Rebecca Kanthor

At the Chinaplas 2021 fair, European injection molding machine maker Engel Holding GmbH said it sees the pandemic putting the gas pedal on digitally connected manufacturing.

Environmental developments like resins with recycled content or made from non-fossil fuel sources were on full display at Chinaplas, held in mid-April in Shenzhen.

Our China-based reporter Rebecca Kanthor caught up with three of the quarantine travelers on the show floor to ask why it was so important to be at the fair, which ran April 13-16 in Shenzhen, and how they passed their time in isolation — books and TV, exercise, working, playing saxophone and not liking the hotel much.

Chinaplas 2021 opened April 13 in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, drawing about 44,000 visitors to the first major plastics trade show since COVID-19 swept the globe. Our China-based reporter was there.

China started implementing a wide-ranging, single-use plastics ban in January. While it's a work in progress, it's brought some noticeable changes and questions for consumers and companies.

China's push to build its domestic recycling infrastructure and limit imported waste is leading to both challenges and investment.

The leader of one of China's plastics recycling associations said the sector needs to be "completely rebuilt," as the country develops its domestic recycling infrastructure and government takes a much larger role.

Several Chinese plastics industry associations, along with global companies and nongovernmental organizations, are trying to create a classification system for marine plastic waste, saying it could help collection and recycling of the materials.

Since early 2019, more than 40 big Chinese cities have rolled out pilot waste sorting programs for recyclables and trash.

Kengo Okada's Japanese manga book "Little Orca's 5000 mile Journey" is surprisingly touching as it explores how the boundaries that separate us can also bring us together.

The worldwide pushback against single-use plastics is prompting a large Chinese maker of plastic straws, Soton Daily Necessities, to make a $15 million investment as part of a move toward biodedegradable polymer and paper versions.

Hoping to build stronger links to the government and address concerns about plastic pollution, China's thermoforming industry is forming an ambitious new association aimed at boosting recycling and helping companies upgrade.

German specialty chemicals company Lanxess AG used the recent Chinaplas show to offer more details about its high-performance plastics plant in Changzhou, which is under construction and will be operational by spring 2019.

China's Top Polymer Enterprise Ltd. is at its third NPE, but its first since the company announced plans for a new facility near Atlanta to make thermoplastic elastomers. It's its first factory outside China.

Two Chinese manufacturers of packaging equipment, Tech-Long Packaging Machinery Co. Ltd., and Unique Injection Molding Systems, are teaming up to sell equipment in the Americas and Europe.