Kickstart: An udder mystery

Rustlers have made off with a cow from a field in rural England, but this isn't just any cow. It's a plastic cow.

"Between Tuesday 14 January and Tuesday 28 January 2025, a life-size plastic cow was stolen from a field in the area," the North Yorkshire Police said on its website. "The cow is a heavy, solid plastic structure, making it exceptionally difficult to remove."

The cow's owner, who asked not to be identified, told the BBC the thieves must have had a truck and heavy equipment to nab the polyethylene Holstein. They left behind two plastic sheep in the same field.

"I'm assuming it's drunk kids who've done it for a bit of a laugh," the farmer said.

The police said they would "appreciate any sightings of this 'moooving' cow [their words, not mine] and any details that could help us return it to its rightful owner."

There's a new competitor in the prescription vial market and it intends to take over from plastics.

Tully Tube from Parcel Health Inc. of Pittsburgh replaces the typical plastic container with a paper tube it says can withstand humidity and pressure and be filled using the same equipment as plastic packaging. Parcel says the container is coated with a "water-resistant, food-safe and compostable coating."

The Tully Tube still relies on a plastic closure — made with recycled materials — but users can release the plastic from the paper and drop the paper package directly into curbside recycling or composting operations. The cap can be recycled "according to local recycling guidelines."

Parcel also announced a pilot program with Allegheny Health Network (AHN) to begin filling prescriptions in Tully Tubes.

AHN includes medical providers in 29 Pennsylvania counties and portions of New York, Ohio and West Virginia.

Americans use 9 million prescription pill bottles each year, AHN says in a news release. Most end up in landfills.

Could plastics be part of the secret sauce that makes Chinese electric vehicles so competitive?

Engineers in Michigan for Caresoft Global Technologies have been tearing down EVs made in China to determine how they reach milestones in production while maintaining lighter weight vs. American-made counterparts. Some of that difference, they say, is due to the use of more plastics rather than metal in structural components.

"The brace that fits behind the instrument panel and bolts below the A-pillars in most vehicles, in Chinese EVs … that brace might be made of plastic or a combination of thin metal with plastic brackets," writes Richard Truett from our sister paper Automotive News. "In a Detroit 3 EV, the brace is likely to be made of thick aluminum, a costly carryover from combustion vehicles."

Caresoft President Terry Woychowski calls that an example of legacy automakers moving too slowly.