Kickstart: New rules to protect the world's oceans

There's been a lot of news happening lately on — and in — the world's oceans. One item from this week that hasn't gotten the same headlines is the United Nations' vote to approve the "high seas treaty" aimed at protecting the world's oceans.

The agreement covers 75 specific articles for "protecting, caring for and ensuring the responsible use of the marine environment," the U.N. said in a news release.

"The ocean is the lifeblood of our planet, and today, you have pumped new life and hope to give the ocean a fighting chance," the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a June 19 statement as delegates adopted the treaty.

Individual countries will retain jurisdiction over pollution issues within their own territorial waters. The new treaty covers international waters.

Among other actions, the treaty addresses the estimated 17 million metric tons of plastic that enter the world's oceans each year.

"The treaty aims at strengthening resilience and contains provisions based on the polluter-pays principle as well as mechanisms for disputes," U.N. officials said in the news release. "Under the treaty's provisions, parties must assess potential environmental impacts of any planned activities beyond their jurisdictions."

In case you haven't seen it yet, this week's print issue of Plastics News features rankings of the 100 largest injection molders in North America. Next week's issue includes rankings for smaller companies. In total, we track nearly 600 molders.

Hollee Keller, our editorial research coordinator, noted some interesting trends from the hundreds of surveys submitted by molders. As she notes in her All Things Data blog, the majority of molders saw improved sales in 2022 — in total up by an average of about 5 percent.

And while the top 100 molders may get more attention, there's no doubt that smaller companies have an impact.

"Less than a quarter of the total related sales are from firms with less than $79 million," Hollee writes in a column set to run in the June 26 issue. "These smaller-in-sales-but-much-bigger-in-numbers companies represent 83 percent of the total count."

The SPE Foundation has named four new board members to serve three-year terms: Albert McGovern, Steve Zamprelli, Matt Urfali and Greg Adams.

The foundation focuses on educational efforts related to plastics such as grants, scholarships and interactive programs such as PlastiVan visits. The foundation also has been involved in STEM education outreach and worked to develop the Girl Scout Wonders of Polymer Science patch program.

The four new members join eight existing board members.

"All board members play a crucial role in our vision to broaden our network and resources. By partnering with individuals and corporations, we aim to expand the reach of the Foundation's initiatives in educating society about the wide-ranging benefits of plastics," Board Chairman Matthew Harthcock said in a news release.