[BabyPeanut]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... attel_dc_2
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Mattel CEO: Oil Rise Takes Toll on Barbie

Tue Mar 15, 3:06 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rising oil prices will be a top concern for No. 1 toy maker Mattel Inc, in 2005, affecting everything from the price of plastic in Barbie dolls and packaging to the cost of trucking merchandise to the store, Chief Executive Bob Eckert said on Tuesday.

"If oil continues to be where it's at today, we're going to face a problem with resin and transportation costs," Eckert said during a presentation at the Banc of America consumer conference.

The toy company, which makes Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels cars and dancing Elmo dolls, said in January it planned to raise prices across the board by 2 percent to 4 percent to offset raw material and labor costs.

"Retailers don't have a high appetite for price increases," Eckert said. "People recognize over time that as costs go up we are all going to have to pay for it, including gasoline at the pump."

Eckert added he had recently paid $2.50 for a gallon of gasoline.

"The price of resin has been a problem and a large number of manufacturers have notified retailers they need to raise prices anywhere in the 3 percent to 5 percent range just to cover costs," said Jim Silver, publisher of Toy Book and other industry magazines. "This won't effect consumers that much."

Eckert also said in his presentation that the toy industry is still grappling with store closures and inventory management.

In the past few years, hundreds of toy stores have closed, and toy makers have moved to selling toys in non-traditional retailers like video stores, sporting goods retailers and grocers.

Toys R Us Inc. (NYSE:TOY - news) is exploring options for its toy business, and may end up selling the entire company. Industry watchers expect at least 100 Toys R Us toy stores to close.

"It's quite possible there might be fewer Toys R Us stores so we're try to build contingency plans," Eckert said. "People are still going to buy toys. There will be winners and losers at retail and we want to make our toys available where people want to shop."

[SD_Scott]

Cool, article about all the stuff that is made from oil.

http://www.energybulletin.net/4740.html


There's a bunch of great articles over there.

[pilferage]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')hief Executive Bob Eckert... added he had recently paid $2.50 for a gallon of gasoline.

[Sys1]

SD_Scott : excellent site with a frightening implacable demonstration !

[Wildwell]

Plastic is no big deal, it's the transportation.

You can make plastic out of orange peel...and CO2!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4191737.stm

Researchers at Cornell University have managed to kill two birds with one stone by creating plastic that doesn't use petroleum derivatives but does use carbon dioxide as an ingredient. The orange-based plastic is possible due to the compound limonene, which makes up 95% of the oil from orange peel and whose main use has been for adding that orange smell to household cleaners.

A derivative of limonene called limonene oxide is made to react with carbon dioxide with the help of a catalyst to produce the carbon polymer polylimonene carbonate. The plastic created is very similar in form to polystyrene, which we see mainly used in packaging, e.g., the white styrofoam your monitor was slotted in when you took it out of the box.

The Cornell team's discovery means that a plastic can now be created from a renewable source that is easy to get a hold of. The use of carbon dioxide is also being investigated further, with the possibility of cardon dioxide-producing industries storing the gas for reuse rather than pumping it into the atmosphere.

The team's findings will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', 'Y')ou can make plastic out of orange peel...and CO2!

[Wildwell]

Okay then, how about making plastic out of bugs?

'Bugs make plastic' ran the headline when PHB was first commercialized in the early eighties. Most plastics are made from oil but this one is made naturally, all the time, by bacteria. And the supply is limitless. Almost any kind of bacteria store up energy as 'fat' available to be used later by the bacteria. When extracted, this bacteria fat solidifies into a polymer very similar to traditional plastics like polythene. To make PHB on a big scale you just fatten up bacteria with glucose in giant fermenters and effectively 'brew' the plastic.

http://www.firstscience.com/site/articles/sykes.asp

or corn

http://www.dinegreen.com/news/s96corn.htm


Mind you the latter option might create a high noon in the next field growing biodiesel or food!

[gg3]

Closed materials loops are not only possible, they were done on a huge scale until recently, in the telephone industry.

Everything that went to make up the telephone infrastructure, up until deregulation, was 100% recycled.

For those of us who fondly remember Bell Telephone (USA) or GPO Telephones (UK) or PMG (Australia and NZ) or PTT (France, Holland and various other parts of Europe), or Bundespost (Germany) or NTT (Japan) (have I left anyone out?)...

The chassis of your telephone, with all of its working parts, was rated at a 40 year lifespan. When you moved house and returned your telephone to the phone company or post office, it would be reconditioned before being re-issued to someone else. The plastic housing could be buffed to look like new, or if it was damaged, ground up and melted down and made into a new one.

The cable under the street was rated to last 125 years. Overhead cable only 25 to 30 years, but in any case, bad cable would be pulled out, the plastic insulation melted off to be re-used making more of the same, and the copper melted down to be made into new wire.

The central office switching equipment was dealt with similarly, though via a more complicated process involving component-level repairs.

All of this meant that the system was a closed loop for materials, with a much smaller energy input than would have occurred from using raw materials.

It was one of the world's most outstanding examples of closed-loop industry. And it's an example that could be followed today, and into the indefinite future.

[Leanan]

It can't have been a completely closed loop. The U.S. population roughly tripled from the Great Depression to the turn of the millennium. Not only that, but more people had phones. They went from only rich people owning phones to everyone having a phone to people having multiple phones. Where did all those millions of new phones and millions of miles of new wire and insulation come from?

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', 'W')here did all those millions of new phones and millions of miles of new wire and insulation come from?

[fecteau]

Toyota and Nature Works (Blair, Nebraska) both produce high volume of
bioplastic. Nature Works produced 40 million pounds last year and have
a plant capacity of 300 million pounds. They expect it to be running at full
capacity by 2007.
See "Bioplastics Gets Boost From Toyota"

[BabyPeanut]

et tu, Toys "R" Us?
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/toysrus.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Toys "R" Us Sold

March 17, 2005
Troubled retailer Toys "R" Us has been sold to a consortium of private investors for about $6.6 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company had been trying to sell its toy division but agreed to an offer for the entire firm from Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust.

[Sys1]

"NatureWorks estimates that its manufacturing process uses 20 to 50 percent less fossil fuels to produce its bioplastic with lower net greenhouse gas emissions than traditional plastics."

There's still necessity to use fossil fuels in the process (50 to 80%). Sure it's cheaper, more environment friendly, but with growth behind... Anyway, it's nice to learn that it's possible to make plastic with something else than oil

[ararboin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')oyota and Nature Works (Blair, Nebraska) both produce high volume of bioplastic. Nature Works produced 40 million pounds last year and havea plant capacity of 300 million pounds. They expect it to be running at full capacity by 2007.