Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH
Just one word: Plastics.
https://www.plasticstoday.com/materi...83821699458842
(That is an article about the Shell (and possibly other) ethane crackers, the plastics industry that may build up around it, and the companies and educational institutions already in the region. I've never heard of the Plastics Cluster in Erie before.) |
I understand the potential economic development force of the Shell plant, but I'm still not a fan of building a gigantic facility to produce a compound that will mainly end up being used to make plastic bags and bottles... to say nothing of the negative effect it will have on the region's already terrible air quality and human health. Just find it hard to get too excited over something like that.
Yeah, Erie/NW PA/NE OH has been a main center of the plastics industry for a long time, particularly injection molding. There was always a large cluster of skilled machinists/tool-and-die makers in the region that produced products from the steel coming out of all the mills. Add that to the rubber/polymer industry in the region and the world of plastics was born. Regional expertise is the reason Penn State established their plastics engineering program at the campus there... I think it's one of the top-ranked programs in the country for that field. It would be really nice if they devoted more research to bioplastics, rather than continuing to rely on pulling hydrocarbons out of the gound and burning them, but you know... the oil & gas industry.