Kickstart: Arriving at the Hall of Fame, even if you didn't expect to

There are engineers, educators, physicians, patent holders, toolmakers and technology leaders among the newest inductees in the Plastics Hall of Fame. Some found their way into the industry without really meaning to, while others were drawn to it early in their lives.

Chris Rauwendaal ended up in plastics — specifically the extrusion side of the business — simply because American Enka Corp. was the only company to respond to 100 resumes he'd sent out.

"I hadn't any idea what extrusion was about," he told Plastics News senior reporter Jim Johnson. "I had absolutely no preference at that point. I just wanted to work and make some money."

He has since gone on to write several books that are key to understanding extrusion technology.

Nearly all of the 17 inductees were surprised to find themselves headed into the hall, according to profiles written by Jim appearing in the May 6 print issue of PN and online now. (You can access all of the profiles and Hall of Fame news here.)

In addition to Rauwendaal, the other Hall of Fame members inducted during a May 5 ceremony in Orlando, Fla., in advance of NPE2024 are: Rainer Armbruster, Luigi Bandera, Joseph Biesenberger, Jacques Brandenberger, J. Michael Cude, Arthur Eichengrün, H. Joseph Gerber, Arthur P. Haag, Wendy Hoenig, Walter Kaminsky, Chihiro Kanagawa, Cato Laurencin, Wolfgang Meyer, G. Victor Sammet Sr., Nick R. Schott and Kurt Swogger.

The president of logistics company Simko North America has some bad news: Supply chain disruptions aren't going away anytime soon.

"I kind of pine for those 2018-19 days when we reached levels of 90 percent schedule reliability," Whitney Luckett said during her presentation at the American Chemical Society rubber division's spring technical meeting. "COVID [took us] down 10-20 percent. … [And] I think that, in the coming decade, we are going to long for the days of COVID."

Erin Pustay Beaven from our sister paper Rubber News was at the session and writes that Luckett stressed three key issues affecting supply chains: geopolitical unrest, climate change and rising costs. And all three are hitting at once.

The unrest involves actions by countries, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as nonstate actors such as those attacking cargo ships near the Suez Canal. Climate change has led to lower water levels in the Panama Canal, limiting cargo traffic there. Costs, meanwhile, are unstable. Luckett noted one shipment early in 2024 rose to $6,000 from $2,700.

"We need to think very differently about supply chains in the next five to 10 years," she said.

The New York Aquarium will be home to a traveling art exhibit about plastics in the ocean throughout the summer.

"Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea" features 35 different sculptures in 14 different scenes, all made of marine debris to highlight "the scale and impact of plastic pollution," the museum said in a news release.

The exhibit has plastic replicas of animals that are at the aquarium, such as a shark, penguin and a jellyfish bloom.

The exhibit is included in the price of regular admission and runs May 24 to Sept. 2.