Kickstart: Recognition is nice, but statistics show women's pay still lags

A lot of companies spent March 8 celebrating the women in their workforce as part of International Women's Day. Here at Plastics News, that meant we got a lot of news releases and saw a lot of social media posts from companies and associations praising their female employees.

But let's take a moment to remember that social media praise isn't as important as action.

The data gurus at Statista marked the day by sending out a reminder of this sobering statistic: Women still make less than men — on average — for the same work, 84 cents vs. $1. Black, Hispanic and Native American women fare even worse: 67 cents for Black women and 57 cents for Latina and Indigenous women. Asian American women fare best in comparison with their male counterparts at 92 cents vs. the dollar, but that's still less than the average white, non-Hispanic man.

"The money females in the U.S. earn compared to men has been increasing slowly in recent years, especially for Asian women," Statista data journalist Katharina Buchholz wrote on the site. "However, at a rate of a 2-cent increase per year, Latina [and Native American] women would still have to wait another 22 years for pay parity."

I spent a good chunk of the last two weeks camped out at a friend's place thanks to a power outage that had my own home without electricity or heat for nine days. And during that time, I — like I'm sure many others — pondered whether it was time to supplement the regular power supply with solar panels.

It's not as easy as just popping on a few panels, of course. To begin with, most home-based solar power systems are still part of a grid. Without your own on-site power storage system — using lithium-ion battery systems such as those using Entek Manufacturing's battery separator film, which is part of the growing demand for its products — you still rely on your local utility.

But demand for solar is growing. One study expects the solar power business to grow more than 20 percent in the U.S. this year, although the U.S. Energy Information Administration says only 3.4 percent of power in the U.S. comes from solar currently, so even predicted double-digit growth will be small.

Twenty percent growth still means big opportunities, though, and injection molder Revere Plastic Systems LLC has a new partner, Plan A Solar, to bring the Powerhouse solar shingles roof system back to the market in time for an increasing market. Powerhouse was developed by Dow Inc. originally, but Revere has been involved in the production since 2019. PN's Catherine Kavanaugh has more on Revere's work to bring it back to market.

Anyone have a good way to repurpose millions of dollars worth of sneakers?

Sportswear giant Adidas AG finds itself facing its first financial loss in more than 30 years because it has more than $500 million in shoes and clothing related to the Yeezy brand after it broke ties with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West (now going by Ye) after he made a series of antisemitic remarks.

But CNN reported that in financial statements released March 8 that Adidas "could perform better this year if it 'repurposes' some of its Yeezy products, the company said without elaborating."