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.

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.

Supply chains run both ways.

We all know that the manufacturing process begins with raw materials and ends with a finished product. But lately it feels more appropriate to consider the cycle in reverse — not pellet to product, but rather people to pellet. Consider this scenario: A brand owner decides

to change a product’s packaging to appeal to consumer desires for greater convenience, freshness, sustainability, visibility or all of the above. A design, or at least a concept, is decided upon. The brand owner takes the design concept to a packaging converter who optimizes the concept for performance, manufacturability and cost. The converter must put in a new line for the project and engages an equipment manufacturer. Together they reach out to material suppliers who help them obtain the desired properties for their new package.

SPI’s Flexible Film and Bag Division will be highlighting this dynamic at its Spring Conference (May 8-10 in Nashville). Attendees will hear from consumer trends expert Lyn Dornblaser of the Mintel Group, which will be followed by a real case study of one company’s move from rigid to flexible packaging. The panel highlighting Clorox’s packaging change for its Fresh Step Cat Litter includes supply chain members such as Mondi Group.

As SPI begins to grow and engage its new Brand Owner Council, it becomes increasingly clear that brand owners should be part of SPI to optimize these discussions. No matter which way it runs, the supply chain circle is now complete.

Who might think plastic bread bag closures would make a lovely wedding dress? The bride, that’s who.
© Constructing Nadine 

Though it’s increasingly clear that there is no end to the ways plastics can be reduced, reused and recycled, and that all those ways show creativity, transforming something as ordinary as the small plastic tabs that keep plastic bread bags closed into a wedding dress merits closer inspection.

Credit the idea, the design, and the making of the dress to Stephanie Watson, a fashion designer living in Trentham, Australia, a bit northwest of Melbourne. For this assignment, she also was the client, the bride. The dress became a ten-year project for her, starting when she and her boyfriend, now her husband, Will Wapling got together. The collecting of bread tags, as they are called in Australia, was soon underway.

© Constructing Nadine

Watson said it was just a joke at the start, but people started collecting them for her and they began filling jars, and then larger jars. Even so, ten years and thousands of tags later, there still were not enough to make the dress, which by then had been given a name, Nadine. To the rescue came Wapling’s cousin, a baker, who donated enough rolls of the plastic tags to get the job done.

Watson then was able to direct her design and sewing skills into making the idea a reality. Though the cost of the dress is said to be about AUD$36, Watson estimates that she invested more than 300 hours into its design and creation, including sewing ten thousand plastic tags to the lining in a way that the stitches didn’t show.

Overlapping the bread tags hides the stitching.

© Constructing Nadine

 

 

 

Watson told the local newspaper, “I just didn’t want to have a normal wedding gown.” Mission accomplished, to say the least, but the critical question has to be, how did the dress work out on the big day?

In her blog she says it was a bit uncomfortable. Small and light as bread tags are, ten thousand weigh about 15 pounds, and are not very flexible. That caused Watson to be a bit concerned about taking a tumble, but she held tightly onto Wapling and the big day went according to plan. In the photos, the groom seems pleased to be held onto.