Top Plastics Industry Themes of 2021: Sustainability, Automation, and 3D Printing

Recycling stories appeared on average five times per issue in 2021, alongside other sustainability topics such as renewable and biodegradable polymers. (Photo: ALPLA)

As 2022 approaches, it’s tempting to review our 13 issues from the past year and anticipate the stories we’ll cover next. In this post, I’ll focus on the past year’s editorial output, leaving future predictions for a later blog.

To synthesize the content of hundreds of articles, I categorized them into major themes while reviewing each issue, including the Technology Trends supplement in May. Five themes emerged as dominant.

Sustainability dominated, split between Recycling and Renewable/Biodegradable Polymers. I assigned 62 stories to Recycling and 28 to Renewable/Biodegradable, totaling 90 pieces. This confirmed my initial hypothesis that recycling would be the flagship story of 2021, driven by PP recycling momentum, chemical and solvent recycling commercialization, advanced sorting aids, PCR‑enhancing additives, and ocean‑plastic reclamation. Senior Editor Heather Caliendo’s new beat ensured consistent coverage as this topic grew in industry relevance.

Industry 4.0—Smart Factories—and Automation were the next most covered topics. We published 27 stories on Industry 4.0 and 15 on Automation, a combined 42 pieces. Executive Editor Tony Deligio and I have championed this beat for years, marking it as a decade‑long industry driver.

Additive Manufacturing, or 3D printing, emerged as a key theme, offering plastics processors new avenues for part production, prototyping, and tooling. Heather took charge of this beat, resulting in 19 stories throughout the year.

The distribution of coverage remains consistent whether we look at short news items or longer, page‑length features, indicating a balanced editorial approach that aligns with processors’ interests.

Ultimately, the responsibility lies with you—our readers—to assess whether our editorial focus aligns with your reality.

Editors often defend their coverage choices with, “We don’t make the news, we just report it.” Yet, as the adage goes, “News is what interests an editor.” Balancing relevance with editorial curiosity is the ongoing challenge.

Let us know: Did we hit the mark?