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It’s been a very busy year for injection molder and contract manufacturer MGS. It acquired Technolution, a Danish medtech product development firm, in June and followed that up with the purchase of moldmaker Winther Mould Technology, also based in Denmark, in October. Back home at its Germantown, WI, headquarters, MGS broke ground on a 120,000-square-foot Innovation Center in September. These acquisitions — supplementing the purchase of European toolmaker Formteknik in 2021 —…

The headline of this article is taken verbatim from a Nov. 15 online piece in The Atlantic. That article briefly discusses both plastic waste — nets, bags, fishing lines, and so forth — and microplastics in the ocean, and how they are affecting sea turtles. All the impacts discussed are negative: Plastics can cause death in many ways or serious injuries, and sea turtles (just like humans) are consuming microplastics daily with unknown…

The headline of this article is taken verbatim from a Nov. 15 online piece in The Atlantic. That article briefly discusses both plastic waste — nets, bags, fishing lines, and so forth — and microplastics in the ocean, and how they are affecting sea turtles. All the impacts discussed are negative: Plastics can cause death in many ways or serious injuries, and sea turtles (just like humans) are consuming microplastics daily with unknown…

Progress toward the U.N.’s global plastics treaty was detailed today, Nov. 16, during a stock-taking plenary session at the third Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) in Nairobi. Some members reiterated earlier calls to name 2040 as the date to end plastic pollution. The sheer array of topics discussed thus far — ranging from definitions of key plastics terms to global monitoring of progress toward achieving the objectives of the final instrument…

In what they claim is a world first, researchers at Switzerland’s ETH Zürich university have 3D printed a robotic hand with plastic bones, ligaments, and tendons in a single process. Slow-curing thiolene polymers are the secret sauce in this application. 3D-printing technology that uses a laser to scan each polymer layer and compensate for surface imperfections in subsequent layers rather than scraping them away is also instrumental in achieving this milestone.…

Working groups that will negotiate a global plastics treaty were established today, Nov. 14, and began their work at the U.N.’s third session toward forging the agreement, as the opening plenary session spilled over into a second day in Nairobi. The agenda for the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3), which runs through Sunday, was revised to allow the opening-day plenary to continue today from 10 a.m. to…

The third negotiating session on a global treaty to curb plastics pollution began Monday in Nairobi with a stark message. “Nature is suffocating — gasping for breath,” declared Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, executive secretary of the INC Secretariat at the start of Monday’s opening plenary of the third Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3). “All ecosystems, terrestrial and marine, are under threat from plastic pollution. Not only vulnerable and endangered species are at risk,…

The third weeklong round of negotiations to hammer out a global plastics treaty kicked off today in Nairobi, Kenya, after a preparatory meeting Saturday, as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) seeks to develop a legally binding instrument regulating plastic pollution worldwide. Delegates are pursuing a “comprehensive approach that addresses the full cycle of plastic, including its production, design, and disposal,” according to the U.N.’s website. Working from a “zero…