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ENVIRONMENT
PATRICK GRUBER
CARGILL DOW
MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA
NATUREWORKS PLA:PLASTIC MADE FROM CORN
Photograph by Jeff Sciortino
In 1989 Pat Gruber was just a fledgling chemist, 29, fresh out of graduate school, when his bosses at the agricultural giant Cargill pitched a problem that stumped him: Come up with new uses for corn. For six months his group brainstormed, imagining new syrups, acids, fuels. But nothing held greater promise than biodegradable plastic. One day, walking from desk to workbench, Gruber stopped dead: "It just hit me," he recalls. "A lightbulb went off in my head and I thought, 'Hey, I know how to do it.' And the process hasn't changed in 10 years."
Now 40 and a vice president of the new conglomerate Cargill Dow, Gruber presides over the development of a product that requires 20 percent to 50 percent less ...
