But a top APC board official played down that result, portraying it as a streamlining move. And two processors contacted last week said they recognize the need to streamline some communications and implementation functions.

The new hierarchy calls for the APC's new president and chief executive officer to report directly to the board of directors, rather than through Larry Thomas, president of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., and the sub-board coordinating group made up of resin company managers.

APC's current top official, Group Vice President Donald Shea, will be a candidate for the new CEO job, but the board will search for other candidates.

Earnest Deavenport, the Eastman Chemical Co. chairman and CEO who now is APC's board chairman, argued that the top-level moves do not mean APC is severing its relationship with SPI.

Rather, Deavenport said in a telephone interview from his home in Kingsport, Tenn., the plan will ``continue APC as a joint venture with SPI, including SPI representatives on the executive committee and board,'' while maintaining the APC board's status as one of a number of special-issue CMA panels called Chemstar councils.

``It will be a much cleaner and much more direct structure,'' Deavenport said.

APC's board of directors approved the plan at an April 20 meeting in Naples, Fla. The plan will take effect after the board's June 8 meeting, the final meeting of the 1993-94 fiscal year.

It followed weeks of turmoil within SPI's membership. Some processor members in early February learned of an impending decision to change the organization's structure through a letter sent by an SPI staff member that portrayed the APC board's high-level moves as a divorce of APC from SPI.

That letter urged SPI processor members to lobby their resin suppliers against such a move.

Objections from processors reportedly stalled such a direct departure. But some SPI insiders say the latest APC board decisions effectively remove SPI oversight from APC, a group with a $50 million budget that aimed to allay consumers' concerns about plastics' impact on the environment.

Under the restructuring, the chemical companies' resin business managers who sat on the sub-board coordinating group will have seats on the board of directors. The board's membership now consists primarily of the chemical company chief executives to whom the plastics managers report.

However, each of APC's 25 member companies still will have only one vote on the board.

Some insiders questioned whether the senior plastics executives will have any authority at all because the CEOs to whom they report also will be on the board. In addition, some said the one-vote-per-company rule will tend to dilute the resin managers' authority.

But Deavenport said elevating the resin business managers to board level increases their ability to participate in decision-making.

``If anything it's a much more participatory-type board structure than we have had with the hierarchy of the board and the coordinating group,'' Deavenport said. ``We will have more interlocking relationships on our board and committees.''

Two processors reached last week said elimination of the coordinating group may be a good idea.

``That's probably a wise thing for them to do,'' said Harry Ussery, vice chairman of SPI's Plastics Mobilization Committee and president of Beacon Plastics Inc. of Greenville, S.C. ``It seemed to be a redundant step.''

But Ussery, an SPI board member, said he wants to see full details of the restructuring before he makes any final judgments.

George Makrauer, the president of bag maker Amko Plastics Inc. in Cincinnati and early advocate of creating APC, agreed that such a move will remove ``bureaucratic impediments.''

``My sense is that bringing these business managers into a direct operating relationship with their CEOs will benefit the program for two reasons,'' Makrauer said. ``First, the respective CEOs respect and listen to their operations people, and second, the operations people are much closer to these industry pressures that were the reason APC was formed.''

Elevating the working committees, which now sit below the coordinating group, Thomas and Shea, also will improve communications and program implementation, according to Deavenport.

One of those committees, the Industry Mobilization Committee, is staffed by SPI employees and depends on SPI's processor members for success.

Makrauer said the new APC president will have a great influence over how well the group represents and involves processors.

``I think it is essential that this intimate relationship with SPI be maintained,'' Makrauer said. ``I hope that the individual selected as CEO is impressed with that aspect of the relationship because, from the processors' standpoint, we see our link to this challenge to the industry as being with SPI through APC,'' he said.

The elimination of the coordinating group, which Deavenport portrayed as a move to improve communication and program implementation, also holds implications for SPI's influence over APC.

The coordinating group consisted typically of the resin business managers, many of whom have close ties to the processor members of SPI.

And APC's operating committees-including the Industry Mobilization Committee, which draws heavily from SPI's membership-will be directly under the authority of the board, rather than the coordinating group.

In theory, Shea reported to Thomas, who in turn reported to the APC coordinating group. Thomas also sat on the APC board of directors.

But according to some SPI insiders, Thomas only attempted to exercise that authority briefly after APC's formation in late 1991 and early 1992 by having SPI staff members sit in on APC meetings.

Thomas was instructed to back off and allow APC's staff to operate independently.

Thomas still had some power over APC staff members' pay and compensation, as they were on SPI's payroll.

But according to some insiders, the latest move will eliminate that oversight and will foster even more independence in APC's staff.

The two staffs are in adjoining offices and share telephone services.

APC's staff grew out of an SPI project called the Council for Solid Waste Solutions. Still, according to insiders, the staff cultures of APC and SPI clash.