Kickstart: Plastics shut out from Toy Hall of Fame!

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We’ve been reporting on the new inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame for a few years now. It’s been a great source for our bloggers and feature writers, because there’s always a plastics angle.

But not this year!

The Strong National Museum of Play announced the 2019 inductees on Nov. 7, and none of the plastics finalists made the final cut.

The inductees include Matchbox Cars, coloring books and the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering.

Better luck next year, My Little Pony and Nerf Blaster!

We like to think we have our fingers on the pulse of the plastics industry. In the internet age, it’s easier to tell. We can track readership on our website both historically and in real time. In fact, we share the information with our readers every business day when we update the “Most Popular” list on our home page. (You’d think that would be automated… but it’s not).

From the numbers, we could tell that last week was a great one. We had above-average traffic every day. Thanks readers! Here’s a list of some of the top stories, in case you missed any:

GM exits plastics association as environmental pressure campaign continues.

Cooper Standard to shut down 10 facilities as part of restructuring effort.

Stormy tooling forecast predicts more shops will close.

Shell's massive petrochemicals project takes shape in Pennsylvania.

AMBA calls on Trump to reinstate tariffs on Chinese molds.

Plastics fee, expanded polystyrene ban may go before California voters in 2020.

When Coca-Cola Co. confirmed it was leaving the Plastics Industry Association, some people misunderstood the move and thought it meant the company was going to stop using plastic packaging.

But the decision was never about Coke’s packaging. As I wrote at the time, the company made the decision because of an issue that has nothing to do with the soda business. Environmental groups were using them in an elaborate chess game to get the association to stop pushing preemption legislation.

If you didn’t believe me then, read this Reuters story from an interview with Coke CEO James Quincey, where he confirms that “We are not trying to engineer a strategic shift from plastic to aluminum.”

All you readers who thought Coke was ignoring science owe the company an apology.