Kickstart: A more complicated Pride Month

Corporate PR releases for Pride Month are landing in a very different cultural atmosphere in 2023.

While recent years have heard complaints about "rainbow washing" — essentially accusing companies of waving a flag to praise LGBTQ employees without any substantial changes in the way they do business — this year, companies are facing boycotts, backlashes and more.

The bulk of firms in plastics do not serve the public directly so they likely wouldn't face the same reactions as retailer Target or beermaker Budweiser, but that doesn't mean there are zero risks this year.

"From a corporate point of view, it was basically costless (in the past). They spend more money on doughnuts," Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan, told Eleanor Hawkins and Nathan Bomey of the website Axios. "Now it's becoming more costly," he added. "Now we're going to see who is actually committed to Pride causes."

There are real benefits to embracing Pride, companies say. Avon Lake, Ohio-based Avient Corp., marking its third year participating in Pride month, says telling the stories of its LGBTQ employees allows it to "build empathy and collaboration" in the workforce.

"The support that Pride receives from internal stakeholders allows associates to come together and advance equality in the workplace," Rochelle Richendollar, senior manager of financial systems and accounting at Avient, says in a post on the Avient website.

3D printing is being used by an alternative energy company that wants to harness the power of the sea.

The WAVR Wave Energy Converter is a lightweight plastic concept that floats and collects the power generated by the waves through a series of hinges. So far the Hawaii-based company has demonstrated a small version of the WEC, but says that by linking a series of those devices — similar to a solar energy array — it could be used to power larger devices or store power for future use.

Areas with vast access to water, such as Hawaii, could use a WAVR system as part of its energy supply, the company says. The devices also could use solar panels or small wind turbines to add to its energy collection.

"It would be a major step forward if wave energy can be harnessed along with other renewable energy technologies like solar and wind," John Waihee, the former governor of the state, who is now an advisor to the company, told the website Dezeen.

And while we're thinking about more the ocean to improve sustainability, scientists in the United Kingdom think they may have a way to make it easier to collect microplastics.

The website Science.org notes that Pennie Lindeque of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and her colleagues found that blue mussels are able to digest microplastics then, essentially, poop it out. The advantage is that now the microplastics are part of a much heavier … load … so they sink and are easier to collect and dispose of properly.

The team reported that the mussels in its study filtered about 240 microplastic particles per day.

The laboratory first began studying mussels' potential to filter plastics in 2019.