Port Jeff businessman in Plastics Hall of Fame

Plastics was the promising field when Jay Gardiner was still in college, and he made it a career -- and now he's been inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame.

Gardiner, 60, who runs a resin brokerage and consulting firm in Port Jefferson, was inducted in a ceremony that took place at a Society of Plastics Engineers convention last week in Orlando, Fla.

He started working in the industry in the early 1970s, while enrolled at Queens College, making $125 a week selling plastic clothes hangers for an injection-molding manufacturer.

"A tireless volunteer for plastics causes, Jay L. Gardiner has been continuously active in service to the industry for more than two decades and has held leadership positions or board memberships with a number of organizations," the Plastics Academy, which administers the hall of fame, said in a Wednesday news release.

"All this has taken place alongside Mr. Gardiner’s full-time work in the field of resin sales," the Plastics Academy said.

He founded his own company, Gardiner Plastics Inc., in 1992, the academy said.

"The company combines resin distribution and management consulting for small processors and has been involved in turnaround management, consolidation strategies, and advising on mergers and acquisition."

Gardiner has been a member and leader at the National Plastics Center and Museum; the Plastics Pioneers Association, the Plastics Academy, the Plastics Institute of America and SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Associations.

The Plastics Hall of Fame's nomination rules say, "election into the Plastics Hall of Fame is a distinctive honor bestowed only upon those individuals who, by consistent dedication and extraordinary accomplishments, have contributed to the growth of the industry..."

Among his other achievements, for which he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame: Gardiner published many articlesand has spoken at conferernces worldwide. Also, the Hall of Fame award announcement stated, "in 1995, he was instrumental in bringing about the repeal of one of the first plastic bag bans, in Suffolk County, N.Y., where he lives and works."