Plastic Fantastic.

DOW Chemical Co.; WOMEN executives; BADER, Kathleen; SYNTHETIC products; PLASTICS; CORN products; FATS & oils; FOSSIL fuels; CARBON dioxide; ENVIRONMENTAL protection; CHEMICAL engineering; PLASTICS industries

This article profiles Kathleen Bader, who for 32 years was the only woman on Dow Chemical's executive management team. A year ago Bader left a prestigious, cushy Dow posting in Zurich to take on what she calls the biggest fight of her life: getting the world to kick its habit of consuming plastics made from oil and start using corn-based plastic instead. According to an analysis by Bruce Dale, a chemical engineering professor at Michigan State University, growing 82 pounds of corn and making it into 1,000 plastic bottles requires 36% less fossil fuel energy and produces 44% less carbon dioxide than making the bottles out of petroleum, even after you factor in the tractor diesel fuel and fertilizer used by the corn farmers. Families are now eating Del Monte fruits and vegetables from corn plastic containers, listening to Sony Walkmans made out of corn, drinking Biota water from corn plastic bottles and soda at McDonald's out of corn cups.