Polyester producer Teijin is to stage a free jazz concert in
The concert is expected to attract two to three thousand people, and will reflect the company's green philosophy. On stage, Koh Mr Saxman will wear the company's environmentally-friendly recyclable casual jackets. After the jackets are worn out, they can be collected and recycled into new polyester materials through Teijin's "
Michael Vassiliadis, the newly elected chairman of
While researching an ICIS news article on the union boss's call for reliable energy policies, news reporter Franco Capaldo came across this video on YouTube.
The death of Michael Jackson has created over 7,000 tonnes of polycarbonate demand because of all the CDs and DVDs being sold, producer Bayer revealed during a conference call on Wednesday to present its quarterly results.
What family holiday is complete without a soundtrack? The soundtrack to the Blog Family's
Deep into Wiltshire, a late entry for "Chemical Songs" came on - "Plastic Man," track 17 on the Kinks' Ultimate Collection. It's not very good, so no wonder it wasn't nominated in the original chemical song listing.
We've moved on from the days of restoring the calm on beachtrips with "The Wheels on the Bus go round and round" and "No more monkeys jumping on the bed.
Then in pre-iPod days, the endless baked landscapes of
There are precious few operas which have anything much to say about commercial life, let alone manufacturing industry. With their ludicrous plots and heart-breaking tragedies, it's difficult to imagine setting any of the stories of murder or mistaken identity in the chemical industry. 
Along with a few thousand other people I'm sitting at an open air concert on a cold summer's evening enjoying the live performances of first Suzanne Vega then Leonard Cohen. 
(photos with kind permission of: Dorsetbays)
Will Beacham, ICB European bureau chief, writes about his adventures at
Glastonbury in Somerset, UK last weekend, Friday 26 to Sunday 28 June ...
With the mud now removed from most of my clothes, I'm back in sunny Sutton's ICIS office to share my experiences. Barbara only wanted the highlights of Bruce Springsteen from the comfort of her armchair. But I can tell you it was worth the effort of trudging through the fields with a pint of hot cider in my hand to watch probably the most electrifying live performance I've ever seen. You'd better get a ticket for next year!
For five days each year, a few fields in a quiet corner of the UK's West Country become a throbbing city of 180,000 people. The Glastonbury Festival of the Performing Arts is a national institution. Started in 1971 by a farmer, Michael Eavis, who had an interest in music, it has grown to become
Whilst there this year, I started thinking about the organisation and economics of this event, plus its wider impact on the local area and on demand for chemicals.
The local economy must benefit hugely from the festival. There were several hundred stalls selling everything from food to clothes to the "ShePee", which I'll leave to your imagination. Of the 180,000 people attending, 40,000 are workers: a major boost to the economy.
The huge number of tents covering the site must also stimulate demand for the
"Green" is certainly a key theme of the event. Woe betide anyone trying to avoid the queues at the toilets by hiding behind a bush or hedge. A team of "green police" (see video) wearing British Bobby hats coloured green patrol the site, blowing their whistles and chasing offenders.
The figures for waste produced are staggering. In 2008 the festival recycled 49% or 863.32 tonnes of its waste. This included 193.98 tonnes of composted organic waste, 400 tonnes of chipped wood, 9.12 tonnes of glass, 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles, 41 tonnes of cardboard, 66 tonnes of scrap metal, 11.2 tonnes of clothing, tents, sleeping bags, 0.264 tonnes of batteries, 10 tonnes of dense plastic and 0.25 tonnes plastic sheets.
This year the festival also used a fleet of New Holland tractors, all capable of running on 100% biodiesel refined from used cooking oil sourced in the
This year I saw fantastic performances from Prodigy, Will Young, Tom Jones and Neil Young plus DJs like Pete Tong and Deadmau5. Don't tell any of my cool friends, but I also loved Australian legend Rolf Harris!
Icecream van in Glastonbury mud on the only rainy day
Will and friends
The shape of business travel to come
I was watching Bruce Springsteen's set at the Glastonbury Festival last night, recorded from Saturday, marvelling at his energy and how wonderfully comfortable it was to be watching with my feet up at home without having waited six hours to get near the front for the same kind of view. Even better, in real life (IRL) it took two-and-half-hours, but the BBC cleverly condensed it to just the good stuff. When I saw him in London at the Emirates Stadium last year, it had all the worst aspects of the IRL experience: he was a tiny blur in the distance, and it took ages to get home afterwards.ICIS news has been out in force at the major National Plastics Exhibition (NPE) in Chicago, for this whole week 22-26 June. Attendance at the conference was a bit down, but the number of exhibitors was up.
Al Greenwood, deputy news editor of ICIS in Houston has helpfully sent the Blog this picture from the conference.
"This is a bucket band that was playing outside of NPE . Sadly, I thought the buckets would give the name of the company. Instead, they just say "Green Pickle Bucket Band."
A new play entitled "Enron" will be coming to the London stage in September, and the Blog can't wait to see it. 
