What’s trending right now? Lots of chatter about the safety of plastics: Are plastics safe in food packaging? Are they safe in carry-out food containers? What about the plastics in my kitchen? What should I do? Questions like these are the result of pressure groups targeting plastics — the very plastics that have been approved [...]
- Chemistry to help lift winter athletes to peak performance in Sochi
- What’s missing from Nick Kristof’s latest column?
- New video highlights growing interest in technologies that transform waste into energy
- Visit ReformTSCA.com to learn more about the Chemical Safety Improvement Act
- Re: “Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?” in Sunday’s NYT
News Releases
- Manufacturing Coalition Announces Principles for Effective Alternative Assessments March 4, 2014
- ACC Releases January 2014 Resin Production and Sales Stats March 4, 2014
- New Network to Advocate for Biobased Chemistry March 4, 2014
- Study on Prostate Cancer Fundamentally Misinterprets BPA Exposure Data March 3, 2014
- Study: Plastic Packaging Enables Significant Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings in U.S., Canada March 3, 2014
GlobalChem 2014: Spotlight on TSCA reform, chemical risk assessment
It’s a wrap for another successful GlobalChem conference. For more than two decades, this annual meeting has provided a very productive venue for industry leaders, regulators and stakeholders to discuss fundamental chemical management issues, both here in the U.S. and abroad. Despite some challenging weather, this year covered a lot of ground. Thanks to our [...]
Media roundup: Who’s talking about the $100B manufacturing investment milestone
The American Chemistry Council recently announced that potential new U.S. chemical industry investment spurred by shale gas has surpassed $100 billion. The nearly 150 projects that have been reported – restarts, expansions, and brand new facilities – could create an estimated $81 billion per year in new chemical industry output and 637,000 permanent jobs by [...]
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center studies energy potential of non-recycled plastics
Given our nation’s need to improve energy security, a diverse energy supply is more important than ever. That diversity includes technologies that derive energy from waste, enabling us to harness the power of this underutilized resource. A new report released earlier this month revealed in greater detail the energy that can be derived from used [...]
New plastics-to-oil technologies alliance revs up
Are used plastics poised to become the new black gold? The American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division recently announced the launch of a new group whose members are developing commercial scale technologies for converting non-recycled used plastics into crude oil and other petroleum based products (read full press release). The new Plastics-to-Oil Technologies Alliance is working [...]
Such great heights: Chemical industry investment surpasses $100 billion
The United States continues to reign as the place to manufacture chemicals now, as potential U.S. chemical industry investment has now topped $100 billion. As of this month, the number of publicly-announced chemical and plastics projects stands at 148, with the tally continuing to grow (ACC’s first report analyzed 97 projects valued at $71.7 billion [...]
2012 WHO/UNEP report “State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals” doesn’t meet the mark
When the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) published its 2012 “State of the Science on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals” report in February 2013, ACC noted, based on our initial read of the report (see ACC’s press release here), that best practices of systematic evidence-based review were not used by the [...]
Authors ignore fundamental principles of science in Lancet paper, opt for alarmism
In 2006, two researchers, Philippe Grandjean and Philip Landrigan, conducted a review of existing studies and posited that certain industrial chemicals could contribute to neurobehavioral effects. It appears that they have updated their 2006 work and are recirculating it under the title “Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity,” which was published yesterday in the journal The [...]
Case study: Milliken polypropylene products deliver on efficiency and design
Energy efficiency is on the rise in America, thanks to recent legislative initiatives (see H.R. 2126 and S. 1000) and the emergence of public and private partnerships (see the Better Buildings Challenge) that can help Americans reduce our collective energy footprint. And of the hundreds if not thousands of energy-saving tools at our disposal today, [...]
U.S. EIA: America’s plastics makers triple exports on half the energy
Data released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) confirms what U.S. plastics manufacturers have been seeing firsthand of late – solid growth in plastics production and exports, combined with improved efficiencies, which allow their businesses to draw less energy from our nation’s abundant natural gas supply. The graph above tells the story. The [...]
