Earlier today, May 17, 2013, Pennsylvania State Representative Frank Dermody (D-33), the Democratic Leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, met with the management and employees at the Harwick, PA facility of Watson Standard, a leading supplier of coatings and adhesives and member of SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association.

Pennsylvania State Rep Frank Dermody (left) today toured the Harwick, PA manufacturing facility of Watson Standard with the company’s Wes Horton (center) and Jeff Matty.

Top managers gave Rep. Dermody an organized tour of the plant’s manufacturing area, helping him learn about the physical production processes, as well as the overall business of the company. Plant visits such as this are organized regularly with the support of the Government and Industry Affairs specialists at SPI in order to familiarize legislators with actual operations of companies in America’s diverse plastics business, the third largest sector of American manufacturing.

Among those meeting with Rep. Dermody were Jim Lore, President of Watson Standard, Jeff Matty, VP of regulatory affairs, and Wes Horton,  director of manufacturing. Watson Standard, which was founded in 1902 is a privately held specialty chemical coating and adhesives supplier with its headquarters in Pittsburgh, about 10 miles southwest of the Harwick manufacturing facility.

Certified to the ISO 9001:2008 quality standard, WS focuses on application-based, customer-specific conventional and energy-curable coatings and adhesives for a broad range of applications encompassing rigid, flexible, food, beverage, pharmaceutical, confectionery, and general industrial packaging. Besides its American home market, the company has a global sales and distribution that includes Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The communication that takes place both during and after plant visits such as Rep. Dermody’s today is invaluable to both sides. Legislators are tasked with creating laws and regulations that directly impact all the manufacturing sectors. It therefore is important that they know as much as possible about actual manufacturing operations, and equally important that manufacturers are able to have input into the government actions that will affect their businesses going forward.

Recognizing this, SPI facilitates plant visits for its member companies, many of which have taken advantage of the opportunity. Further, SPI for some time sponsored “fly-ins” that bring leaders of plastics sector businesses to Washington, D.C. for meetings directly with their legislators and staffers.

The next SPI Fly-In is set for July 24, 2013, but this time it’s not just SPI members coming in. Seven other plastics-related associations are joining in, including: American Chemistry Council, American Composites Manufacturers Association, International Association of Plastics Distribution, Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association, Plastic Pipe Institute, Vinyl Institute, and Western Plastics Association. More Fly-In information here.

Much is being written lately about American manufacturing, which of course includes plastics, America’s third largest manufacturing sector. However, the analysis, opinions, and forecasts are far from unanimous. Many analysts say U.S. manufacturing is making a comeback, or is on the verge of a comeback, with reshoring of previously offshored work helping the efforts.

But you are just as likely to see or hear that the uptick in American manufacturing is a glitch, just part of a reflex-like rebound from the recession of 2008-2009, that there are serious obstacles to a major recovery, and that the U.S. is unlikely to ever recover its prominence as a maker of things.

One of the most frequently mentioned obstacles is a lack of skilled workers in the USA. Several recent studies put the number of jobs going unfilled due to employers not being able to find people with the needed skills at about half a million, and probably more. They are not talking about graduate engineers, though they too are scarce, but shop floor, hands-on machine operators, maintenance specialists, and machinists.

The ManpowerGroup’s 2012 Annual Talent Shortage Survey found 33 percent of U.S. employers have difficulty finding skilled workers, an increase from 24 percent in the 2011 survey. The Survey revealed that the 10 hardest jobs to fill are, in order of difficulty: skilled trades, engineers, IT staff, sales reps, accounting/finance staff, drivers, mechanics, nurses, machinists/machine operators, and teachers.

The so-called skills gap could either stop a manufacturing renaissance or slow it down significantly. The good news is that solutions are developing. For example, the federal government is supporting creation of centers for manufacturing excellence around the country, and plastics manufacturers and others are working with educational institutions such as community colleges to give workers the skills they need.

One solution, however, deserves more attention. “The central answer to the mismatch between jobs and employment is a 21^st-century apprenticeship program,” according to a recent article in the Washington Post. The authors, Stuart E. Eizenstat, chief domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter and undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration, and Robert I. Lerman, an economics professor at American University and a fellow at the Urban Institute, make a strong case for apprenticeships.

There are a number of existing manufacturing apprenticeship programs in operation, but with about half a million jobs open that can’t be filled, more are needed. The article points out that 55 to 70 percent of all young people in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland enter apprenticeships. To be sure, those countries have long traditions of guilds and craftwork and you could say apprenticeships are in their culture. But in Australia apprenticeships have tripled since 1996, and in England they have increased by a factor of 10 since 1990 to more than 500,000 participants last year.

As a plastics industry journalist in Europe, I visited numerous plastics processing facilities, and I saw apprentices at work in many of them, particularly in Germany. Those training programs are as normal and common there as they are rare and unusual in the USA. Top managers of the processing companies told me the apprentice programs are virtually always three-way partnerships among government, education, and the manufacturer — and they always spoke of the program and its results positively. I recall one manager, puzzled by my questions about the apprentice system, stopped for a moment and then told me, in a serious tone, that those youngsters were the future of his company.

My interviews were almost always at small to medium plastics processing companies, almost all plastics molders and moldmakers. The larger companies also have apprentice programs. In every case, the managers emphasized that the learning was absolutely practical, based on the specifics of processing plastics and toolmaking. They stressed how, following a brief startup period, the apprentices did real work that the company needed, not made-up training exercises. The learning provided by the educational institution likewise was driven by what the apprentices would be doing following their training. The keyword for the apprentice training is practical.

Manufacturing accounts for 20 percent of all German jobs, despite a high level of automation. Manufacturing is about 10 percent of the U.S. workforce. Germany as a country is strongly focused on exports and regularly enjoys a trade surplus. By contrast, America’s large trade deficit seems to have become a permanent part of economic reports.

Making apprenticeships an effective component of U.S. manufacturing will require a cultural shift. Eizenstat and Lerman note that government in America spends more than $300 billion on colleges and universities, while its outlays for apprenticeship programs are less than $40 million. Many Americans believe that a college diploma is essential to success, that production facilities are terrible workplaces, and that a career in manufacturing lacks prestige and is not financially rewarding.

As everyone in manufacturing knows, the truth is quite the opposite. The apprentice graduates with a sense of pride and the identity that comes with joining an occupational group. And the financial considerations are very different. Unlike a full-time student, the apprentice earns money while learning and training, does not accumulate what increasingly is a heavy burden of student loan debt, has not been unemployed, and most likely will not be.

A planet this beautiful deserves to be treated with great care, and fairly. (Photo: NASA)

In stark contrast with its good intentions, the annual April 22^nd Earth Day celebration never fails to resurrect many of the myths about plastics. Sadly, this year again saw many of the tired old plastics myths rise like zombies and stumble, maybe not through your town, but surely through the media.

Even the real science that clearly shows these fanciful tales are nothing but myths is not enough to kill them. Science is simply and conveniently ignored.

These zombie myths are far from harmless, however. For starters, they needlessly alarm the public. That’s bad enough, but the resulting hysteria then gets twisted in a way that directly threatens American manufacturing jobs in the plastics industry. Does anyone doubt we need more good jobs, not fewer?

These persistent plastics myths spring from and are kept alive by a variety of sources. Among the loudest are:

• Environmental activists and non-government organizations promoting their agendas,
• Journalists that fail to do basic research and simply repeat the myths,
• Businesses with a competing alternative material, or,
• Retailers that give in to the outcries of alarmist special interest groups.

The links below describe some of the more commonly heard myths about plastics. Click on them to see the facts about the safe use of plastic products, facts provided by experts in government, academia and industry. 

Common Myths About Plastics

1. Using plastic food containers or wraps in microwaves is dangerous.
2. Freezing water in plastic bottles releases dioxins into the water.
3. The number on the bottom of plastic cups, bottles and containers informs consumers about how to use a product or package.
4. Plastic food wraps and packages are made with phthalates.
5. Six-pack rings (beverage can binders) are a hazard to wildlife.

The myth mongers seem oblivious to the negative effects of their story telling, such as how they can wipe out well-paying jobs in America’s third-largest manufacturing sector—plastics. It is far more likely that they wear blinders by choice as they promote their agendas.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the zombie plastics myths abruptly dropped in their tracks like movie zombies often do. Not likely. In real life, the myth mongers work hard to keep the zombie plastic myths circulating. For many  it’s how they make their living. However, since facts are the best antidote for myths, arm yourself with the Plastics Champion described below.

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Have a Database of Facts About Plastics at Your Fingertips

SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association, in cooperation with seven other plastics-related associations, has published an online database of factual information about plastics called the Plastics Champion, and it’s yours to download or access online at no cost. You can find it  here: www.plasticschampion.org. For the iPhone and iPad, it’s free on the Apple App Store or via iTunes. Search ‘Plastics Champion’ or use this link. An Android app is being developed, but for now the website is mobile browser friendly. With  the Plastics Champion at hand you may actually enjoy your next encounter with a plastics myth spinner.

Three months ago we saw the promotional trailer for the just-released animated film derived from the children’s book “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss. It made it clear that the film, unlike the book, portrays plastics and the people who work with them as rather nasty villains. That made me upset, and I said so on this blog.

While I still feel that way, I’m glad the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council took a much better approach. When the folks at ACC learned that the film was targeting plastics, they saw an opportunity to do something positive, and a plan was set in motion.

As a result, ACC has created a colorful, easy to navigate website called “Plastics and the Lorax,” organized around several inspirational ideas from The Lorax. The site, which went live on March 2, 2012, helps kids of elementary and middle school age learn the many things plastic can become when it’s recycled, and it shows them how they can help make sure plastics are recycled as they should be.

The website is rich in plastics information, and includes links that connect elementary and middle school teachers with teaching programs and content that they can use to create exciting and fun  learning experiences for kids in their classrooms.

The “Plastics and the Lorax” website provides a friendly, informative contrast to the negative bias against plastics that we see repeated in the mass media—some of which is aimed directly at kids.

Since many adults are not aware that recycling plastic is the best overall strategy, and that it is beneficial to the environment, their kids are likely to grow up with the same mindset. This new ACC website will help create an awareness of plastics recycling in kids, and it just may filter up to the adults..

Take a look at the “Plastics and the Lorax” website for yourself. Then take the next step and recommend it to your local schools. Mention it to your kids’ teachers. Tell them the Lorax sent you.

The organizers of NPE2012 (Orlando, FL; April 1-5, 2012) have moved the deadline for entries in the International Plastics Design Competition back a full month to February 29^th. So come on you designers, material suppliers, mold & die makers, extruders, thermoformers, molders, machinery makers, auxiliaries suppliers, and everyone in the supply chain. Bring out your best. It’s show time!

Rest assured that the organizers of NPE2012 are sympathetic to anyone scrambling to meet a deadline. They are up against many of them right now. In the case of the Design Competition, NPE organizers also keenly remember the display area for competition entries at NPE2009, an area that was buzzing with traffic all day during every day of the entire show. They want it to be that way again in Orlando.

For anyone entering the Competition, it is an unsurpassed opportunity to gain recognition for your company, and to meet new contacts and potential clients. I stopped at the display area as often as I could, first to vote for the People’s Choice Award, and later to get a closer look at an entry. I always had plenty of company and people were talking about what they were seeing.

I think that at least part of what’s behind the Competition’s popularity is that we in plastics work on one or a few links of the concept-to-finished product chain. We may not even know the other players in what is virtually always a team effort, and we may not ever see the finished product.

During the International Plastics Design Competition, not only do we see the finished end-products, including our own, but they are under spotlights for everyone to see and admire. Modesty is fine, but it’s pretty cool to see your work on a pedestal, and winning an award is not bad either.

Award winners at the NPE2009 Design Competition were a widely varied lot, but all of them exemplified in one way or another the amazing, almost unbelievable things that the plastics industry creates every day. Your work deserves to be on display during NPE2012 in Orlando, and you have an extra month to get your entry together.

You will find entry information right here, or here, and also here. Students can enter, too. Click in and do yourself proud. Here are a few winners in the NPE2009 International Plastics Design Competition to inspire you. See you in Orlando.

The molder, Steinwall Inc., mold maker Contour Mold, and the designer/OEM John Deere took the Lawn & Garden/Agriculture Award for this seed-dispensing tube.

The Embody Chair took home the Furniture Award for its OEM, Herman Miller Inc.; molder Cascade Engineering & ITW Dahti; and designers Jeff Weber & Bill Stumpf.

The iSecure Syringe took both the IDSA/Plastics News Design Award and the Medical Award for OEM Hospira Inc.; designers John Domkowski & Robert Oshgan; mold maker KTW Group; and molder All West Plastics Inc.