As it sets sail for Germany and K 2010, PolyOne Corp. is hoping that its recent run of good fortune can continue. The Avon Lake-based compounding and distribution firm is on track to post its second straight profitable year in 2010. And while that may seem like faint praise, it is music to the ears of Chairman and CEO Stephen Newlin. “We’ve done a whole culture transformation,” Newlin said in a recent interview in Avon Lake. “We’re now focused squarely on our customers and have higher expectations and accountability.

Our focus is on new customers and prospects, and we’re driven around customer needs.” Those changes also have produced results on PolyOne’s bottom line. In 2007 — Newlin’s first full year at the helm — the firm eked out an $11.4 million profit on sales of about $2.6 billion. The economic flameout of 2008 hit PolyOne hard, as the firm posted a loss of almost $275 million on sales of about $2.7 billion. After making some tough choices in 2009 — closing a plant in Ontario and cutting almost 400 jobs companywide — PolyOne turned the corner in 2009, earning almost $70 million on a slimmed-down sales total of $2.1 billion.

The turnaround also has been reflected in PolyOne’s per-share stock price. When Newlin joined the firm in early 2006, the price was floating just under $9 per share. It bounced between $6 and $10 through mid-2008 before descending along with most other stocks, bottoming out under $1.50 in March 2009. Since that point, PolyOne’s stock price has been on a steady upward climb, closing Oct. 14 at $13.37. “We did a customer survey right after I started, and a number of people said we were difficult to do business with,” Newlin said. “On product quality, nothing stood out. In delivery and innovation, we were right in the middle of the pack. “That wasn’t good enough. We wanted to be the best in all stages. Our on-time delivery ranged from 81 percent to the mid-90s. Why would you buy from us? We needed to capture what made our customers profitable. “I don’t think we were arrogant, but we had grown complacent with our customers.

We used to go after volume. But that’s not our game anymore.” Newlin also made a number of moves which, he said, improved the caliber of PolyOne’s management team. “I believe that we have, bar none, the best management team in the industry,” he said. “We have a lot of ideas and energy focused on innovation.” At the K show, PolyOne will be highlighting several new or recently introduced materials, including:

• OnColor Complete, an eco-friendly liquid colorant system that can help processors and original equipment manufacturers reduce their costs of operations while eliminating waste and enhancing employee safety, according to PolyOne.
• Edgetek AM-brand flame-retardant, non-halogen compounds, a new line of nylon-based compounds for thin-walled parts.
• OnFlex-brand non-halogen flame-retardant, non-phthalate thermoplastic elastomers — a line from PolyOne’s GLS unit aimed at the wire and cable market.

• Compounds, additive and colorant solutions for photovoltaics, for use in back-sheet laminates, wire and other applications in solar energy and related markets.

• Halogen-free Eccoh-brand compounds, which provide structural strength, antimicrobial controls and other properties to the medical market.

“The K show is important to us because we’re a global player,” Newlin said. “There will be a lot of suppliers and business customers there. We want to support the industry and stay connected and have visibility.”

Regarding two of PolyOne’s main end markets — automotive and construction — Newlin said the firm “is dealing with things we can control and influence.”

“We can’t control how many houses or cars are built,” he said. “We’ll never fully abandon these markets, but we need to find ways to grow when they’re down.”

Newlin pointed out that the standard U.S. auto scrap rate — how many cars are taken off the roads each year — is 12 million. That’s slightly ahead of the 11.5 million build number expected for this year.

“That’s just treading water,” he said of those numbers. “Automotive is in the right zone globally, but it’s still down in the U.S. We see continued growth in that market, but we’ve become more of a custom shop.”

Any U.S. construction market recovery “will take a while longer,” according to Newlin. Although the U.S. market eventually could get back to its 50-year average of about 1.5 million new units built per year, the peak of 2 million “won’t be seen again,” he said.

Newlin also anticipates a change in the previously close relationship between housing starts and the performance of PVC-based products such as the compounds that remain a large business for PolyOne.

“People are going to have less to spend on a new house, and we need to match that,” he said.

PolyOne also is working in a challenging market space where it’s entering into sustainable products while still being a major developer of PVC, a resin that’s been targeted by environmentalists for many years.

“We need a sustainability line that goes all the way across our product line,” Newlin said. “But PVC is really difficult to replace unless you can replace its economics.

“Everybody’s for green products — it’s like apple pie — but they don’t always want to pay a 30-40 percent premium. So there’s not going to be a sea change. We’ll continue to pursue parallel paths.”

Newlin also touched on PolyOne’s recently introduced supplier scorecard program, where the firm will assess 30 of its suppliers in a number of performance areas.

“It’s not about beating our suppliers up on price,” he said. “We want them to understand where we’re going with the company. We want to draw them in to technology, open the door and see what it means.”

Future growth also is on the minds of Newlin and other PolyOne executives.

“We’ve got the strongest balance sheet and finances in the history of the company, and we’ll be gearing up our [mergers and acquisitions] activity,” he said. “We’ll look to global growth in technology plays and bolt-on applications. We like our position in Asia, but we’ll keep building on it, and also will look to South America.”

Source: plasticsnews.com

If you have heard about the Plastic Continent -- the floating island of plastic twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean -- then you understand how crucial it is to recycle plastic. Right now, only 5% of plastics worldwide are recycled. Some of this is ignorance: most of the world still simply doesn't understand the danger plastics pose to our environment and our food chain. But plastics themselves are complicated. Even if you want to recycle your plastics, and even if you dutifully separate plastics from the rest of your household waste and put it out on the curb in its blue or green recycle bin, your plastics might still end up in the Plastic Continent. Why is this?

Different Types of Plastic

Look at the underneath side of a plastic bottle or plastic container. Inside the familiar reduce, reuse, recycle triangle (“chasing arrows”) logo is a number between one and seven. This number indicates what kind of plastic that container is made from. Some plastics are easy to recycle, but other plastics are much harder to recycle. As a result, most municipal recycling facilities only recycle the easiest plastics: plastics 1 and 2. What happens to plastics 3 through 7? At some recycling facilities, these are gathered until they have enough to send to a larger recycling facility that does recycle these types of plastics. But at other recycling facilities, the same thing happens to plastics 3 through 7 as what would have happened at your house if you didn't have that handy recycling bin: it goes to the landfill, or the Pacific's Plastic Continent.

Plastics #1 and #2

Plastic #1 is polyethelyne terephthalate (PET). This is the most commonly used plastic, and it\'s the easiest to recycle. Your plastic soda bottle, salad dressing bottle, and cooking oil bottle are probably all made from PET. More than 2.3 billion pounds of PET are recycled annually.

Plastic #2 is high density polyethelene (HDPE). Most milk jugs, detergent bottles, and many food containers are made from HDPE. Unfortunately, some plastics marked with a #2, such as yogurt cups, are not actually recyclable. This is because other chemicals have been added to the plastic in order to mold it into the desired shape. These additives make recycling some of these #2 items basically impossible.

Plastics #1 and #2 make up 96% of all the plastic bottles produced in the United States. Nevertheless, 80% of plastic bottles still wind up in a landfill, even though 80% of Americans have access to a method for recycling these bottles.

Plastics #3 through #7

The rest of the plastics make up pretty much everything that\'s not a plastic bottle. Just think of all the plastics in your home -- your toothbrush, cling wrap, plastic bowls, plastic cups, drinking straws, last night\'s leftovers, that almost-impossible-to-open package your new iPhone came in, your computer, your DVD cases... plastic is everywhere.

These plastics can all be categorized as the plastics #3 through #7. None of them are particularly easy to recycle, so even though your recycling guy will take it from your curb, that doesn't necessarily mean it will become tomorrow's soda bottle. However, by researching recycling facilities in your area, you can find places to recycle these less common plastics.

The Bottom Line When it Comes to Plastic Recycling

Plastic is much harder to recycle than other materials. Because it breaks down during the recycling process, it can only be recycled so many times -- this is why many recyclers prefer so-called “virgin plastics”, or plastics that haven't been recycled before because they make a better product. That means that even if you do the best you can to recycle all your plastics, some of them might still wind up in the dump.

The clear conclusion we must draw is that even the most conscientious recycling is not enough when it comes to plastics: ultimately, we have to reduce our consumption. The process of producing plastics, many plastics themselves, and the aftermath of plastic use can all be described as toxic. Nearly all manufacturing processes for the different types of plastic listed above involve some degree of toxicity, and as these plastics disintegrate in landfills or in the ocean, these toxic chemicals find their ways back into our soils, our water, our food, and our bodies.

So please recycle plastic. But better yet, stop buying plastic wherever possible.

Source: amazines.com

The impressive throughput rate of 3,500 kg/h PET bottle flakes is the characteristic of the largest infrared drum (IRD) ever realized which was delivered by KREYENBORG PLANT TECHNOLOGY in the first half of 2010. The IRD with the remarkable dimensions of 2,500 mm drum diameter and 5,400 mm drum length, with 540 kW of installed radiator output, opens up new dimensions for the processing of recycled PET bottles.

The large machine is designed to dry PET bottle flakes with a bulk density of about 0.35 kg/dm ³, from max. 1 % initial moisture to < 0.05% and to crystallize it at the same time. It is important for these applications to achieve a homogeneous residual moisture of the flakes. In practice this can be subject to significant variations due to the treatment process and the storage of the material. Due to the short residence time of 10-15 minutes, there is significantly less material in the drying process than in conventional systems. This typical advantage of the IRD is of immense help, as no bulky drying vessels are needed - particularly at large throughput rates combined with the low bulk density of the flakes.

With the infrared drying technology KREYENBORG PLANT TECHNOLOGY is present on the market since 2005. They offer machine sizes from 20 – 4,000 kg/h throughput rates, both in continuous and batch operation.

KREYENBORG Plant Technology GmbH & Co. KG

The shortlist of finalists has been announced today for the 2010 Bioplastics Award, an international competition organised jointly by PRW’s sister publication European Plastics News and Bioplastics Magazine.

The five finalists have been selected from more than 20 high quality proposals entered from around the world. The shortlisted companies and products are (without any ranking):

FKuR/Fujitsu: Eco Keyboard Fujitsu KBPC PX ECO

Fujitsu Technology Solutions is the leading IT infrastructure provider in Europe. Its Eco keyboard (KBPC PX ECO) was developed using materials from German company FKuR Kunststoff, enabling 45% of the plastics components to be replaced by materials made from renewable resources. Biograde C 7500 CL was chosen for the keyboard base.

ICO: ‘Green Planet’ Writing Instruments and Office Supplies

Hungarian company ICO Stationery Manufacturing produces a full range of office products made from PLA, including pens, paperclip holders, letter openers, staplers, punches and pen stands. Aside from their renewable corn source, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions, the products are fully compostable.

Proganic: Injection Mouldable PHA Compound

Germany-based Proganic has developed a new bio-polymer compound based on PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) blended with renewable vegetable oils, waxes and natural minerals. It can be used as a replacement for a variety of thermoplastics including PP and ABS. The Proganic compound is home compostable in both open and closed composters at 20°C. It is currently being used by Propper of Germany to produce watering cans, flower pots, self adhesive hooks, egg cups and spoons, and strainers.

Toyota – Bioplastics Applications on the SAI Hybrid Car

The Toyota Passenger Vehicle Development Center 2 at Toyota Motors Corporation has been active in the area of bioplastics since 2003. The successful implementation of bioplastics in its new luxury Hybrid Car, the ‘SAI‘, is an outstanding example of the application of a bioplastics materials in a wide variety of application areas.

EconCore – PLA Honeycomb Sandwich Structure

EconCore of Belgium has developed a continuous production technology to manufacture a PLA-based lightweight hexagonal honeycomb structural sheet. The process sandwiches the core between two skins – made of either 100% PLA or a PLA flax composite – in a single production step. The lightweight structure is 100% renewable, fully compostable and reduces overall material use, keeping cost down.

The Bioplastics Award is intended to recognise innovation, success and achievement by manufacturers, processors and users of bio-based plastic materials.

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