Acme Brick Co. recently celebrated the first load of brick produced at its newly reopened Bennett, Texas, plant facility.

Companies that are starting up, moving or expanding may be able to tap into state and local economic development incentives to save significant money and improve profitability.

Kyocera Corp. recently announced that a solar project using the company’s solar modules has been awarded the 2012 Swiss Solar Prize: The wheelchairs of 10 inhabitants at the Quimby Huus, an institution for the physically disabled in St. Gallen, Switzerland, are driven exclusively using solar power.

Over 40 state legislatures convened in the first quarter of 2013 and, as in previous years, they are actively introducing legislation that has the potential to impact the glass container industry and glass bottle recycling.

For centuries, ceramic materials were used exclusively for tableware and building materials. In the mid-19th century, technical development in refractories and abrasives enabled the development of modern metallurgy and glass industries and became the first industrial application for ceramics.

When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) adopted the America Invents Act (AIA) “first-to-file” system on March 16, the following scenarios became reality.