Kickstart: Russian materials maker Sibur continues to find markets

When plastics and rubber producers began pulling out of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, one of the materials firms left behind was Russia-based Sibur Holdings, a maker of elastomers, polyethylene and polypropylene.

Sibur also has a joint venture with Solvay, Rusvinyl, making 700 million pounds of PVC resin.

On July 26, Sibur spoke publicly, for the first time since the start of the war, about its operations during a conference call with investors, Bruce Meyer of our sister paper Rubber News writes.

"Company officials ... said during the call that the plastics part of the group has had to find new markets to sell its polypropylene because that material has been subject to economic sanctions from the European Union," Bruce writes.

"However, they added that Sibur's synthetic rubber and polyethylene lines aren't included in the sanctions that have been levied against Russia after the nation's unprovoked attack beginning Feb. 24 on neighboring Ukraine," so those operations have continued much as before, according to RN.

At K 2019, Sibur had said it was on its way to being Europe's No. 3 supplier of polyolefins.

A team of 20 volunteers from Toray Plastics (America) Inc. recently helped build a new house in South Kingston, R.I., for the South County Habitat for Humanity.

The team and the future homeowner raised and secured roof rafters and interior walls, applied house wrap, taped seams, installed blocking for kitchen cabinets and raised and secured roof trusses for a shed, Toray said in a news release.

John Eustis, vice president of procurement at Toray, brought the volunteer event to the company's attention, Christopher Roy, president and chief operating officer for Toray, said in the release.

"The tangible, long-lasting impact that Habitat has on the community is admirable and I am happy to play a small part in it. I was so pleased that my co-workers were eager to help," Roy said. Eustis and others who volunteered that day plan to volunteer again and do more work on the home.

Hasbro Inc. is making some exceptions to its plans for plastic-free packaging to appeal to toy collectors.

The company announced in 2019 it would eliminate plastics in its packaging, but for collectors who value their "mint in box" items, it will continue to use clear plastics for specific toy lines.

"Our goal does not include packaging for fan collectible products like 3.75-inch action figures, where packaging is part of the product experience and typically retained intact for fan display and collections," Hasbro told the website PopInsider during the recent Comic-Con International event in San Diego. "Those lines include Star Wars The Vintage Collection and Retro, as well as other collectible brands such as Marvel Retro and G.I. Joe Retro."

However, those thermoformed packages will only contain plant-based or recycled PET content to improve their carbon footprint.