"You have a chance to be a hero or a dog." With that blunt go-ahead from his managers at Dow Chemical in 1988, engineer Mike Biddle started the corporation's first-ever plastics-recycling research efforts. Back then, the powers that be at one of the nation's largest manufacturers of polystyrene believed that discarded plastic products belonged in a landfill. Biddle was determined to prove them wrong. Dow's support only lasted a few years, but Biddle went on to become a hero—and a big dog. His company, MBA Polymers, is the world's largest recycler of mixed, discarded plastic from durable goods. The Richmond, California, operation turns shredded plastic that was once in computers, televisions, refrigerators, and other products into pellets that are as useful as virtually any plastic made fresh from fossil fuel.
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