Kickstart: Two reuses beat one single-use

With the U.S. Congress now looking at ways to boost reusable packaging, this interview with fast-casual restaurant chain Just Salad about its reusable bowl program caught my eye.

Sustainability investment firm Closed Loop Partners interviewed the salad chain about its use of reusable (and sometimes returnable) bowls, and how it calculates the environmental impact they have vs. its single-use packaging options.

Sandra Noonan, its chief sustainability officer, said every packaging option has an environmental impact but the company's looking for the sweet spot of the fewest reuses.

"It takes energy to produce a piece of packaging, whether reusable or disposable," she told CLP. "Reusable packaging needs to be durable and long-lasting. Therefore, the carbon footprint from manufacturing it will be higher than for a flimsier, disposable container. What we're optimizing for is the overall, life cycle footprint of our reusable containers."

She said a life cycle analysis found that their reusable bowls — which this article says are made of plastic — have less global warming impacts compared to their single-use fiber bowls after just two uses.

The CLP article is a detailed look at some of the LCA assumptions they use, and how the company offers incentives like free toppings to get customers — or climatarians, as it calls those who make dining choices specifically with climate in mind — to start having their salad in reusable containers.

The company's innovations have gotten their fair share of media attention, like this World Economic Forum video and this article from our sibling publication Crain's New York Business.

Geoff Foster, CEO of plastics processor Core Technology Molding Corp., had a clear answer when asked what his North Carolina injection molding company is looking for in new hires — creativity tops the list.

Specifically, he's looking for the kind of outside-the-box thinking that would come up with hemp-based plastics.

During a roundtable interview with the state's Triad Business Journal's Todd Simmons about the highs and lows of manufacturing in North Carolina, Foster said he's looking for hires who are hungry and innovative.

Simmons: Geoff, you hire so much from North Carolina A&T and we just read in the Triad Business Journal that you have additional jobs that you want to be making available. What do you look for from those new staff members who come out and join an organization that's already very well known for quality and standards?

Foster: People that are hungry, but I think more important now we look for people who are innovative. We're not just using plastic injection molding; we're compounding hemp into the polymer to reduce the weight. So, with HAECO, with BMW, with Volvo, everybody wants a lighter vehicle. We're looking for employees who are thinking outside the box, not just your traditional conventional injection molding, but these are the opportunities that we're seeing, especially in North Carolina. There are so many hemp farmers in North Carolina, who are helping us work with nano engineering as well. Where they're helping us develop a product that is going to save millions of dollars for our customers. So, we want people who are innovative and not just looking for the traditional way of doing things.

This seems like one of those headlines that could get spun into a small-scale conspiracy theory: "Jeffrey Epstein's Paris apartment bought by plastics tycoon for $10.4M."

For the basic facts, according to Bloomberg, the Observer and other media reports, Bulgarian plastics company executive Georgi Tuchev has bought a 7,300-square-foot Paris apartment that Epstein formerly owned.

I bring up conspiracy theories because Epstein and his connections to elites in the world of politics and business have already spawned some far-fetched plots.

And now with the plastics treaty talks starting, you get the idea. Epstein, high-level U.N. meetings, billions of dollars in petrochemical business at stake, the sudden appearance of plastics industry money.

I don't know exactly what the conspiracy would be, but you could do your own research.

But more seriously, the reports said Epstein's estate is selling properties to compensate victims of his sex trafficking and crimes, and thus far has reportedly paid 136 victims about $121 million.

Tuchev, according to the reports and Dun & Bradstreet, owns the plastic packaging company Gotmar Ltd., which makes PET preforms and caps and packaging from polypropylene and PE, as well as molds and other plastic products.