Jan 26 2009
The Plastics Environmental Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is pleased to announce the recipients of the Global Plastics Environmental Conference (GPEC) 2009 Environmental Stewardship Awards. The awards reflect the theme of the conference: "Plastics: The Wonderful World of Sustainability and Recycling."
The conference takes place February 25-27 in Orlando, Florida, at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort – Walt Disney World®. The awards will be presented at a banquet on February 26.
Through these awards, SPE's Plastics Environmental Division recognizes organizations that have demonstrated environmental leadership and excellence through significant achievements in a variety of categories.
The recipients of the 2009 GPEC Awards and their award categories are:
- Cereplast, Inc. of Hawthorne, California, for "Emerging Technologies In Materials." – Cereplast developed a new family of resins called Cereplast Hybrid Resins. These are proprietary polypropylene resin blends with about 50% renewable additives and properties similar to traditional PP. www.cereplast.com.
- Mohawk Greenworks of Eton, Georgia, for "Carpet/Floor/Wall Coverings Recycling." The company contributed to the 'total recycling' of post-consumer carpets, establishing small-scale (portable) recycling centers. www.mohawkgreenworks.com.
- Western Digital of Lake Forest, California, for "Design for Sustainability." – Collaborating with the Packaging Plus company, Western Digital developed a lightweight, efficient packaging and shipping system (with Packaging Plus's GeoSpring® and U-Pad® products, made from recycled plastics) for safe transportation of fragile computer hard-drives across the globe, reducing weight, cost, damage, and energy consumption. www.wdc.com
- KW Plastics of Troy, Alabama, for "Plastics Recycling Technologies and Applications." – The company pioneered efforts to set up a national paint can recycling program and developed proprietary cans made from recycled plastics. www.kwplastics.com.
- Eagle Performance Products of Calhoun, Georgia, for "Enabling Technologies in Processes and Procedures." – Eagle Performance Products exhibited environmental stewardship in instituting the Voluntary Emissions Control Action Program (VCAP) at their plant to reduce waste and emissions from plastics additives, and it promoted such stewardship throughout its supply and customer chain. www.eagleperformanceproducts.com.
- LIST AG, of Arisdorf, Switzerland, for New Technologies in Processes." – List developed a continuous, free radical, non-solvent polymerization process for methyl methacrylate monomer, using a unique kneader extruder system with low power consumption. www.list.ch.
- Cascade Engineering, Inc. of Grand Rapids, Michigan, for "New Environmental Technologies in Conventional Plastic Materials." – The company manufactures wind turbines for domestic and community applications, using a recyclable engineering thermoplastic. www.cascadeng.com.
- Braskem S.A. of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for "Plastic Materials from Renewable Sources." – Braskem developed an innovative process for using ethanol that is 100%-derived from renewable resources to produce polyethylene, and the company implemented the process in a large-scale production plant. www.braskem.com.
- E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Delaware, for "Plastic Materials from Renewable Sources." – DuPont invented and produces bio-based Cerenol® polyols from renewably sourced 1,3 propane diol (Bio-PDO) for use in various applications, including use as intermediates in the manufacture of several polymers. www.dupont.com.
- Pace Industries of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, for the "Chairman's Award." – The company supplies recyclable/compostable sheet and film products, recycles its own and customers' plastics, has taken measures to reduce waste and energy consumption, makes use of alternative energy sources, and facilitates similar practices among its suppliers and customers in the graphic arts industry. www.pace-industries-inc.com.
- Peninsula Packaging of Exeter, California, is the receipient of the "Daniel Eberhardt Environmental Award." – Peninsula Packaging has established an Environmental Sustainability program that involves recycling of large amounts of post-consumer plastic bottles, converting them to sheet and containers for the packaging and food industry, and deriving a substantial part of its electricity needs from its own photovoltaic solar farms. The company also supports academic research at universities to develop tools for the post-consumer plastics industry. This award is given in recognition of Peninsula Packaging's total commitment to environmental sustainability. www.penpack.net.
The 'Daniel Eberhardt Environmental Stewardship' award, is awarded to the nominee who is totally commtited to the spirit of environmental sustainability in all their actions and involves all the aspects described above and beyond.