Author Archives: Susan Freinkel
Whose Wish List Counts?
One of the chief defenders of the plastics/chemicals industry is the Washington DC law firm of Keller and Heckman. Founding partner Jerome Heckman has represented plastics for decades going back to the industry’s first public relations crisis in 1959 when … Continue reading
Posted in Plastics & Health, Plastics Policy, Uncategorized
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The new new bag defenders
FYI bag warriors: In January, the American Chemistry Council handed over defense of the plastic bag to the Society for the Plastics Industry — plastic’s older, but smaller and poorer trade association. The advocacy team, now operating under the name … Continue reading
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Remember the Lorax
In anticipation of the new film, The Lorax, the American Chemistry Council has launched a site directed at all those kids who may have been energized by the movie’s environmental message. Plastics and the Lorax doesn’t try to overtly correct … Continue reading
Posted in Business of Plastics, Recycling
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How to keep up with bag laws
When I was working on my book, trying to track the political debate over plastic bags was a major pain. Every time I saw a news story about some town considering a ban, I would log it into a chart … Continue reading
Posted in Plastics Policy
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The Coming Polyethylene Flood
Everyday I receive a news alert from the American Chemistry Council and each day it seems the alert contains at least one or more entries about fracking — the controversial practice of extracting natural gas (or oil) from shale. Even … Continue reading
Posted in Business of Plastics
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Will Bag Bans Take Off in California?
If I were a betting person, I’d wager we’ll see a wave of plastic bag prohibitions coming out of California communities over the next year. And I’m guessing that unlike the first round of bag measures that were inspired by … Continue reading
Plastic Groups Team Up
Plastic has long been a balkanized industry, fraught with internecine rivalries. For years, there was bad blood between the industry’s two biggest trade groups, the Society for the Plastics Industry (SPI) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC). But there’s nothing … Continue reading
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Building Bridges from Bottles
Tom Nosker, a polymer engineer at Rutgers University, has invented a method for turning used plastics into an incredibly strong, durable building material. In Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, I describe how a New Jersey company is using Nosker’s technology … Continue reading
Posted in Business of Plastics, Recycling
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A New Bag Battle
In the old days — say, four years ago — bag battles were centered on the plastic or paper question. Which was always something of a red herring since the issue at stake is really our dependence on single-use … Continue reading
Posted in Packaging, Plastics Policy, Uncategorized
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Blight to Beauty
Plastic shopping bags may be a blight on the landscape, but Jessica Lee, a student at Parsons The New School of Design, has found that these puffs of polyethylene also contain a certain hidden grace. For her thesis project, Lee … Continue reading
Posted in Plastica, Uncategorized
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