Kickstart: A museum exhibit looks at plastics today from the 'future'

A new museum exhibit featuring plastics that is making its debut in the United Kingdom this month isn't so much a celebration of a historical event, but rather something that could fall into the realms of speculative fiction.

The Solway Hoard pretends to be an exhibit from the future looking back at what it calls "the age of plastics" between 1950 and 2050. It is part of "The Museums of the FutureNow," which examines current issues by pretending it is studying the past from a future time period.

The Solway Hoard presents itself as a cache of plastics discovered in 3022, long after — according to its story — plastics were banned. A website accompanying the exhibit includes descriptions of plastic items such as toys, beads, spoons and other objects, although the text is fictional.

A description of resin pellets, for instance, refers to them as being used "in organized crime circles as a secure form of money after the collapse of the digital currencies of the late 24th century."

The exhibit runs at Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery in Dunbar, Scotland, through June 23.

Gerd Liebig has been a mainstay for the global plastics industry for decades. After 33 years in the industry — previously with Engel Group and now CEO of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag — he's set to retire at the end of this summer, but he still has big goals.

Rather than developing and selling injection molding presses, however, Liebig will be selling an entire town on the value of green energy.

In a Q&A with Plastics News' Catherine Kavanaugh, Liebig talked about his volunteer work as a board member of Energy Efficiency Enns (EEG Enns) in his hometown of Enns, Austria. He has invested in geothermal energy and solar power for his own home.

"It's not enough to wait for instructions and decisions from the top; every citizen can change something," Liebig said.

A child care advocacy group recently conducted a poll of companies in five counties in West Michigan. It found that 100 percent of those companies supported state action to help fill a child care shortage that is affecting worker retention.

Eighty percent of those companies said they were interested in partnering with the state, but only 5 percent of them are currently participating in the MI Tri-Share Program, which splits child care costs among parents, employers and the state. Some companies said they support working parents through vouchers or contributions to flexible savings accounts, Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Vibrant Futures said.

One company in the program, injection molder Cascade Engineering, said it has already paid for itself, according to our sister paper Crain's Grand Rapids Business.

"The benefits of Tri-Share have far exceeded the cost of the program," said Cascade CEO Christina Keller. "One of our employees said they would never leave Cascade because of the program."

So what's keeping more employers from providing child care benefits? The Vibrant Futures report said businesses worry that employees without child care issues would feel they were not being treated fairly if they didn't receive an equivalent benefit.