Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Bioplastics Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • PFAS Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
    • Europe - Virgin
    • Europe - Recycled
    • Europe - Feedstock
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Kickstart
July 01, 2021 08:30 AM

Kickstart: Alohomora plasticum!

Don Loepp
Editor
Plastics News Editor
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Kickstart: Alohomora plasticum!

    Harry Potter fans will recognize that I'm kicking off today's Kickstart with a spell, and that's in honor of Emma Watson, aka Hermione Granger, who made headlines in the world of plastics this week.

    Watson is part of a high-powered group of investors who are putting $12.5 million into FabricNano, a company that's working to commercialize "cell-free biomanufacturing" technology.

    The company's first product is 1,3-propanediol, a polyester precursor. FabricNano says its cell-free DNA-based flow reactor produces biochemicals by engineering enzymes with the ability to bind directly to DNA.

    Other investors in the project include Twitter founder Biz Stone.

    Investing in training

    The American Institute of Injection Molding in Erie, Pa., has just graduated the first class in its plastic process technician apprenticeship program.

    The two-year program was developed in collaboration with 12 plastics companies in northwest Pennsylvania to respond to a need for more skilled workers.

    The program earned the 2019 Outstanding Group Apprenticeship Program Award by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry's Apprenticeship and Training Office. It's already being considered a model for other regions.

    Injection molder Viking Plastics in Corry, Pa., was one of the companies supporting the effort. Ted Mickel, a second-shift material handler at Viking, was one of 10 students in the first graduating class.

    Mickel said he signed up for the apprenticeship "because it was an opportunity that I wouldn't have taken on my own. It also put me in a different financial bracket and a better position to help my family. The program helped me work toward better problem-solving skills, by starting with the basics and working toward more complex solutions. Sometimes it's better to start with the basics to be able to build toward more complex solutions in the future."

    Viking Plastics President and CEO Kelly Goodsel, who helped design the program, added: "Witnessing the graduation was very rewarding. Watching Ted Mickel's growth at Viking Plastics and seeing organizations in northwestern Pennsylvania committing to and sustaining this apprenticeship program makes all the efforts to get the program off the ground worthwhile."

    There's an often-repeated adage about training, attributed to Henry Ford: "The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay."

    Getty Images
    "New York City, USA - April 13, 2012: Single serving, coffee k-cups, also known as pods for Keurig coffee makers are a billion dollar industry. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, who partnered with leading rivals, such as Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts lose billion dollar patent on K-cups in Sept 2012. Starbucks and Green Mountain announced an expansion of their partnership with the Starbucks branded Vue packs and Verismo single cup coffee due to hit retailers by fall of 2012."
    Deep dive into a sustainability report

    With all the talk about plastics sustainability in the business world, corporate responsibility reports are getting a little more interesting, if you're willing to dive into the details.

    Take yesterday's from Keurig Dr Pepper. The company announced that 100 percent of its K-Cup coffee pods are made from polypropylene, which is a step forward from the multilayer packaging it replaces.

    But PP remains challenging for curbside recycling systems, and KDP alluded to that.

    It said it was working on a pilot with local recycling programs to use RFID technology to separate K-Cup pods in recycling streams.

    In the weeds of the report, there are other interesting details that show how much remains to be done.

    It says that last year, for example, only 2 percent of KDP's plastic packaging was made up of post-consumer content (that's compared to 22 percent across all of its packaging materials). The company's goal is 25 percent post-consumer content by 2025.

    Similarly, KDP's recently announced plan to cut its virgin plastics use by 20 percent by 2025 has a ways to go. Last year its virgin plastics was only down 1 percent, from a 2019 baseline.

    But other plastics sustainability initiatives in the report seem to be showing more progress.

    The U.S. Plastics Pact, which KDP is part of, has a goal of phasing out what it considers hard-to-recycle plastics materials, those that have weak end markets.

    Along those lines, KDP said it had virtually eliminated polystyrene from its packaging mix last year. It was a quick drop, from 6 percent of the packaging portfolio in 2018 to 0.2 percent last year.

    And the report shows how definitions matter.

    KDP says in big print that 74 percent of its plastic packaging was recyclable or compostable in 2020.

    Sounds good, but in the fine print, KDP acknowledges that only 50 percent was actually recyclable, if you use the more stringent definition of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's plastics work.

    EMF requires a 30 percent recycling rate for a package to be effectively — not just technically — recycled.

    Clearly, progress is happening but more work needs to be done.

    Thanks to Assistant Managing Editor Steve Toloken for contributing this item on KDP. We will both be glad to have our regular Kickstart writer Rhoda Miel back on the job tomorrow.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Kickstart: Materials companies come in for praise, criticism in sustainability
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    An 8,000-ton dream for Milacron, 20/20 Custom Molded Plastics
    2
    US Merchants opens curtain on growing injection molding operations
    3
    Report: Tekni-Plex may be for sale
    4
    Rising costs prompt delay in Corpus Christi PET plant construction
    5
    Plastics processors face automation needs, sustainability demands
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Find more newsletters at plasticsnews.com/newsletters.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Bioplastics Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • PFAS Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
      • Europe - Virgin
      • Europe - Recycled
      • Europe - Feedstock
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified