ICYMI: October 2025 Roundup

October means pumpkins and Halloween parties for most, but every three years for plastics people, it means the K Show. This October’s most popular stories included an early report from Düsseldorf, Germany, a pioneer in single-screw extrusion, the FYI on EPR, recycling transparency, the power of people, the impact of resin pricing and more.

10. What Really Happens to Recyclable Packaging

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Is packaging still packaging when it leaves the shelf; is it anything in terms of visibility? This isn’t a Zen exercise but the reality that once a package enters the consumer realm the ability to track it disappears, or at least it did. Matt Stonecash investigates a new waste analytics system from Greyparrot that seeks raise packaging’s visibility post purchase.

9. Oregon EPR Program Invests in Postconsumer Recycling

The plastics industry is already rife with acronyms, but industry players need to learn one more: EPR (extended producer responsibility). The Beaver State is one of seven U.S. states that have passed laws implementing EPR programs for packaging, and the first to have its program go live. Matt Stonecash looks at the current impact and what’s to come.

8. Your Most Important Asset

PT’s Top Shops Benchmarking survey requires participants to carefully catalog equipment and production statistics. When I interview honorees, however, one key element consistently comes up that the survey doesn’t really register: people. Invariably, Top Shops point to their people as their No. 1 asset.

7. Remembering Bruce Maddock: A Pioneer in Single-Screw Extrusion Technology

On the short list of things indicating you’ve had an impact in an industry would be having a technology or an experiment named after you. So, what does it say that Bruce Maddock has a screw design and a solidification experiment named after him? Mark Spalding breaks down Maddock’s contributions and how the screw and experiment that bear his name are still relevant to single-screw extrusion today.

6. Traceability: The Why and How of Using Date Stamps in Molds

Apart from plastics people who regularly inspect parts, most would be oblivious to the humble date stamp and the myriad information it provides. As PCS Company explains when it comes to recalls: “A single date stamp — or a group of them — can reveal the year, month, day, shift and batch in which the part was manufactured, speeding up the process of uncovering what went wrong and when.”

5. Polymer Selection: Identifying the Ideal Material for an Outdoor Application

The humble plastic patio chair is one of the more recognizable applications for polymers, but their ubiquity belies the material and additive advances that make it possible for a plastic product to live outside year round. Javier Cruz walks through how to choose the right plastic for outdoor applications, rain or shine.

4. Top Shops 2025: Injection Molding Benchmarking Results Released

For nine years, Plastics Technology Top Shops Benchmarking Survey has captured and put into context key performance indicators for injection molders. Who are this year’s Top Shops; what challenges did they overcome and what strategies can be gleaned from their success?

3. Back to Basics: Tandem Foam Sheet Extrusion

Food trays, clamshell takeout containers and egg cartons — the applications for tandem foam sheet extrusion are well known and produced in high volumes. The process for making tandem foam sheet is complex but Mark Spalding is here to simplify and explain it for old and new hands alike.

2. Taking Plastics’ Temperature at K 2025

The vastness of the show and its 36-month spacing, make the K show a bellwether for the plastics industry and a personal benchmark for industry professionals, who notch their time in plastics by the number of times they’ve wandered Messe Düsseldorf’s 18 halls. K 2025 took place in a time of conflict, with wars of the shooting and trade varieties ongoing. What prospects did the industry hold out for the next three years?

1. November 2025: Prices for PE, PP, PS and PVC Flat to Down; PET an Outlier

The same trade conflicts that colored K’s outlook have begun to impact plastics resin pricing, particularly in the case of PET, which must be imported into the U.S. to satisfy domestic demand. Lilli Manolis Sherman breaks down pricing for key commodity materials.