News
  Toronto set to drop PS food packaging recycling
  Meanwhile, elsewhere, progress continues
  Expoplast 2008 – were you there?
  AT Plastics suffers explosion and fire
  Basics of Plastics coming next week to Halifax

Changes
  Movers and shakers in the Plastics industry
Classified Ads
  Job Forum
Events
  Coming Events
Coming Soon From Plastics In Canada Magazine - November
  From Plastics in Canada

News

Toronto set to drop PS food packaging recycling
The Environment & Plastics Industry Council is crying foul over a City of Toronto move to abandon recycling of waste polystyrene fast-food packaging. While over 100 other Ontario municipalities collect PS scrap, and the Canadian Polystyrene Recycling Association plant, sold last year, is still in operation in Mississauga, Ont., the city appears to be continuing its policy of non-support for plastics recycling. W.R. Grace & Co. (Ajax, Ont.) also recycles scrap post-consumer PS.
"Twenty years and millions invested in research and development have made Ontario a leader on polystyrene recycling," said Sam Alavy, president & CEO of CPRA, whose company remanufactures the used PS into high-end picture frames sold across North America. "But, if Toronto decides not to recycle both used protective and food polystyrene packaging that will be the end of the program."
The private sector has already invested about $21-million in polystyrene recycling facilities in the province, with the Ontario government also providing half a million in funding for research. This investment in state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology was made on Toronto's doorstep in the belief that the companies would receive sufficient volume of post-consumer polystyrene to be economically viable.
But without Toronto, which accounts for about half of the volume in the province, the recyclers say they'll no longer be able to accept municipal blue box shipments and will have to switch entirely to industrial recycling.
"What we have heard from some Toronto councillors just doesn't make sense. Literally at the eleventh hour, Toronto seems to have changed its mind on polystyrene food packaging. This material is 100% recyclable in Toronto's new blue bin system. The city is leaving a lot of other municipalities stranded. As well, it is reneging on its promise to its own residents," said Joe Hruska, of the Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC). "This is an enormous loss for the environment and a huge waste of taxpayers' dollars."
www.plastics.ca, www.cpia.ca

Meanwhile, elsewhere, progress continues
Atlantic Canada is celebrating its second decade of successful plastics bag recycling. Inteplast Bags & Films Corp. (Saint John, NB), one of the largest manufacturers of plastic bags and film in Atlantic Canada, introduced an experimental, closed loop bag-to-bag recycling program in 1988. The program has consumers returning the bags to retail, where they are in turn returned to Inteplast to be recycled into new bags.
To date, over 100-million lb of plastics have been recycled through Inteplast's closed-loop bag recycling program. It began with a handful of participating stores in 1988 and has since garnered the cooperation of all the major grocery retailers in the region – some 200 stores across the Maritimes.
Prince Edward Island has the highest plastic bag recycling rate in Canada, at 57 per cent. Given that 40 per cent of plastic bags are reused, PEI's achievement of 57 per cent is notable.
"The people of PEI can take considerable pride in that they lead the country on plastic bag product stewardship," says Duncan Cross, municipal representative with the Environment & Plastics Industry Council (EPIC).
British Columbia began building a network of retailers offering in-store plastic bag recycling in the early 1990s. Ontario was the most recent to follow suit and now has a significant number of major retailers involved in the program.
However, the proliferation of degradable products continues and with it, concern about the impact of degradable plastic bags on the plastic bag recycling stream. A study commissioned last fall by Recyc-Québec found that some degradable plastic bags are not compatible when recycled with conventional plastic bags. These bags have the potential to contaminate the recycling stream.
Recyc-Québec, EPIC, and others will be developing a certification program that would validate the recyclability of plastic bags, which is supported by the government of Québec. Le Bureau de normalization du Québec (BNQ) would develop the certification program.
Once developed, the Québec retail industry will be required to have their bags certified as "recyclable". As part of the certification program, each bag distributed within the province of Quebec will have the fact that it is recyclable prominently displayed on the side. This would allow consumers to better distinguish and divert the recyclable bags for the recycling stream.
Development and testing of the certification program is expected to take approximately eight months. After that, it will be rolled out to the rest of Canada.
www.inteplast.com, www.recyc-quebec.gouv.qc.ca

AT Plastics suffers explosion and fire
An explosion and fire last Friday at the AT Plastics resin plant in Edmonton sent nine people to hospital. Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.), which has owned the plant since 2005, said, "Celanese has proactively halted activity at the plant and has contained all necessary raw materials and energy sources. There was no significant release of chemicals into the environment." A Celanese corporate investigation team will join provincial and local officials to determine the cause of the incident and assess damages, the company said.
The plant produces ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers as well as specialty low density polyethylene resins. Products made there are sold under the Ateva brand, and are used for flexible packaging, thermal lamination film, hotmelt adhesives, concentrates, medical products and photovoltaic cells.
There are 250 workers at the plant. Four of the injured were listed as serious.
A major commuting route close by was closed for the rest of the day. The area around the plant has two oil refineries and a number of storage tanks for petrochemicals.
www.celanese.com

Basics of Plastics coming next week to Halifax
It's just a week until the first Atlantic region Basics of Plastics course is held on November 5, in Halifax. The one-day event covers polymer basics, the different types of plastics processes that exist, and an overview of the different kinds of machinery and equipment they use. The seminar is presented by Plastics in Canada magazine, and co-sponsored by Nova Scotia Business Inc.
The course is being held at the World Trade & Convention Centre. It is given by Paul Waller, president of the Plastics Touchpoint Group (Thornhill, Ont.), who has taught similar seminars for 20 years. Waller is also a noted international consultant on extrusion processes.
The cost of the seminar is $195, which includes lunch and a manual that covers all of the course content. A Toronto-area Basics of Plastics seminar is scheduled for December 2. This will be held at the Rogers Inc. campus on Dixie Rd. in Brampton, Ont.
For further information, contact Nick Passingham at nick.passingham@plastics.rogers.com

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Changes

Blown film systems supplier Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. (Mississauga, Ont.), has expanded its production space by 50 per cent. The new facility is a neighbouring building to Macro's main plant in Mississauga.
"The main reason for the expansion was to create additional floor space to assemble and test our extrusion lines," says John Shimmell, Macro's operation manager. "The expansion also allowed us to free up space in our main plant for quicker manufacture of our specialty retrofit components, such as dies and air rings, which are also in high demand this year. In fact, air ring production is up 300 percent from previous years."
www.macroeng.com

The board of directors of the Packaging Association of Canada has unanimously passed a motion to keep 2009 membership fees remain unchanged for the second straight year. The fee for additional associate members has been eliminated and there are no restrictions on the number of associate members that can join PAC. This initiative also supports cost reduction while opening up the benefits of PAC to all company executives, managers and appropriate employees.
www.pac.ca

Optima Colour (Cambridge, Ont.) has just received the first of five new twin screw extruders. Optima Colours engineers have designed the extruders to strengthen its supply of specialty colour concentrates and additives across Canada.
www.optimacolour.com

Sun Chemical (Parsippany, NJ) has named Felipe Mellado chief marketing officer and Bradley Schrader vice president of strategy and business development. Mellado will oversee all of Sun Chemical's corporate marketing activities and product management including global branding activities, trade show participation, and all other marketing communications. He will continue to be based in Madrid, Spain.
Schrader takes on his new job after serving as the company's chief marketing officer for the past two years.
www.sunchemical.com

Bradley Schrader

Felipe Mellado

Thermoplastics compounder Techmer Lehvoss Compounds (Clinton, Tenn.) has promoted Thomas Drye to managing director. He was previously director of sales and marketing.
www.tlcompounds.com

Thomas Drye

Mathias Lee has been named vice-president of sales for Spiroflow Systems, Inc. (Charlotte, NC). He will be responsible for all day-to-day sales activities for the US and Canada and export activities to Mexico, Central America and South America.
www.spiroflowsystems.com

Kiefel has announced that effective November 1, it will consolidate its two North American business units into one facility. Kiefel Inc. and Kiefel Technologies Inc. will both be located at the current Kiefel Technologies Inc. headquarters in Hampton, NH.
www.kiefel-inc.com

Industrial Growth Partners (IGP), a San Francisco-based investment firm specialising in industrial manufacturing companies, has acquired Xaloy Inc. (New Castle, Pa.) and its global affiliated companies from Baird Capital Partners, of Milwaukee.
Bob Tunno of IGP will become chairman of the board of Xaloy. Ron Auletta will succeed Walter Cox as president and CEO, effective Nov. 1. Cox will continue as a board member and investor in the company. All other key members of the Xaloy management team will remain in their current capacities, including Tim Womer, chief technical officer; Randy Pearson, president of Xaloy North America; and Günther Hoyt, executive vice-president.
www.igpequity.com

Specialty chemicals manufacturer Sartomer Co. (Exton, Pa.) has named Jeremy Austin market development engineer. He is responsible for market and technology development of functional additives exclusively for the global plastics industry. He reports to Al Pape, business development manager.
www.sartomer.com

Jeremy Austin

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Job Forum

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Miscellaneous

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Coming Events

2008

November 3: Canadian MTDM Federation Safety Group, safety information session. At St. Clair College, Ford Centre for Excellence in Manufacturing. (Contact: Julie McFarlane at 519-653-7265 or info@ctma.ca)

November 3: Canadian Tooling & Machining Association talk by Rod Jones of the Ontario Aerospace Council on the aerospace industry. At the Giovanni Caboto Club. (Contact: Julie McFarlane at 519-653-7265 or info@ctma.ca)

November 5: The Basics of Plastics introductory seminar on industry practices and processes. With Paul Waller of The Plastics Touchpoint Group. At the World Trade & Convention Centre, Halifax. (Contact: Nick Passingham at 416-764-1527 or npassingham@plastics.rogers.com).

November 5: Canadian MTDM Federation Safety Group, safety information session. At Best Western-Milton Inn, Milton, Ont. (Contact: Julie McFarlane at 519-653-7265 or info@ctma.ca)

November 5-6: Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo. At the International Centre, Mississauga, Ont. (Contact: Arnie Gess, 403-638-4410 or arnie.gess@cwre.ca).

November 11-14: Iran Plast 2008. The Middle East's largest trade show will be held once again at Tehran Permanent Fair Ground. (Contact: Iran Plast secretariat at 0098-2188511438 or info@Iranplast2008.ir)

November 18-19: Canadian Association of Mold Makers Trade Fair, at Caesar's Windsor. (Contact Diane Deslippe at 519-255-7863, or info@camm.ca).

November 18: One-day seminar on Blown and Cast Film Optimisation and Troubleshooting, sponsored by SPE Ontario and featuring Paul Waller of The Plastics Touchpoint Group. At the Delta Toronto Airport West Hotel. (Contact: Penny Perdis at 416-802-9565 or pennyperdis@sympatico.ca).

December 2: The Basics of Plastics introductory seminar on industry practices and processes. With Paul Waller of The Plastics Touchpoint Group. At the Rogers Inc. campus, Brampton, Ont. (Contact: Nick Passingham at 416-764-1527 or npassingham@plastics.rogers.com).

December 5: SPE Ontario Annual Christmas Gala, at the Delta Meadowvale Resort and Conference Centre, Mississauga, Ont. (Contact: Penny Perdis at 905-820-5938 or pennyperdis@sympatico.ca)

2009

January 10-13: Arabplast 2009, at Dubai World Trade Centre - Dubai International Exhibition Centre, Dubai, Arabic Emirates. This show features approximately 540 exhibitors, and draws 14,500 visitors. (Contact: Stefan Egge at 416-598-1524, or messduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca).

January 27- 30: Interplastica 2009, at ZAO Expocentr in Krasnaja Presnja, Moscow, Russia. This show features 530 exhibitors, and draws 24,000 visitors. (Contact: Stefan Egge at 416-598-1524, or messduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca).

February 4-9: Plastindia 2009, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. This show features 1,300 exhibitors, and draws 80,000 visitors. (Contact: Stefan Egge at 416-598-1524, or messduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca).

May 11-12: 10th International Conference on Wood & Biofibre Plastic Composites, 2009. At Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, Madison, Wis. (Contact: conferences@forestprod.org)

June 22-26: NPE2009, North America's largest plastics show, held at Chicago's McCormick Place. (Contact: Alan Carter at 202-974-5284 or acarter@plasticsindustry.org)

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Special supplement – Mouldmaking in Canada
Moulding automotive exteriors
Blow moulding report on automation and high volume production
Raw materials report – Innovations in resin technology, fillers and additives
Troubleshooting – Our regular look at what can go wrong, and how to be sure it doesn't
Processor profile – A visit to an innovative moulder, extruder or other manufacturer of finished plastic items

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