This week I read in a fantastic article that one of our SPI members (Bob Janeczko, CEO of Innovative Injection Technologies) and his wife donated more than $1 million for plastics engineering scholarships at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (UW-Stout).  The couple noted that the donation is their way of providing long-term support for UW-Stout and strengthening a growing career field. After seeing the article and reflecting on my own niece, who just left this week for college, I began to wonder “are college students today thinking of plastics as a career?”

Although the plastics industry is the third largest manufacturing sector in the U.S., when talking with students, “plastics” doesn’t seem to be the top career choice for most of them.  Even as someone with a plastics engineering background, I recognize that many of us in the industry fell into plastics versus making a conscious decision to go to school specifically in this area.

Students need to know that in the U.S. there are a number of schools with strong plastics programs, including University of Massachusetts – Lowell, the Pennsylvania College of Technology, Pittsburg State University and the University of Akron, among others.  We also need to let students know that great plastics industry jobs are out there.  In fact, according to information provided by Ferris State (another school with a strong plastics program), “our plastics program has consistently had 100% placement at excellent annual salaries.”  We know in talking with SPI member companies that they are hungry to find more students with a plastics education.

As an industry we are working to help get the word out. The Plastics Ambassador Program was launched last year to educate and mobilize individuals within the plastics industry to discuss the benefits of plastics in their local communities.  SPI is conducting a pilot of the initiative, training employees and encouraging them to promote plastics through community events such as PTA meetings, city council meetings or by sponsoring a PlastiVan™ school visit. The PlastiVan™ program travels to schools and companies throughout North America, educating people of all ages about plastic’s chemistry, history, processing, manufacturing, sustainability and application.

This opportunity is a great way also to reach out to students, to let them know about the opportunities in the plastics industry and to cheer about why plastics is a great career.  Future graduates – we welcome you with open arms.

President Obama mentioned SPI member company MGS Mfg. Group (Germantown, Wis.) in a speech given on August 16th after he toured the facilities of ZBB Energy Corporation, an MGS customer also based in Wisconsin. Obama shook hands with MGS Mfg. Group CEO Mark Sellers and used both companies as an example as he urged support for  U.S. manufacturing:

“Because of the steps we’ve taken to strengthen the economy, ZBB received a loan that’s helping to fund an expansion of your operations. Already, it’s allowed ZBB to retain nearly a dozen workers. And over time, the company expects to hire about 80 new workers. This is leading to new business for your suppliers, including MGS Plastics and other manufacturer here in Wisconsin.”

ZBB makes batteries used to store electricity from solar cells and wind turbines.  MGS Mfg. Group, an injection molder and moldmaker, provides complete development services to ZBB, including part and product design, tooling, molding, and other manufacturing solutions.

(The following column, sans links, recently appeared in the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette in response to an earlier opinion piece concerning polystyrene take-out food containers.)   

I am troubled by the rise in food-borne illnesses and disease that our society would witness if the irresponsible opinion expressed by Julie Backenkeller of the Rock Environmental Network concerning polystyrene food containers were ever taken seriously. When we take home food from our favorite restaurants we should be confident that it is packaged in a safe, sanitary container. We should not have to worry if it has been infected by E. coli, salmonella or parasites.

We can all agree about the need to prevent the spread of germs and bacterial disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 76 million illnesses occur, more than 300,000 persons are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from food-borne illness in the United States each year. Public health organizations encourage the use of single-use food service products, including polystyrene, because they are sanitary and provide increased food safety – particularly in hospitals, schools, and restaurants where it is critical that the foodservice ware be hygienic. Reusable china and glassware depend on washing after use. But consistent and thorough washing is not always the case: A 2002 study in Las Vegas found that 18 percent of reusable items tested had higher than acceptable bacterial counts.

Reusable plates and cups also have significant impacts on the environment.  They require copious amounts of water and energy to clean, time and time again. Plastic foodservice packaging conserves these resources and allows restaurants, schools and hospitals to save the water, energy, detergents and labor—required to sanitize reusables. Compared to glass, paper and aluminum, plastic foodservice packaging uses fewer resources and creates fewer emissions to manufacture, weigh less and produce fewer air emissions during transport. Check out this study, as well as what these students concluded. 

What is filling up landfills?  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the number one material is paper at 31%. How about plastic foodservice products? Only about 1%. What about litter? According to a 2007 study by Keep America Beautiful, “Take out food packaging [both paper and plastic]…on average comprised only 4.1 percentof the total visible items on state roadways.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the safety of food contact packaging and has approved the use of polystyrene since 1958.  Polystyrene also meets the stringent standards of the European Commission/European Food Safety Authority and the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for use in packaging to store and serve food. 

As the leader of the plastics industry trade association, I stand by plastic foodservice products.  They help keep us safe from food-borne illnesses. Citizens in Janesville and across the country should be confident that polystyrene foodservice containers, when used properly, are a safe and smart choice.

Yesterday I went to the White House to celebrate a hard-earned victory for job creation and the competitive hopes of American plastics manufacturers. I  felt a real sense of pride and progress as I sat in the East Room and watched President Barack Obama formally sign the Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010 into law.

I was honored to be at the signing ceremony because SPI’s advocacy team, aided by our dedicated members, worked tirelessly for more than two years to strongly encourage Congress to pass the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (H.R. 4380). The legislation renews a number of expired tariff measures and reduces duties on manufacturing materials (including several essential to the plastics industry) that are not produced domestically, thus lowering costs for U.S. manufacturers. The bill, now formally named the Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010, was approved by both the U.S. House and Senate in late July.

While this one law won’t sweep away all of the challenges our industry currently faces, it marks real progress toward leveling the playing field for U.S. plastics manufacturers competing in the global marketplace. It will cut the cost of doing business for SPI members and the entire U.S. plastics industry. Free from the burden of tariffs on manufacturing inputs not produced  in the U.S., plastics companies will find it less challenging to maintain or increase their current workforce, spur investments and eventually help turn the tide in the nation’s economic recovery.

Signing ceremonies like this are the end result of a long advocacy process that involves being engaged with Congress from the start and making sure our industry’s collective voice is heard.  On September 15th our industry will have another opportunity to engage with Congress and have our voices heard — in face-to-face meetings on Capitol Hill.

On September 15th SPI members from across the country will gather in Washington, D.C. for an organized day of meetings with their elected representatives that will be followed by a reception. By taking the time to visit with lawmakers, we have an opportunity to educate them about the key policy issues that are challenging our companies – from energy to TSCA to R&D Tax Credits to a host of international trade concerns and more. Having just returned from their summer recess, legislators will be busy moving on these issues before the rapidly-approaching mid-term elections.

September 15th will be an excellent time for our industry to tell our story, remind Congress that the third largest manufacturing sector is critical to revitalizing the nation’s economy, and plant seeds so that we can celebrate more legislative victories (and signing ceremonies!) in the future.

What is a “processor” in the plastics industry?  According to the eligibility criteria for the Plastics News Processor of the Year Award, which SPI will be co-sponsoring this year, “a processor is a manufacturer that forms finished plastic parts, like a detergent bottle or car bumper fascia.” One European economic development firm describes a plastics processor as a company that “transforms plastic material to obtain a wide range of objects such as toys, bottles, packaging, floor coverings or car parts.” Some of the many processes that plastics processors use in the plastics industry include injection molding, blow molding, extrusion and thermoforming.

SPI’s first-ever Plastics Processors Conference will be held in Irving, Texas, November 16-18, 2010. Now, SPI has hosted conferences for individual types of processors before — such as those that make film and bags, for example, or food, drug and cosmetic packaging, or those that are thermoformers. But this November’s First Annual Plastics Processors Conference in Texas will be a gathering of the tribes of sorts — the first time SPI will bring all processors together to network, share strategies and soak up a groundbreaking program presented by leading plastics experts.

Featuring both business and technical sessions — as well as committee meetings for SPI Processors Council groups —  the conference is open to SPI members and nonmembers and will cover topics such as mergers and acquisitions in the processing industry, resin trends and forecasting, navigating multi-generational workplaces, regulatory compliance and customer assurance, FDA 101, the global future trends of bioplastics and nanotechnology and more.

Keynote speaker Peter Leyden, a future trends expert, will explain how to best utilize emerging technologies to enhance manufacturing productivity and strengthen corporate communications in an age of global transformation.

While plastics processors differ in the vast array of products they manufacture and end-markets they serve, they also share a lot in common — from quality control, environmental performance and regulatory compliance to financial performance, worker training, customer relations and keeping up with technological innovations. Processors have a lot on their plate and need to continually keep up with the latest information and best practices. No doubt, representatives of  these companies will want to find their way to Irving, Texas in November for SPI’s first-ever Processors Conference.

Online conference registration is now open! Both SPI members and nonmembers are encouraged to attend.

Now that August is here, I realize that the summer movie season is almost over. Many of the big summer blockbusters like Avatar, Toy Story 3 and Step Up 3D (opening in theaters today) are showing us that 3-D movies are Hollywood’s latest fascination de jour. Buzz for 2012′s 3-D Monsterpocalypse, to be directed by Tim Burton, is already building. Long gone are the tacky 3-D glasses with cardboard frames and red and green plastic film lenses. This summer the movie studios have looked towards new eyewear and that’s a good thing for the plastics industry. 

The new 3-D glasses typically consist of injection molded and thermoformed frames, with polarized film and polycarbonate lenses. On the market you can find both passive glasses with a polarized lens or active glasses with computerized shutter technology built into them. Both types of glasses are successful at tricking your brain into thinking that you are seeing things from the movie in 3-D.

According to Slate and USA TODAY, the passive glasses that you find in movie theaters are usually washed for reuse or recycled. RealD Inc., a leading global licensor of stereoscopic (i.e., 3-D) technologies, claims that the demand for 3-D was so heavy between April and late June this year that it depleted its stock of glasses. In fact the company estimates that 200 million of its glasses have been used so far (which is a lot of plastic).

Active glasses are more prevalent in theaters in Asia and Europe. The glasses are similar to passive glasses in that they are encased in plastic frames.  However for active glasses, each eye’s glass contains a liquid crystal layer which has the property of becoming dark when voltage is applied, being otherwise transparent. The glasses are controlled by an infrared, radio frequency, or Bluetooth transmitter that sends a timing signal that allows the glasses to alternately darken over one eye, and then the other, in synchronization with the refresh rate of the movie screen. Unfortunately these glasses are a bit pricey at upwards of $100 or more.

Whether the interest in 3-D movies and TV continues to grow is still up in the air.  However without plastics, this latest technology would not be possible.

Heart stents, a common medical tool used to open clogged arteries and improve blood flow, have traditionally been made of metal and remain in place in the patient permanently. While usually effective, metal stents are not perfect and can sometimes cause problems – including thrombosis or clotting – and are not always the answer for patients with advanced coronary artery disease.

But now Abbott Laboratories – which leads the metal stent market – has developed a new stent they call “Absorb” which is made of a corn-based bioplastic called polylactic acid (PLA). This same material is being used in a number of  other ways, including food packaging, textile fibers and even gift cards.

The stent, coated with a drug called everolimus, is named “Absorb” because, unlike metallic stents, once the vessel can remain open without extra support, the stent is slowly metabolized by the body until it is completely dissolved. Since a permanent implant is not left behind, the vessel ultimately can move, flex and pulsate in a manner similar to an untreated vessel. Officially called “bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS),” the stent takes about 18 months to fully dissolve. According to a Fast Company article, unlike metal stents, “Abbott’s Absorb would… also let cardiologists use noninvasive heart imaging for follow-up care.” 

A March 2010 Abbott press release announced positive news concerning the 101 patients enrolled in the second phase of an Absorb trial. “Patients treated with Abbott’s bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS), under clinical investigation in Europe, demonstrated no cases of blood clots (thrombosis), no need for repeat procedures (ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization) and a very low rate of major adverse cardiac events…These results build on the long-term success Abbott has seen with the BVS technology in the first phase of the Absorb trial, which has generated positive data on 30 patients out to three years.”  Results of the study were also published in The Lancet.

While more trials with larger patient populations will be conducted over the next three years before the new stent can win government approval in Europe or the United States, Dr. Patrick Serruys, professor of interventional cardiology at the Thoraxcentre, Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and principal investigator for the Absorb trial states:

“The continuing positive results of the Absorb trial and the clinical benefits demonstrated to date by Abbott’s bioresorbable technology show promise that a bioresorbable scaffold is on its way to becoming a clinical reality and will be the next revolution in interventional cardiology.”

A revolution in cardiology made possible by a corn-based bioplastic.

It’s the middle of July here in Washington, D.C. and the temperature has been over 100 °F much too much for my liking of late. Thankfully plastics continue to play a critical role in keeping things cool both indoors and out.

From a housing standpoint, plastic building products promote the efficient use of energy and other resources. For example, walls that use structural insulated panels made with expanded polystyrene (EPS) can help homeowners save hundreds of dollars annually on heating and cooling bills. EPS starts out as a plastic pellet and ends up as nearly 95 percent air which is a very effective insulator. Another example is polycarbonate which can be used in windows. In addition to being lightweight and shatter-resistant, polycarbonate has low thermal conductivity, which can help to reduce heating and cooling costs. And what about plastic house wrap technology? Plastic house wrap technology reduces the infiltration of outside air and helps to drastically reduce the energy required to heat or cool the home. So with these technologies (and, of course, air conditioners and fans  — which have plenty of plastic parts) one can keep cool indoors.

When outdoors, what you wear can make a difference. I’m partial to the clothing that uses wicking technologyto keep you cool. Traditional cotton clothing tends to soak up and retain sweat, making the wearer unable to cool themselves off properly and making the garment heavier. Wicking technology utilizes fabrics that move sweat away from the skin to the outer surface of the fabric, where it evaporates. Many of these fabrics are made out of polyester fibers and often can be recycled through program’s such as the Common Threads Recycling Program.

Getting in the water is, of course, a favorite way to keep cool in the summer. Most bathing suits are made from plastic materials such as polyester, nylon and Lycra (or Spandex). Of course, we have blogged here before about the uproar in competitive swimming circles concerning new high tech suits made from polyurethane.

In addition, many above ground pools and most inflatable wading pools are made from some combination of PVC (which has excellent resistance to damage via abrasion, impact and sunlight), polypropylene and polyester mesh. Backyard pools also depend on flexible, durable and easy-to-clean vinyl liners to keep their inner surfaces smooth on feet and protected from sunlight, abrasion and water-treatment chemicals. Swimming pools with vinyl and polypropylene covers bring safety and peace of mind to pool owners with very small children. Even diving boards are usually covered with polyurethane epoxy resin paint that creates a non-skid surface to prevent dangerous slips.

So whether you are indoors or out, plastics play an important role in making these hot days more bearable.

Photo courtesy of Infrogmation of New Orleans

Bill Hall, who chairs the environmental law practice at Winston & Strawn, presented a range of measures to employ in order to discourage product de-selection, and reminded attendees of the famous phrase of his former basketball coach, the late great Jim Valvano: “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” Hall played basketball under Valvano at Bucknell Univesrsity, prior to Valvano winning the NCAA national championship as the coach of North Carolina State University in a highly memorable last-second upset victory in 1983.

Later in the day, members of the ACC Phthalate Ester Panel exposed several anti-phthalate studies and news reports as myths using a glaring spotlight of reality in the form of government  statistics and common sense conclusions drawn by a variety of independent experts. The panel members also provided a regulatory and legislative update as well as a report on recent media trends.

Bill Carroll spoke to attendees about a few things, including his work as a member of California’s Green Chemistry Initiative Science Advisory Panel. The Green Chemistry program is a highly complex, some might say “convoluted,” process to remove or reduce chemicals deemed hazardous from products sold in California. Carroll, vice president, industry issues for Occidental Chemical Corporation, an an adjunct professor of chemistry at Indiana University, also engaged conference attendees in a discussion about the future of the flexible vinyl industry, asking, “Where will we be in 10 years? Where do we go from here?” The ensuing conversation swung from the need for greater innovation, to the need to be less risk-averse when it comes to investing  financial resources in compelling opportunities, and the possibility of the federal government setting policies that make the United States a friendlier place to do manufacturuing business.

But in addition to sessions on how to deal with negative external challenges, attendees also heard from speakers who brought expertise to the table that would help them do their jobs better and improve their vinyl products. Jim Roberts of BYK-Gardner, for example, spoke about how to best measure color, gloss (the amount of light reflected off a surface), haze, clarity and other physical properties of vinyl and its products. This is particularly important in today’s manufacturing world where one part of a product may be made in the United States as others are being made at other plants around the world. When they come together, they need to be exactly alike. Luckily, as I learned, there are lab and production line tools like the “Micro-Gloss” and “Spectro-Guide.”

Toward the end of the day, industry lion and Lord of the Rings enthusiast Dean Finney, retired from Eastman Chemical Company and now almost set to retire from Rivendell Consultants, paraphrased the Tolkien character Aragorn in addressing his embattled flexible vinyl colleagues: “Success does not belong to one man but to all. Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace.”

And there’s some breaking news already! I had the opportunity to sit in on the SPI Flexible Vinyl Products Committee‘s  Executive Committee Meeting this morning and a very exciting development came about concerning NPE2012. But more on that below…

This week’s conference is hosted by SPI’s Flexible Vinyl Products Committee (FVPC), part of the association’s Material Suppliers Council. The FVPC works for the benefit of all companies within the flexible vinyl industry regardless of end market application – and, because of the material’s many advantages, that is an enormous amount of applications!  Because flexible vinyl is inexpensive, durable, safe, easily processed and recyclable, it is appealing to product manufacturers and ideally suited to myriad uses.  From construction (such as flooring and roofing) to life-saving medical products (such as blood/intravenous fluid bags, cardiac catheters, endotracheal tubing) to packaging (food wrap, container lids) to wire and cable and a vast variety of automotive uses, flexible vinyl makes modern life better.

Topics to be presented and discussed here in Virginia over the next two days include the latest research on new materials, optimizing product quality using new lab tools, global updates concerning the resin and plasticizer markets, and presentations concerning product de-selection issues and the ways in which science and statistics are used (and sometimes abused) by the media. Rebecca Obniski, a chemistry and music double-major at the College of William and Mary will present a paper on “New Metal-Based Smoke Suppressants and Fire Retardants for Flexible PVC.”  Veteran industry insider William Carroll, vice president for industry issues, Occidental Chemical Company, will reflect on his experiences in the plastics industry and his perspective on the future.  A number of  SPI staff experts will be on hand to deliver the latest news on the legislative front, REACH and Walmart’s retailer sustainability initiatives.

Speaking of news, this morning the FVPC Executive Committee preliminarily signed off on having a pavilion devoted to flexible vinyl products at NPE2012 in Orlando. Similar to successful specialty pavilions staged at NPE2009 that were devoted to fluoropolymers, thermoformers and TPE elastomers,  an “FVP World” pavilion would provide the flexible vinyl products community with a platform to discuss advancements in technology, educate participants and highlight member companies and organizations in a unified and organized format.  “FVP World” would be part of  NPE Technology Central in the Orange County Convention Center’s South Hall.  At this morning’s meeting, SPI President Bill Carteaux brought up this idea to FVPC leadership, saying, “We invite flexible vinyl products companies to host FVP World at NPE2012, and provide this opportunity to your members, suppliers and their customers to see and hear what’s new in flexible vinyl.” Needless to say, the FVPC Executive Committee liked the idea! Stay tuned for more details.