The happy little guy above is Kaiba Gionfriddo, 19 months old, having fun with every breath he takes, but if a brilliant medical team had not placed a 3D-printed plastic splint onto his bronchial airway to hold it open, it’s unlikely he would be alive today.

Kaiba was born with a rare condition called tracheobronchomalacia, which causes the airways to be weak and prone to collapse. Additionally, some of the arteries around his heart were malformed; encircling the trachea tightly enough to compress the airway.

Sadly, most parents only become aware of this when their child suddenly stops breathing and dies. Baby Kaiba stopped breathing and turned blue in a restaurant when he was six weeks old. His father, Bryan Gionfriddo, used CPR to revive him, but the episodes continued and Kaiba was put on a breathing machine when he was two months old. Despite the best treatments available, it was virtually certain that he would die soon.

Kaiba’s doctor in Youngstown, Ohio had learned that doctors at the University of Michigan were developing a solution for this problem and contacted them. The UM doctors’ solution was to put a tubular device around the trachea that would hold it open. The tube/scaffold/splint has small holes the surgeon can use to suture it in place.

Since this would be the first time the device was used on a human, the doctors requested and received special permission to proceed from their school’s advisory board and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

University of Michigan doctors made a model of the trachea and then built the plastic splint using a 3D bioprinter.

The medical team made a model of Kaiba’s trachea and, using a program they developed, designed the tubular scaffold. The bioplastic material they used to build the scaffold on their 3D bioprinter is called polycaprolactone (PCL), a polymer approved by the FDA to fill small holes in the skull. The bioprinter melts the powder material and then builds the designed shape layer by micro-thin layer. The doctors made many of them in different sizes.

In February of 2012 the U. of Michigan surgical team carefully rearranged Kaiba’s twisted heart arteries and trachea, and then carefully placed the splint. And as soon as the splint was put in, the little lungs began moving up and down for the first time. The doctors say that in three years the material will be completely reabsorbed and excreted by the body, and the airways will be able to function on their own.

Kaiba went home three weeks after the surgery and has not had a breathing crisis since. His parents say he is learning how to get around and is being spoiled by his 6-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister.

The new procedure using the splint made by 3D printing  plastic material was made public this week by the medical team at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI via an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. There is now hope for children born with this rare condition, where previously there was virtually none.

Polycaprolactone is a biodegradable polyester material, and the PCL used in 3D printing — also known as additive manufacturing (AM) — is a special grade of the material. Probably the most common use of PCL is in the manufacturing of polyurethane materials, where it helps achieve good water, oil, solvent, and chlorine resistance. It is also added to other resins to improve their processing and certain end-product properties, for example impact resistance.

A sincere thank-you goes to the folks at BagTheBan.com for producing a brief, easy to read infographic that clearly shows how and why plastic bags are a better choice than paper or reusable shopping bags—for the environment, the economy, and the place where you live.

It’s called The Truth About Plastic Bags, and it lives up to its name with factual, quantitative information on plastic bags relative to litter, source material, recyclability (spoiler alert: 100% recyclable), access to bag recycling, environmental impact (see below), negative impacts of bag bans on retail businesses, and more.

The colorful, multipage infographic is available as a free PDF download that can be easily reprinted and handed to those who mistakenly believe plastic bags make the worst choice when the truth is the exact opposite. Facts are facts.

You can see a sample from The Truth About Plastic Bags below, and you can see it in full and download it here. For more information on plastic bags, visit BagTheBan.com, which is presented by Hilex Poly, a leader in plastic bag recycling and manufacturing.

In a major redesign of its marinade product line, Goya Foods, which is the largest Hispanic-owned U.S. food company and a leading supplier of Latin American food and condiments, has converted its 12oz (355ml) and 24.5oz (725ml) marinade bottles from glass to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles supplied by Amcor Rigid Plastics.

Switching from glass (left) bottles to PET plastics bottles, Goya Foods gained many advantages, including substantially reduced environmental impact.

Amcor’s LatinAmerica group designed the hot-fill bottles, including a new shrink-wrap label, and the result is a vibrant, clean package that is at once modern and elegant. Apart from the visual appeal, Amcor’s press release notes other benefits: “The hot fill bottle delivers significant performance and cost advantages including portability, reduced breakage, and light weight, along with sustainability benefits such as recyclability, reduced transportation costs, and a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

During the last 70 or so years that plastics have been replacing glass — and metals, paper, and fabrics — the replacement decision was generally not based on any single plastics advantage. One benefit often was cited as the key factor, but virtually always, it was a combination of benefits that spurred the change, as it is with Goya’s decision on these bottles.

Goya is realizing substantial environmental benefits by changing the  bottles from glass to plastics. Amcor says using PET in the 24.5oz bottle results in a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 61.4%, compared with glass. Additionally, using PET means 52% more 24.5oz bottles are in a truckload, which eliminates still more GHG. Such environmental benefits may vary in quantity but  generally they are typical when plastics replace other materials, a fact that environmental activists and groups should appreciate, or at least notice.

“In the end, lightweight PET not only delivered a major savings in terms of freight cost but also gave us the glass-like appearance and the shelf appeal to maintain our brand image,” said Joseph Perez, senior vice president of Goya Foods. Both bottle sizes are custom designed for both ambient fill (up to 140°F) and hot fill (up to 185°F) applications and are seamlessly integrated into existing glass filling lines with minimal adjustment, according to Perez.

Goya Foods, which offers more that 2,200 Latin American food products, also plans to replace glass with PET in an existing 12oz juice beverage line. Perez said the conversion to hot fill PET is expected by the summer.

The new Goya PET bottles are the first to feature Amcor’s new Origami hot-fill technology, incorporating six flat panels to counteract vacuum that occurs in hot filled containers and to maintain structural strength and integrity. The flat surfaces enhance gripping and consumer handling.

Subway’s new catering tray is 95% recycled PET soda and water bottles.

On April 22^nd, the Subway restaurant chain announced another step in its commitment to making its operations more environmentally responsible. Its newly introduced catering trays are made from 95% post-consumer recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic. Subway (Milford, CT) estimates this change will keep about 1.8 million pounds of plastic material from entering the waste stream each year.

Each tray and lid use PET material equivalent to about 19 20-ounce PET soda or water bottles, and Subway notes that the trays and lids can be recycled in commercial recycling facilities. “We have made a commitment to look at every facet of our day-to-day operations in order to make our restaurants more environmentally responsible,” said Elizabeth Stewart, Subway’s marketing director, who also oversees the brand’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

In April of 2012, Subway announced that it was using new salad bowls, also made of 95% post-consumer-recycled (PCR) plastic, predominately from PET soda and water bottles. That, said Subway, would keep about 2.62 million pounds of plastics from going into landfills. To give that large number some perspective, when Subway announced the new salad bowls a year ago it had more than 36,000 locations worldwide. Today its website shows that number has risen to 39,263 restaurants in 102 countries.

Last year Subway began using salad bowls made of post-consumer recycled PET plastic material.

Subway says that both the salad bowls and the new catering trays, were created by Pactiv (Lake Forest, IL), which has 55 facilities in seven countries and says it’s the world’s largest manufacturer of food service items and packaging. Pactiv purchases post-consumer PET bottles, which it recycles and uses to manufacture the salad bowls and lids and the catering trays.

The recycling of PET trays and other thermoformed products has not been as widespread as PET bottle recycling, but it has been growing as more thermoformed PET products have gone to market.

To help accelerate the growth of recycling thermoformed PET, SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association and NAPCOR, the National Association for PET Container Resources, last year awarded three grants to companies in Maryland, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania to help them establish model programs for collection and intermediate processing of thermoformed PET packaging.

The resurgence of the automotive market may seem to have stoked the fires of innovation in the plastics sector, but the reality is that automotive plastics innovation has been bubbling along during the recent slowdown, and the results are just now appearing. For example one recently announced development has great potential for helping boost fuel economy and reducing emissions.

The polyurethane (PUR) supplier Henkel (Düsseldorf, Germany) and the composite component maker Benteler-SGL (Ried im Innkreis, Austria) jointly have developed a process they say will allow automakers to switch from the heavy steel leaf springs used in auto suspensions to composite leaf springs that can be up to 65% lighter.

This composite leaf spring of PUR resin weighs up to 65% less than metal leaf springs.

That’s a big savings. Auto designers who replace metal parts with plastics alternatives that save 10%, even 5%, are happy. Saving weight means better fuel economy, which translates into reduced emissions, two important goals in the transportation sector. A 65% weight reduction in a heavy steel part should get a party started.

It’s not that composite leaf springs are something new. They have been designed into a number of GM cars, the Corvette probably being the best known, as well a few Volvos, a Mercedes van, and the Smart ForTwo, to name a few. However, getting the production volume needed for mass-market cars remained a stumbling block. Cycle times were too long, so Henkel and Benteler-SGL developed a solution.

Henkel’s Loctite MAX 2 provides a polyurethane-based matrix resin that Henkel says cures significantly faster than the epoxy products usually used. In addition, the PUR’s low viscosity lets it penetrate the fiber material more easily and thoroughly, resulting in short injection times. Without releasing specifics, the  companies say  cycle time with this process will allow sufficiently high volume production.

A resin transfer molding press at Benteler-SGL.

Benteler-SGL is an established producer of carbon- and glass-fiber composite auto components such as side panels and doors, and uses the resin transfer molding (RTM) process to reach the output needed for mass-market autos. The RTM process enables control of the curing reaction by adjusting the temperature or by adding an accelerator.

Using Henkel’s PUR resin in Benteler-SGL’s RTM process reduces the risk of local overheating that can cause part shrinkage. The PUR generates less heat during curing than do the generally used epoxies. Even thick parts with many fiber layers cure quickly.

Henkel says it and Benteler-SGL  have developed a process that will make composite leaf springs on cycles short enough for high volume production, and the parts have an attractive properties profile. Add that to that 65% weight reduction from steel leaf springs and this definitely has possibilities.