Kickstart: No more plastic poppies

All new commemorative poppy pins manufactured for Remembrance Day 2023 in the United Kingdom, Nov. 11, will be plastic free.

The Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal is an annual fundraising event for U.K. military members and veterans, linked to the end of World War I. (The U.S. refers to it as Veterans' Day.)

The group has spent three years developing a plastic-free poppy, replacing a stem and center button that had been made with plastics since the 1980s.

"Hundreds of iterations were explored during the design process, scrutinizing form, finish and usability," affiliate group Poppy Scotland said on its website. "Paper was chosen over expensive and complicated bio-based plastics to create a single-material solution that can be easily recycled."

The 2023 poppies can be dropped into regular recycling systems. Some plastic and paper poppies made previously are still on the market, but all manufacturing now will use only paper. Older poppies are being collected for recycling by the Sainsbury's retail chain.

NPE2024 will go beyond the trade show floor at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., to provide nearly 100 education programs.

Organizers with the Plastics Industry Association say the May 6-10 show will have a "new immersive learning journey on key topics" in the industry including workforce development, the circular economy and artificial intelligence. The sessions will be led by 60 industry representatives, Matt Seaholm, association president, said in a Nov. 6 news release.

The "spark stages" will feature three topics: bottling, innovation and sustainability.

In addition to discussions at the show floor, "off-floor sessions" will provide industry briefings from top executives, public policy updates including ongoing talks for the global plastics treaty and market trends discussions covering recycling and materials.

The new events will require Expo Pass or Expo Plus registration levels.

One of the first big successes for plastics, the billiard ball, may have required a higher degree of engineering and chemistry capabilities than previously expected.

According to a new paper published at PNAS News, researchers at Nova University Lisbon were able to use x-ray spectroscopy, a scanning electronic microscope, optical microscopy and other new technology to look more closely at five billiard balls made by John Wesley Hyatt in the 1860s as a replacement for ivory balls. The balls are part of the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

"The objects [are] frequently described as the earliest manufactured plastic products," researchers said.

The "complex composition" of the balls showed that the balls were made not just with celluloid but were a composite of ground bone (from cattle) cellulose nitrate and camphor.

"Previous discussions of the origins and early development of plastics have overlooked the complexity and success of these efforts," the researchers noted.