to drive to Morristown, N.J., to meet Bossidy in person. We talked about his career, being a CEO, international trade and what he thought about the plastics business.

"We have a small engineering thermoplastics business, but between nylon and nylon films, now, I suppose we're close to $700 million in sales, which in the scheme of things is small. But we've made some nylon film acquisitions in the last couple of years," Bossidy said.

"I have been pretty bullish on plastics for a lot of years. I think the new applications are good, I think they continue to find ways to grow and I think the industry is innovative. I often wondered whether there would be more innovation in the steel industry — if they'd take back some things that went to plastics. But it doesn't seem to have occurred that way."

AlliedSignal acquired Honeywell Corp. later that year, and Bossidy retired in 2000, only to return a year later after GE tried — and failed — to buy Honeywell. Bossidy retired for good in 2002.

Honeywell spun off its nylon 6 and chemicals business to AdvanSix in 2017. But the Honeywell Aerospace and Advanced Materials units continue to have a presence in the plastics industry.

My story last week was about Honeywell's plans to split, separating its Automation and Aerospace businesses in addition to the previously announced separation of its Advanced Materials business.

It marks the end of an era, which makes sense since Wall Street doesn't love conglomerates these days. Still, it was a memorable experience meeting Bossidy and talking about plastics.

Consider this a new take on double vision.

Materials company Trinseo is working with an Italian supplier to the global eyeglasses industry to use chemically recycled acrylic in demonstration lenses. Lapo srl tested and approved Trinseo's Altuglas R-Life, which is an acrylic resin made with at least 86 percent recycled content, for the project.

Lapo's demonstration lenses are used in sample glasses that consumers try on to pick which pair they want. Founded in 1973, Lapo says it is the only company in Europe that produces presentation lenses for the eyewear sector. It currently molds more than 40 million presentation lenses annually. Its lenses are used for nylon frame glasses and rimless glasses.

"As a lens manufacturer for high-end eyewear, we are joining the sustainability journey with our customers and end-users," Luigi De Donà, owner of Lapo, said in a news release, adding that the project "paves the way for more sustainable solutions to come to life."

(Thanks to PN Managing Editor Rhoda Miel for this item.)

It looks like Poly-Pak Industries Group LLC may be the latest casualty of a state plastics ban. The Melville, N.Y., plastic bag maker is closing its factory on Long Island and laying off 146 workers, according to state filings.

The company isn't providing details yet, but it looks like it may be moving out of state. Whether that's because of New York's bag ban or the high cost of manufacturing on Long Island, we can just speculate at this point, although based on previous stories it looks like a combination of both.

Poly-Pak was part of a coalition of businesses in 2020 that unsuccessfully sued to block the state's plastic bag ban.

"We ask you to not destroy the livelihoods of our 300 employees," President Peter Levy told state officials during a 2020 public hearing on the bag ban.