My Knowledge

Week in Review
PUBLISHED 01/22/2008

Santa Monica Eateries Going Green; Struggle To Find Alternative To Polystyrene

Santa Monica city officials, hoping to put an end to the blight of discarded take-out boxes and beverage cups on their beach, are gearing up to implement a ban on nonrecyclable foam and plastic early next year. Facing a Feb. 9 deadline, most of Santa Monica's restaurants have switched to biodegradable food containers. For many, however, the switch has been a struggle, with some small-business owners saying they are still scrambling to find affordable material to replace cheap polystyrene, or plastic foam. Josephine Miller said she sent nearly 700 letters to vendors offering supplier contacts and biodegradable options after she was hired in July to help the city's Environmental Programs Division implement the ban. "Food providers have to learn new habits, and they're already exhausted during the holiday season," Miller said. "But we're sitting down with businesses and doing a lot of hand-holding." ...Los Angeles Times, 12.23.07
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Whole Foods Sacks Plastic Bags

There's a familiar question that Whole Foods will stop asking shoppers: Paper or plastic? Tuesday, Whole Foods will announce plans to stop offering disposable, plastic grocery bags in all 270 stores in the USA, Canada and United Kingdom by Earth Day — April 22. That means roughly 100 million plastic bags will be kept out of the environment between that date and the end of 2008, the company says. "This is something our customers want us to do," says A.C. Gallo, Whole Foods co-president. "It's central to our core values of caring for communities and the environment." In place of the fly-away plastic bags scorned by many environmentalists, Whole Foods will offer several options: free paper bags in four sizes made from 100% recycled paper, reusable bags 80% made from recycled plastic bottles for 99 cents and canvas bags selling for $6.99 to $35. It encourages consumers to bring their own bags by taking 5 cents to 10 cents off the bill for each. ...USA Today, 01.22.08
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Plastic Pipe Plays Key Role In New Road To Tapping Solar Energy

If you've ever walked barefoot outside on a hot day, you know how asphalt absorbs the sun's rays. Now, a Dutch company is siphoning the heat from roads and parking lots to heat homes and offices. As climate change rises on the international agenda, the system built by a civil engineering firm, Ooms Avenhorn Holding BV, doesn't look as wacky as it might have 10 years ago when it was conceived. Solar energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of about 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base supply heat for its hangar. And all that despite the Netherlands' normally cloudy skies, with only a few days a year of truly sweltering temperatures. ...Los Angeles Times, 01.20.08
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Developing Technology To Meet Market Needs Is Dupont’S Priority

If men of Indian origin have been blazing a new trail, reaching the top slot in the information technology (IT), banking and telecom sectors globally in the last year, their women counterparts have not been far behind. For instance, while Ms Indra Nooyi is at the helm of PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) , Ms Padmashree Warrier is the Chief Technology Officer with Cisco Systems. (NASDAQ:CSCO) In the world of science, where women are few in numbers, Dr Uma Chowdhry has scaled new heights, becoming the Chief Science and Technology Officer (CTO) of the $28-billion DuPont (NYSE:DD PRB) (NYSE:DD PRA) (NYSE:DD) , based in Wilmington, US. In her new role, Dr Uma Chowdhry, who hails from Mumbai, is responsible for the Research and Development (R&D) effort of the Delaware-based, science-driven company. DuPont’s R&D budget, including engineering and technical, is $1.7 billion, which translates to more than the turnover of India’s top pharma company, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, during fiscal 2006-07. ...The Hindu Business Line, 01.18.08
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Auto Show: Sabic Innovative Plastics Adds Green Auto Touch

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where eco-friendly vehicles are all the rage this year, Sabic Innovative Plastics is touting its own contribution: weight loss. In the design of the Lincoln MKT, a luxury crossover vehicle from Ford, and in the futuristic Land Rover LRX, Sabic's plastics technology is incorporated with lighter-weight windows and other high-tech plastic parts throughout the cars. The MKT's plastic parts come from "upcycled plastic" derived from some 2,000 recycled plastic water bottles, the number used by a person who drinks one per day for more than 5 1/2 years. The savings from plastic: 104 pounds of the weight off the vehicle, according to AH&M Inc., Sabic's Pittsfield-based public relations and marketing company. Polycarbonate — the engineered plastic also know as Lexan — is just one feature of the luxury Lincoln MKT, a sleek crossover concept vehicle also featuring the new "EcoBoost" engine and rugs made of banana silk. Both the vehicles incorporating Sabic technology are "concept cars," dream vehicles that may or may not make it to the marketplace. ...Berkshire Eagle, 01.17.08
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Victor Plastics Files For Bankruptcy

North Liberty-based Victor Plastics Inc. announced a bankruptcy filing and plans to begin laying off its 420 employees because of challenging market conditions. The company announced its plans Tuesday, but said it expects limited production to continue through the first week of May. "Our firm has worked strenuously to avoid bankruptcy," Victor Plastics CEO Mike Tryon said in a prepared statement. Tryon cited a litany of factors that have made it impossible to operate profitably. They included "industry outsourcing to overseas competitors, intense market competition, loss of key customers, and increasing costs of raw materials (particularly resin)." The company's bankruptcy filing was actually made by a holding company for Victor Plastics, VPI Acquisition Co., in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Minnesota. ...The Gazette - Cedar Rapids Iowa , 01.16.08
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Biobased and Biodegradable Plastics 101

By Dr. Ramani Narayan, Michigan State University
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Enhancing Plastics Recycling

By Steve Alexander, Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers
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