Kickstart: Will noncompete agreements really go away?

The new federal rules banning most noncompete agreements in work contracts are generating a lot of questions. Let's start with the big issue: Will the Federal Trade Commission move even be declared legal?

Within 24 hours of the FTC announcement, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups had sued to stop it.

About 30 million American workers are now covered by noncompete agreements, which FTC officials say are too broad and restrict workers' abilities to take better jobs.

Dan Regovich of plastics search and recruiting firm AJ Augur Group LLC writes in a perspective column for Plastics News that he's skeptical about FTC claims about the number of jobs that could be created by eliminating the agreements, but also adds that most of them are one-sided in favor of employers.

"The ironic thing is that many companies want to hire from their competition but frown upon their employees leaving for the competition," he writes. "They will often do what they can to maneuver around a candidate's noncompete, yet have strict noncompetes themselves."

Investing in efforts to enforce the agreements would be better off creating a workplace employees don't want to leave, he adds.

I know you've been reading and hearing a lot about the plastics treaty, but here's an angle that came across the Plastics News editorial desk we hadn't considered: The final treaty language may provide the impetus to ban cigarette filters with their tiny plastic components.

Nonprofit group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said in a news release that "several countries" proposed banning cigarette filters during the talks in Ottawa, Ontario, that ended early on April 30.

"Given the criteria established, it seems clear that cigarette filters belong at the top of the list" for banned products, ASH said.

Cigarette butts, including filters, consistently rank as one of the top items collected during beach and park cleanup programs. My immediate thought after seeing ASH's release was to compare it to plastic microbeads, which were once used widely as an exfoliant in soaps, toothpaste and other personal care products until governments banned them. (Seriously, why was that ever a thing?)

ASH maintains the filters provide no health value, pointing to research posted in the British Medical Association's BMJ Journals referring to them "simply as a marketing tool."

Lego A/S may injection mold plastic trees, but the Danish toymaker is focused on planting very real trees in the Virginia community where its new manufacturing plant is under construction.

Company officials joined the community in Chesterfield, Va., on April 24 to begin planting 1,440 trees across eight county parks. The reforestation project has 17 species of trees that are native to the region, selected by landscape architects and nursery professionals.

Chesterfield is the site of Lego's future $1 billion molding plant, expected to open in 2027.

Lego opened a packaging facility at the Virginia location in November. It employs 250, with about 1,500 other jobs expected in the completed project.