Kickstart: ‘Tis the season

No, not the holiday season, although that’s roaring at us too. In this case, I’m talking M&A.

The end of every fiscal (and calendar) year, brings with it a rush to complete acquisitions announced earlier, and to nail down a range of purchases that may have been in the planning process for months, but have flown under the radar.

Just in the last few days, we’ve had stories about Ipex completing its purchase of Silver-Line, private equity’s Lindsay Goldberg of the U.S. buying Swiss packaging company Bilcare Research, medical molder SDM Plastics buying Accent Plastics and, biggest of all, Hillenbrand wrapping up its acquisition of Milacron.

Stay tuned for more.

Word from government statistics out last week show that the U.S. recycling rate is continuing to fall. While the numbers out late last week were from 2017 -- so they don’t reflect the most recent efforts to boost recovery -- they still show that Americans aren’t fully participating in recycling efforts.

That drop includes even the most recycled items, namely PET bottles and HDPE packaging. Reporter Jim Johnson has more details.

If you want to increase recycling and sustainability efforts, it’s going to take an effort from all corners of the industry and consumers. That’s the thinking behind the Alliance to  End Plastics Waste and other cooperative ventures. But to make a difference, are you willing to work closely with environmentalists who are typically seen as bad for business?

Which brings us to this feature story from Outside magazine’s September-October issue (which can be read online now).

Writer Rowan Jacobsen tags along on a sea voyage with the company SoulBuffalo that brings together industry and environmental groups to see first hand what is happening with ocean plastics. When he sent out invitations, SoulBuffalo founder Dave Ford said he got a lot of forceful: “No thanks” responses.

But he also got a lot of positive responses. Among those noted in the story: Dow, Procter & Gamble, Novolex, Coca-Cola, Nestle Waters, Hasbro, Clorox, HP and environmentalists from the 5 Gyres Institute, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Break Free from Plastic, Ocean Conservancy ... along with the loudest voice in the room: Greenpeace. Not only on the same journey, but, at Nestle’s request, Greenpeace and Nestle shared the same quarters.

As Jacobsen writes: "When [Nestle Chief Sustainability Officer David] Tulauskas extended his sleepover invite, [Greenpeace's John ] Hocevar was guarded. 'I regularly have conversations with people we’re running campaigns against,' he later confides to me, 'but sharing a small room? And a bathroom? That’s definitely next-level.'"