(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.

Although SPI strongly agrees that the American healthcare system is in need of reform, we are extremely disappointed with the package passed by Congress and signed into law on Tuesday. Instead of addressing the issues that have resulted in the healthcare cost crisis — such as the lack of competition in many insurance markets, runaway litigation, or the inability of businesses to pool risk across state lines — we now face a law that places an undue burden squarely on the shoulders of the private sector employers that create and sustain America’s economic engine. As the third largest manufacturing sector in the U.S., the plastics industry impact will be far-reaching.

Through such provisions of the new law as the “pay or play” mandate, companies with 50 or more full-time employees will be forced to purchase federally-imposed levels of insurance coverage for their workers or face per-employee fines in the thousands of dollars. Smaller SPI member companies are not spared, as those who are incorporated as “Subchapter S-corps” may be subject to a new tax on their investment income. Plastic medical device manufacturers will now contend with a new excise tax on the sale of many of their products. Simply put, these new taxes and fees will inhibit a company’s ability to compete in the global marketplace, and will increase pressures on already-strained budgets and workforces.

Beyond these fees, plastics industry impacts are many. We do not yet know how insurance companies will respond to a 40% excise tax, or how states will pay for their increased Medicaid responsibilities; in all likelihood these costs will be passed on to our businesses, further hampering our ability to grow in this economic climate.

For our part, SPI vigorously lobbied against the most onerous aspects of this legislation, both directly and in coalitions with other like-minded stakeholders. Several grassroots mobilization alerts to our full membership resulted in members calling and sending letters to Congress, as well as raising their concerns in direct meetings with their elected officials. SPI continues its support of true reforms, laid out in a policy established by our member-driven process in early 2009.

I am proud of the way our member companies took up the fight in a coordinated effort to oppose this legislation and the fact that the manufacturing sector’s efforts succeeded in removing some particularly harmful provisions that were included in early drafts. Despite passage of this law, the national debate on health care reform will continue and SPI will remain active as it represents the interests of the plastics industry.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a big fan of the Indianapolis Colts. But it wasn’t the New Orleans Saints victory over my hometown team in the Super Bowl that upset me the most last Sunday evening. No, what got me miffed was that preachy “Green Police” Audi commercial that I saw during the fourth quarter. (See Barry Eisenberg’s blog post for the details on the ad and why our industry was not amused.) 

A splashy ad that paints plastics with a broad “environmentally unfriendly” brush gets me riled up because it places a premium on being funny rather than true. The “Green Police” ad reinforces the same tired and, frankly, ignorant biases against plastics that my SPI team and I have been trying to educate people about since I became president of the association.  In 2008 and 2009 combined I personally gave about 50 presentations seen by approximately 10,000 people that centered on how plastics contribute to a more sustainable world. But in one fell 60-second swoop, more than 100 million people saw an ad that preyed on preconceived notions of plastics. (According to the Nielsen Co., more than 106 million people watched the Super Bowl, making it the most-watched program in U.S. television.)

But unfair bias works both ways and I believe the ad also magnified the negative perceptions people have about environmentalists being crazy extremists. The New York Times called the Audi ad a “misguided spot that put the ‘mental’ in ‘environmental.’”  Scott Cooney, author of Build a Green Small Business:  Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur, writes that the Audi ad:

…quickly turned into yet another perhaps well-intentioned ad that casts environmentalists, frankly, as wack-jobs… Perhaps the most offensive, to those of us in the sustainability movement was where an army of “Green Police,” prowling through people’s trash, finds a battery and storms the house of the offender. While I suppose the ad execs who came up with it thought they were brilliant, I would only imagine most in the sustainability movement, like me, groaned at the implication that people who care about the environment are psychotic enough to prosecute people who choose plastic at the grocery store or don’t compost their scraps.  Ugh, Middle America just took another unneeded step away from feeling that sustainability is cool, easy, and normal.

I’ve worked in the plastics industry for more than 20 years and I am so proud of the innovative contributions our industry has made to the automobile industry. That’s why Audi’s ad leaves many of us industry veterans feeling as if we’ve been slapped in the face by a loved one. ”Truth in Engineering” is the name of the advertising campaign Audi launched in 2007 and it is the tag line at the end of the “Green Police ” ad.  I wish Audi had given “Truth in Advertising” equal billing.

You’ve heard the rumors. You’ve read the industry papers and blogs. The grapevine is full of discussion that NPE is looking to change its 40-year tradition of being held in Chicago. Today, I want to say that…it’s ALL true!

NPE—The International Plastics Showcase—has a new home! I am pleased to announce that NPE, the triennial plastics industry expo and conference, will be moving to Orlando for 2012 and 2015. NPE2012 will be held at the Orange County Convention Center from April 1-5, and NPE2015 from March 22-26. As many of you know, this is big news! Founded by SPI in 1946, NPE had taken place at Chicago’s McCormick Place since 1971.

The move to Orlando was a decision made by the industry, for the industry. The SPI leadership, steered by the NPE Operations and Executive Committees, conducted a thorough review and analysis of the two contending host venues—Chicago and Orlando. In particular, NPE2012 Chairman John Effmann of ENTEK Manufacturing and Vice Chairman Jim Murphy of Davis Standard Corporation along with SPI Board Chairman Jim Buonomo of Nypro and Vice Chairman Chris Keller of The Conair Group deserve a pat on the back for the many hours they have spent personally reviewing the numbers and meeting with representatives from the two host venues. They have taken every aspect of the show into consideration along with the final proposals from the contenting host venues and presented their recommendation to the SPI Executive Board for final action. Here’s the bottom line: Orlando and the Orange County Convention Center will offer both exhibitors and attendees significant cost-savings that will continue the economic stimulus measures SPI enacted for NPE2009.

The NPE Operations Committee recommended Orlando after doing a systematic comparison of all possible venues. What we learned is that holding NPE2012 in Orlando would provide big reductions in the chief expenses incurred by exhibitors and attendees. These reductions could save the two groups an average of: 48% for booth utilities; 19% for on-site hauling (“drayage”) and rigging services for exhibitors; 23% on lodging; and 11% on overall travel. The savings on travel from the U.S. Midwest—a key plastics manufacturing region at whose heart is Chicago—would be even greater: 19%.  Finally, Orlando demonstrated a greater range in pricing than Chicago for hotels and restaurants, and lower costs for ground transportation expenses like cabs to and from the airport and convention center parking.

All in all, by moving the show to Orlando, SPI can save the plastics industry up to $20-million — which will play a substantial role in SPI’s mission to stimulate the plastics industry’s economic recovery.

And it’s not all about cost.  Orlando also was the clear winner with customer service. At the end of the day, Team Orlando led by the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Orange County Convention Center won the bid because of  its community effort, professionalism, dedication to service, partnership mindset–we’re not just a customer—and innovative spirit. Orlando truly made the discernible difference with a customer-service-centric attitude that will play a major role in enhancing the overall experience for everyone involved in the 2012 trade show.

I am also really excited about three other NPE innovations that will come with the change of venue:

• The switch to early April from the traditional late-June dates will allow far more time for exhibitors to follow up on inquiries and leads generated before summer vacations.
• Instead of the traditional Monday opening day, NPE2012 will start on Sunday, with educational programs and other special events; the trade show will be open from Monday through Thursday, eliminating the sparsely attended final half-day of previous shows.
• SPI will address the longstanding wish of attendees and exhibitors that exhibits be grouped by product category.

Over the next several weeks I will blog again to share more information about the industry-wide benefits and opportunities of NPE’s new home — Orlando!