Blogs

Ah, bubble wrap packaging. There is something about the pliable transparent plastic material that brings amusement to people of all ages. Some even say the recognizable popping sound when compressed and ruptured can even be used to alleviate stress.

It's not easy being a family-owned business competing in a global marketplace, and often the rules, regulations, laws and tax-codes of both the state and federal government do not make it any easier. In fact, for many family-owned business all of this adds a level of complexity that can be very detrimental in a number of ways.

A fascinating, rapidly emerging concept in the medical field is use of a capsule that is swallowed and captures images that are remotely reviewed. In current versions, the pill-sized plastic capsules take photos at random intervals, a technique that isn't considered adequate for cancer screening.

Newer systems are elaborate and much higher-tech. Two recently caught my attention.

Microbes are highly creative, hardy little adapters when it comes to survival. Mutation, natural selection and genetic variation are all means which they cleverly employ to evolve and adapt to changing environmental conditions.

"How do you deal with a buyer who is constantly pounding on the desk for lower costs, higher quality, delaying payment etc.?" That simple question, and the complex answer, were laid out this week by Bill Tobin in a column on molder/customer relations. Your buyer has policies in place for rejected lots, price negotiations, audits and more; do you have your own set of guidelines?

As February fast approaches, we're taking a look back at January's top stories on PlasticsToday for the plastic caps and closures segment.

Coming to pharmacies this fall is a battery-operated ingestible pill that sends signals to a skin-mounted patch to indicate your response to medications, including heart rate, respiration and temperature.

Proteus Biomedical (Redwood City, CA) and Lloyds Pharmacy of the United Kingdom are launching Helius, a digital health product in the vanguard of a wireless revolution that will create an estimated $4 billion market in the healthcare field.

Sustainability, we are told, offers business opportunities. It's the way forward for business and industry, and anyone failing to adapt will eventually find themselves hopelessly behind. For many companies, however, the transition is not that easy. The general feeling is that green is good - no argument there - but still a huge chore. And most are still trying to figure out how to combine sustainable business practices with actually making money.

Clare Goldsberry wrote an interesting article on what happens when buyers put so much pressure on their Tier 1 suppliers that they end up in a price fixing investigation with the Feds. This is usually simply about money.

But first, a short lesson in contract law. You get an RFQ, and you quote the job. The result is one of three basic purchase orders.

Packaging material consisting of agricultural crop waste, plastic derived from sugarcane...it seems like packaging sustainability articles are growing by the day.

I recently came across a sustainable packaging story, which despite the company's claim that the product contains hardly any plastic content, will still interest our readers. After all, it's always good to know about new packaging technologies and products.