Dow chemical Co. started selling a new plastic last year, the first novel version of polypropylene in 30 years. It is more malleable than the traditional stiff plastic used to make lawn furniture and plastic forks. Its softness makes the tips of shoes more flexible, allows stretch wrap to cling more tightly around shipping pallets and produces film with higher clarity. Sales could top $500 million a year. The discovery belongs not to the inventor of Scrubbing Bubbles and Saran Wrap but to a little-known company in Santa Clara, Calif.called Symyx. It took the small technology outfit less than two years to develop this new class of polypropylenes. In comparison, it took 15 years to invent the first polyethylene, which came out of the lab in 1933. For its reward Symyx stands to pocket up to 5% of sales of malleable polypro.
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