Good morning! On our podcast, Editor Ron Shinn discusses troubles in the recycling industry, including the pending closure of a state-of-the-art facility. The ripple effects of the nation's failure to support circularity will be wide-ranging, he argues.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) released fourth-quarter and year-end figures, and while the plastics and rubber sector is still lagging, the dam may be starting to break. The labor shortage isn't going away, and the pandemic backlog is clearing.

We have new cutting tools from Kennametal for mold makers, and from our colleagues at Processing, predictions for AI on the plant floor in 2026.

Lynne Sherwin, managing editor