According to this recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle, Wham-O, the toy manufacturer founded in a Pasadena, Calif. garage in 1948, will soon be producing Frisbees, Hula Hoops and other products made from recycled plastics (such as margarine tubs, yogurt containers and milk jugs) and sawdust reclaimed from sawmills.

The company’s new owner, Kyle Aguilar, is bringing new energy to Wham-O and recently acquired Sprig Toys Inc., a Colorado-based company that makes ”eco-friendly” preschool toys out of  what it calls “Sprigwood” — the recycled plastic and sawdust mix. According to the Chronicle article, Sprigwood “feels like a slightly heavier plastic with visible flecks of wood and emits the scent of cedar.”

Prior to the use of this material, Frisbees had been injection molded out of polyethylene since the early 1950s. Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about how they have been manufactured.

Wham-O, based in Emeryville, Calif., began as an independent company. In 1982 it was purchased by Kransco Group Companies. In 1994, Mattel bought Wham-O and in 1997 Wham-O became independent once again.  In 2006, the company was purchased by Cornerstone Overseas Investments of Hong Kong.  New owner Aguilar also owns Manufacturing Marvel Inc., which makes toys  — including some Wham-O items — and promotional products from plastic, glass, tin, porcelain and other materials. His purchase of the company will return some Wham-O manufacturing to the United States.

The Frisbee’s inventor, Walter Fredrick “Fred” Morrison, died last month at the age of 90. According to CNN,  he began designing flying discs in 1937 after tossing around popcorn tin lids and cake pans. Soon enough he was selling “Flyin’ Cake Pans” for 25 cents at California beaches and parks. After returning from World War II, Morrison designed a plastic Flyin-Saucer that didn’t catch on. But his better-designed Pluto Platter sold enough to interest Wham-O. The company and Morrison struck a deal in 1957.  Depending on what source you read, 200-300 million Frisbees have been sold.

So, did you watch Audi’s “Green Police” commercial (see above) during the Super Bowl? Eventually, it gets around to touting the company’s A3 TDI clean diesel vehicle as a good environmental choice — the “Green Car of the Year” (according to Green Car Journal). It is clever and makes great use of a parody re-recording of “Dream Police” — the 1979 power pop hit by Cheap Trick.  And most of the ad is hilarious — I particularly like the poor guy in his kitchen who gets nabbed in the spotlight of a “green police” sting  as he throws melon rinds and orange peels into his trash can: “Put the rind down! Sir, that’s a compost infraction!” 

But to the plastics industry, some of the commercial’s bits were not at all funny — especially coming from the auto industry, which can thank plastics for many of its innovations.  Audi’s campaign (yes, there will be more ads) features several plastics products in an unfair and unflattering way — specifically regarding plastic grocery bags, bottles and foam cups. On the contrary, these items are lighter than alternatives, saving fuel during transportation and producing less greenhouse emissions. Ironically, recycled plastics products are increasingly being used to make parts in new cars — including new Audi cars.

With this TV ad, Audi essentially bites the plastic hand that feeds it – the plastics industry that make its precious A3 TDI so environmentally sound to begin with! In it’s press release extoling the “Green Car of the Year” recognition, Audi points out the A3 TDI’s fantastic fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions benefits. Unfortunately, it fails to mention that this fuel economy and many of the car’s features could not be achieved without plastics. Check out this video of the A3 TDI that highlights the innovative uses of plastics throughout the car.

On this blog we have pointed out time and time again the enormous benefits that the increasing use of plastics has brought to the auto and aerospace industries – from weight savings to support reduction of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions to substantial design freedom allowing advanced creativity and innovation. Audi’s own marketing touts its use of lighter materials, including plastics, to cut fuel consumption. We have also tried here and there to point out the health and safety merits of plastics packaging, and, in many posts, the importance of plastics recycling and our industry’s efforts to do so. 

Audi’s “Green Police” ad uses over-the-top humor to make a point: We all can make choices every day to help the environment – in the cars we drive, the products we buy and the way we use them.  But the company is also speaking out of both sides of it’s mouth when it comes to plastics. Get the facts – about bags, polystyrene foam cups, bottles and more —  at http://www.greenpoliceconfused.com/

On  the January 8th episode of CNBC’s investement show Mad Money, hyperactive host Jim Cramer devoted a significant amount of time discussing the plastics industry and, in particular, SPI member company PolyOne. Watch the video above.

Once you get passed his antics with the two Barbie dolls — which, in explaining plastics’ processes and societal contributions he names as his two girlfriends “Polly” and “Ethel” (get it?) – Cramer describes the strategic and managerial changes PolyOne has made to transform the company.  Cramer calls PolyOne a “fabulous bet on America’s economic recovery”  and a ”true plastic turnaround story.”  He concludes by saying, “I know that everyone is looking for recovery plays that have not happened… I want you to look no further than PolyOne.”

Headquartered in Avon Lake, Ohio, PolyOne Corporation, with 2008 annual revenues of $2.7 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials and services.  According to Plastics News, PolyOne posted profits of nearly $44 million in the first nine months of 2009, despite sales falling 32 percent to $1.5 billion compared to the same period in 2008. The profit during this nine-month time period was four times as large as profit from the year-ago period.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers‘ National Center for the American Workforce, there is a “broadening skills gap….taking an increasingly negative toll on America’s ability to compete in the global economy” and the challenge will be more severe as Baby Boomers in the manufacturing sector retire with no skilled employees to replace them. In fact, more than 80 percent of U.S. manufacturers report an overall shortage of qualified employees and 46 percent of small and medium manufacturers report that finding qualified employees is one of the most serious problems facing their company.

In an attempt to illuminate plastics careers to the next generation of students, a new episode of Degrees That Work, an award-winning documentary television series co-produced by Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn College) and WVIA-TV, is devoted to our industry. With past episodes devoted to nanotechnology, welding and fabrication and advanced manufacturing, the series was developed to build awareness of careers that may not be familiar to the public but offer ample opportunities.

With an extensive amount of footage shot at NPE2009 last June, the episode follows a group of high school students who are enrolled in a technical education class as they design and create the plastic body for a remote-controlled car to be raced against other high schools at an annual Plastics Experience event at Penn College.  The program also features interviews with national plastics industry experts as well as a visit to K’NEX Brands, a large injection molder that produces popular construction toy kits among other products.

There are only five accredited plastics engineering programs in the country. Two of those – Penn College and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College – are in Pennsylvania.  Get more information about plastics and polymer technology majors at Penn College.  

In addition to Penn College professors of plastics and polymer engineering, other  experts interviewed in the documentary include SPI President Bill Carteaux; Dana Gier, Julie McKenna and Erica Ocampo of Dow Chemical Co.; Dennis Gros of Gros Executive Recruiters; Robert Grace of Plastics News; Greg Koski of plastics.com; Michael Araten of K’NEX Brands and Tim Womer of Xaloy Inc.

You can watch the 28-minute program right here (see above)!  It will actually premiere at 7:00 p.m. (EST) on February 1st on public television stations serving northcentral and northeastern Pennsylvania, and will air several more times on those stations in February. The program will also air on select other public television stations — find your station here and request the program. Educators are invited to download the episode for classroom use. 

This would be an excellent resource for an outreach activity in your company’s community.  Ask Andrea O’Neill, WVIA’s director of education, about free DVDs and  lesson planning guides.

My family and I just finished decorating the outside of our house for Halloween and we used two rolls of black duct tape to secure a variety of skeletons, bats and  ghoulish creatures – as well as a polystyrene foam ”R.I.P.” gravestone that refused to stand up to the wind.  Not only is it useful in decorating, but duct tape is also a source of inspiration for costumes like this one and especially this one.

Duct tape has assumed a certain comic place in popular culture with frequent mentions in TV sit-coms, comedian stand-up routines and email joke traffic. Most of the humor stems from duct tape’s versatility – it seemingly is the essential failsafe solution to an infinite number of problems.

 Besides devoting an entire web site (and their identity) to duct tape, the Duct Tape Guys promote a fun annual scholarship contest called “Stuck at Prom” that features kids wearing gowns and tuedos made entirely from the sticky strips.

An SPI staffer told me her nephew used to make wallets out of duct tape. Sure enough, here’s a video showing how to do it, as well as some step-by-step instructions.  

Many web-based reports claim that NASA mandates that rolls of duct tape be carried on every space shuttle mission. This Wikipedia entry describes three particular instances where NASA has employed duct tape – including its use in averting disaster on Apollo 13. The  Associated Press reports that NASA  has detailed procedures for dealing with a psychotic astronaut in space that includes crewmates binding their colleague’s wrists and ankles with duct tape.

In 2003, amid growing fears of terrorism, duct tape sales in the Washington D.C. area skyrocketed and stores sold out of the stuff when  U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison included duct tape in his list of useful items households should have on hand after a biological, chemical or radiological attack.

Johnson & Johnson originated duct tape in 1942 for use in World War II as a way to seal off ammunition cases from moisture. Legend has it these water-resistant properties is the reason many still refer to the tape as “duck tape.” 

Constructed in three layers, duct tapes consist of a polyethylene plastic backing for waterproofing, a cloth middle layer for strength, and a rubber-based sticky adhesive.  Duct tapes differ according to how powerful their adhesive qualities are, the thread count of the cloth layer for strength and the thickness of the polyethylene backing for durability.  High-end tapes also often contain additives that provide resistance to sunlight and severe weather conditions.

Certainly, duct tape remains big business. Just this week, the 3M Co. announced the debut of six varieties of  “Scotch Tough Duct Tapes” that stick to difficult surfaces like brick and stucco and better withstand outdoor weather.  

In September, Berry Plastics Corporation announced in a press release that they were spending $200 million in capital improvements to replace antiquated machinery at its Kentucky plant that manufactures duct tapes.

Finally, in an effort to answer the ultimate question – “Can duct tape fix anything?” – Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters show devoted a whole episode to duct tape. Enjoy the outtakes of video they didn’t use in the episode.