Free Republic

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists have developed a technique to use waste plastic in steel making, a process that could have implications for recycling scrap metal that accounts for 40 percent of steel production. Professor Veena Sahajwalla of the University of New South Wales has won a prestigious Australian science award for what she calls "the hottest research in town," which she hopes will turn an environmental headache into a valuable resource. Under the process, waste plastics are fed into electric steel-making furnaces as an alternative source of carbon and heated to super-hot temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 Fahrenheit)....

U.S. trade policy has become foreign policy and has left the United States on the precipice of economic ruin. That was the message Thursday of a delegation from the American Manufacturing Trade Coalition. The group, led by Spartanburg textile magnate Roger Milliken, met with editors of The State over concerns about U.S. trade with China and an upcoming congressional vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which would reduce trade barriers in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. “The CAFTA vote is a critical vote for the future or our country,” said Milliken, who helped found the lobbying organization two...