CMI, a maker of plastic and aluminum marine walls, bought artificial lumber maker Engineered Plastic Systems in Illinois.

Some states and local governments are pausing on single-use plastic laws during the coronavirus pandemic, but it's not universal. New York, for example, included an EPS ban in the state budget adopted April 2, although it doesn't take effect until 2022.

The Trump administration on March 30 told Hawaii state officials they needed to take another look at plastic pollution in their coastal waters.

Industrial thermoforming company Kruger Family Industries is retooling an auto parts plant into making medical beds and hopes to bring back workers after having to furlough about 300 staff in late March.

The CEO of large blow molder Lifetime Products Inc. says sales for its mainstay at-home products are steady or in some cases beating forecasts, but the firm also wonders if we're "right on the edge" of a change in broader economic demand.

Social distancing in the factory. Temperature checks when the workday starts. Higher-than-normal absenteeism as employees worry about exposure to the coronavirus on the job. That's what plastics manufacturing companies are grappling with right now, as they work to both keep production flowing, particularly in government-designated "essential" industries.

"Plastic Wars," a new documentary from PBS' Frontline and National Public Radio, takes a look at plastic in the environment, with some former industry lobbyists showing up in unusual roles.

While there's a lot of discussion around challenges in recycling consumer packaging like plastic bottles, companies on the industrial side of the recycling ledger say their sector also faces difficulties.

Congressional aides noted high levels of public concern around recycling and plastic waste. "People are sick and tired of plastic pollution," one staffer said.

The Plastics Industry Association is asking the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to make a public statement in support of single-use plastics and to speak out against bans, linking it to the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

New federal guidance from the Department of Homeland Security names chemicals and single-use plastics as critical sectors for fighting the coronavirus epidemic.

With some state and local governments around the country closing nonessential businesses, industry trade associations in chemicals, plastics and recycling are urging Washington to name them critical sectors that need to be kept open.

Legislators in Maine voted March 17 to delay that state's plastic bag ban, as part of a bigger package of emergency measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. A few officials in other states, including the top Republican in New York's state Senate, are advocating similar action.

In the wake of China's ban on recyclable plastics, a new industry coalition wants to try to make polypropylene into the next PET and HDPE in the curbside recycling system. It's ambitious project — PP has some of the lowest recycling rates now in plastics packaging and there are economic headwinds — but industry officials say they see opportunities.

The U.S. Agency for International Development came to a recent plastics recycling conference and made a call for industry involvement in a new $48 million program to combat ocean plastic waste in the developing world.