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Just days after GE announced that it would break up into three businesses, including a healthcare unit, another iconic US brand is planning to split up. Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare company by sales, announced today that it will separate its consumer products business from its pharmaceutical and medical device operations. The new publicly traded consumer health business, as yet unnamed, will include such household brands as Neutrogena,…

I hope you’ve saved the insides of the pumpkins you carved for Hallowe’en and will use them to replace other foods. That’s my way of saying SOS: Save our scrap. Plastic material — pellets, powder, or scrap product — is the “food” of our processes, and saving waste is seldom debated. But the economic angle must be remembered — it’s not just “out of sight, out of mind.” It must be stored…

Plastic or glass? That is the question for many new parents choosing a baby bottle. Glass is easier to clean and can be heated without having to worry about chemicals leaching into the milk — the science behind that claim may be questionable, but there is no doubt that it is seen as a concern among consumers. Plastic, on the other hand, won’t break and is lighter. A hybrid bottle developed…

Are you tired of hearing about the great resignation? Are your labor shortages costing you millions? You are in the last quarter of the year, and the holiday season demands are on you. Are you concentrating on keeping the employees you have? Stop thinking about that wellness competition with the Fitbit for your employees. I challenge you to dig deeper and find out what will retain and grow the employees…

The Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) recognized plastic-based innovation in the automobile industry at its 50th SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala in Livonia, MI, on Nov. 10, 2021. The in-person event was back following a COVID-19-induced hiatus. In addition to awards for auto-specific engineering advances, a special category was added to recognize Innovative Automotive Industry Plastic Solutions for COVID-19 Protection, honoring the outstanding effort of the…

A report on the outlook for the chemicals industry in 2022, just published by Deloitte, notes that a critical area of focus for most US chemical companies next year will be sustainability and decarbonization. Hmm. I think we’re already there, guys. Sustainability was front and center in many of the conversations I had last month at Fakuma, the plastics processing trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany. In fact, it was almost…