Kickstart: Plastics and pickleball

Have I played pickleball? No. But have I heard of pickleball? Yes. The sport has been exploding in popularity recently, making itself known even to people who don't play it.

Even NBA star LeBron James is getting into the game, with James' LRMR Venture investment arm buying a major league pickleball team "as part of an all-star consortium" that also includes Kevin Love and Draymon Green, Scott Suttel of our sister paper Crain's Cleveland Business writes.

But I didn't realize until recently just how much the sport uses plastics.

Let's start with the balls, typically made with a hard plastic — primarily low density polyethylene — or occasionally a foam for indoor play. The best balls, according to most websites, are made using rotational molding, since injection molded balls that are welded together can break apart during repeated play.

Then there are the paddles, typically made with a plastic inner core such as polypropylene, and a cover using fiberglass, carbon fiber, graphite or some combination of those materials. The material selection and composition are vital, according to the website Pickleball Effect, because they affect the size of each paddle's "sweet spot," as well as power and speed during play.

So as the sport continues to grow, expect more investments in plastics to keep players in the game.

For a character who lives in a pineapple under the sea, you'd expect that SpongeBob SquarePants would be interested in preventing marine pollution. And while SpongeBob may be an animated children's cartoon character, his creator, Stephen Hillenburg, was a marine biologist who took keen interest in the health of the oceans.

So the involvement of the cartoon characters' owners, Paramount Consumer Products and Nickelodeon, in a new project called SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Sea Change shouldn't be a surprise.

"This multiyear global initiative will spark a sea change by funding global cleanup work, promoting sustainable products and educating millions of fans on how they can help protect the undersea home of all creatures," the groups said in a news release announcing the program launch.

The effort also enlisted support from Jenna Jambeck, the University of Georgia professor of environmental engineering who has been involved with multiple sustainability studies and programs.

"Plastic waste affects all kinds of marine life," Jambeck says in a video introducing Operation Sea Change. "We can all do our part. Our small actions collectively can make a big impact on the oceans."

Operation Sea Change has a target of removing and diverting 5 million pounds of ocean plastic over the next four years. Paramount also will assess the plastic footprint of its SpongeBob products, including commissioning a study on the packaging and materials used.

Sheet extruder Primex Plastics Corp. is planning a memorial mural made from recycled yard signs to honor a police officer killed in the line of duty.

Seara Burton, a K-9 officer in Richmond, Ind., was shot during a traffic stop in August and died Sept. 18, local television station WRTV reported.

Primex announced on social media that it will set out bins at its Richmond plant to collect yard signs and wire and transform them into a mural.

Primex will have its collection site open until Oct. 14.