A shortage of skilled manufacturing labor is on the way, says a new study by Boston Consulting Group. But, says the firm, it hasn't arrived yet.

Norsk Resirk, a nonprofit Norwegian company that processes discarded plastic bottles and aluminum cans, has completed the first phase of a plan to utilize passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags and readers to improve its management of recyclable materials.

Corporations that have pushed hard this last year to improve their performance in sustainability may now face a new challenge - a growing skepticism among professional investors, supply chain officials and recent higher education graduates. Such are the results of the 2012 Sustainability Leadership Report, now in its second year, which analyzes real vs. perceived sustainability performance for 100 leading global brands that collectively represent 16 percent of the world's economic output.

Raildecks, the double-stack technology designed for flatbed trailers, has received a U.S. patent for its collapsible flat rack intermodal container, the company announced.

The total number of U.S. polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic containers and bottles collected and recycled in 2011 is a record, according to a report from the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR).

North American freight shipments rose modestly in September, a month usually associated with a peak season increase. This month's 2.2-percent increase can be attributed, however, more to contingency planning for the anticipated International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) dock workers strike than to a seasonal surge in orders. Although federal mediators stepped in at the last minute and negotiated a three-month extension to continue talks, many shippers had already scrambled to re-schedule October shipments for September. The alternative, should the strike have occurred, was to reroute goods to the West Coast, where carriers were charging strike surcharges ranging from $300 to $1,000.