Helllllllo all. You can’t imagine the weather Chicago is getting right now! I think I have witnessed every stage of precipitation in the last 20 minutes. My wishes for a safe commute home extend to all!!!
What shall we talk about today? In exciting Dordan news our feature as The sustainable thermoformer for Plastic Technology’s 4-part series on packaging and sustainability went LIVE today on the publication’s website. It’s wonderful; I’m described as having “boundless enthusiasm” for sustainability, awesome. Here is a link to the feature, and as introduction to the series, Editorial Director James Callari’s “It Aint Easy Being Green.”
And, drum roll please…Dordan has joined SPI, Society of the Plastics Industry. This is The trade association for the plastics industry, whoa! Based in Washington, D.C., this organization lobbies on behalf of, well, plastics processors and other plastics stakeholders. The reasons for Dordan joining SPI are multi-faceted, but if I could hard-boil it for you, the expression “strength in numbers” says it best; why work alone when you can work with friends? As a representative of the plastics industry, I believe I have a responsibility of environmental stewardess to ensure that plastics are seen as a value added material, worthy of responsible recovery. By collaborating through the mechanisms provided by the infrastructure of industry association, I can help engineer real positive action at the benefit of the industry and the environment. And I may be able to go to Washington!
What else is going on…Oh, we received second-generation algae-plastic from ALGIX; this plastic/algae hybrid formed better than the first samples and will be on display at ALGIX’s booth at InnoPlast Bioplastics Conference in May. These thermoforms are supposedly “biodegradable” because the plastic “binder” is EPAT, a specialty material from BASF that is used in flexible biodegradable shopping bags and is certified as industrially compostable; and, algae is obviously an organic material that will naturally biodegrade, assuming oxygen and microbes are present. Here is a picture of the second-generation algae plastic thermoformed samples:
OH I have started a Dordan YouTube channel; this is a compilation of all of our package design movies, for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy them here.
OHH this is cool—Dordan’s first-ever thermoformed sample of ALGIX’s algae plastic, debuted at Pack Expo 2012, was picked up in several European journals! Want to see what the word “thermoform” looks like in languages I don’t even recognize?!?
Okey dokey. That's all for now.