Welcome to the Acaplast Blog!

This is a first for us in many ways.  The company has never had a blog before, so communicating with customers and others interested in what we do via this medium is quite exciting for us.  It’s a personal first for me, too, as I’ve produced lots of communications as a former journalist and marketing and comms professional -- but never a blog.

I’ll be upfront with you, I’m no expert when it comes to rubber or plastics or the various industries we supply and about which I’ll be writing. But my time in journalism has taught me to approach each challenge with an open mind, secure in the knowledge that, even if I don’t know the answer, I know how to find it. The trick in journalism is to become an expert overnight, which you can only do if you adopt the approach that there are no stupid questions. I hope you’ll bear with me as I mount this learning curve.

Perhaps it’s beneficial that I’ll be addressing issues as a bit of an outsider. I like to think I’ll have a fresh approach and won’t resort to industry jargon without defining it or make assumptions about what the reader knows. What I will do, is tap into the rich resources available here at Acaplast -- our in-house experts, including engineers, designers, scientists, technicians, quality managers, sales, production and logistics teams - to provide me with ideas, insights and research to ‘put meat on the bones’ of this blog.

There are plenty of internet sites where you can find incredibly technical discussions about the rubber and plastics industries. You won’t find that here. Instead, I hope to look at some of those complex topics, break them down and present them in an accessible way, so that, by following this blog, you’ll become a bit more knowledgeable about a variety of topics pertaining to rubber and plastics products. And about the products and services that we provide at Acaplast, of course.

The plastics and rubber industries often have a negative image – one need only think of piles of discarded packaging or animals that have swallowed plastic bags – though I’d argue that this is largely due to the careless behaviors of our fellow citizens living in a throw-away society. I’m not denying there are ecological issues with the production and disposal of plastics and rubber, but I’m going to take the generally contrarian view and point out that rubber and plastic have improved our lives and our safety immeasurably.

When you make a coffee and pick up your mobile, turn on your television or tablet, put on mascara and powder your nose, prepare your smoothie or pack up your leftovers, go cycling or horseback riding, or get on a plane, train or automobile – you are mostly likely using a product that has components made of plastic, rubber or both. In many applications, these products help keep you safe – just think of air bags, children’s car seats, bicycle helmets, cable insulation, rubber gloves, safety masks and boots. And rubber and plastic help protect the environment, too – whether it is reducing the weight of vehicles and improving fuel efficiency or increasing durability for the longer life of your product or limiting emissions from your vehicles – there are clear examples of the upside of using these materials.

Thanks for joining me this far!

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Karina Lowe is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism.  After an adrenalin-driven decade as a Foreign Newsgathering Producer with BBC News, she took on the challenges of working with corporates in diverse sectors – from real estate to banking, from coffee to rubber.  After the birth of her son, she forsook city life to settle with her family in the tranquility of the French countryside.  Karina heads up client relations for the Acaplast Group.