EASTMAN CHEMICAL COMPANY

'Eastman Chemical Company' is a United States based chemical company, engaged in the manufacture and sale of chemicals, plastics and fibers. Eastman has 16 manufacturing sites in 10 countries, supplying its products throughout the world. Founded in 1920 and based in Kingsport, Tennessee, Eastman is a Fortune 500 company with 2006 sales of $7.5 billion, and approximately 11,000 employees.
Eastman manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers and plastics worldwide. It provides key differentiated coatings, adhesives and specialty plastics products; is the world’s largest producer of PET polymers for packaging; and is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers.

Contents

History

Corporate Affairs

Environmental record

References

External links

History

An effect of World War I was a scarcity in raw materials such as photographic paper, optical glass, gelatin and many chemicals, including methanol, acetic acid and acetone. After the war ended, Eastman Kodak founder George Eastman began working to have an independent supply of chemicals for his photographic processes. His search for suitable quantities of methanol and acetone led him to the southern United States.
In 1920, Tennessee Eastman was founded with two major platforms – organic chemicals and acetyls. Products such as calcium acetate, sodium acetate, acetic acid and acetic anyhydride became the basis the company’s platforms.
During World War II, RDX, a powerful explosive, was manufactured for the U.S. government at Holston Ordnance Works at Tennessee Eastman sites. At the peak of production, close to the end of the war, the ordnance plant was producing a million and a half pounds of explosives each day.
Eastman introduced acetate tow to the industry in 1952 and remains a leading global manufacturer that sells acetate under the trademark name Estron. Estron is used to produce items such as cigarette filters and ink reservoirs for fiber-tip pens. The product line supporting this filtration material has grown. The most significant product line developed for use with cellulose acetate tow is Estrobond plasticizers, which are used to impart rigidity and hardness to acetate fiber rods.
By the late 1960’s, Tennessee Eastman was manufacturing a broad array of products that were used in apparels, home furnishings, the automobile industry and other areas. Additional manufacturing facilities were constructed in strategic locations.
During the 1970’s, Eastman began producing PET plastics, a light-weight, recyclable packaging option. Today, Eastman is the world’s largest producer of PET polymers, which are used in water, carbonated beverages, cosmetics and other packaging applications.
In 1983, Eastman opened the first commercial coal gasification facility in the United States at its Kingsport plant site to produce chemicals from syngas rather than petroleum. Eastman also owns and operates a gasification facility at its Longview, Texas, site to produce syngas from natural gas. Eastman Gasification Services Company, formed in 2003, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastman that helps gasification facility owners and developers with facility design and start-up.
In 1994, Eastman Chemical Company spun off from Eastman Kodak and became an independent corporation. Since that time, the company has continued to develop and market new products.
In early 2005, Eastman broke ground on the first world-scale manufacturing facility using IntegRex, a breakthrough technology that includes numerous innovations that reduce the number of intermediate process steps in producing PET resin.
At the Torino 2006 Olympic Games, the 12,000 transparent seats in the new ice hockey stadium were injection-molded using Eastman's high-performance Durastar Copolyester.

Corporate Affairs

Culture - The company has recognized that employees are the key to the company's success. These values have fostered a culture that is recognized within the areas that they are located in teamwork and employee involvement.

Environmental record

Eastman ranks eleventh among U.S. corporate producers of air pollution according to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute. Eastman facilities in 12 U.S. states release a total of 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of toxic chemicals annually into the air.^[1]. The Environmental Protection Agency has also linked Eastman to several Superfund toxic waste sites, according to the Center for Public Integrity.^[2]
Eastman is a member of Responsible Care, a global voluntary initiative of the chemical industry. Responsible Care was commended for being a significant contribution by the chemical industry to sustainable development by the United Nations Environmental Programme at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. More than 50 countries worldwide have adopted the Responsible Care ethic.

References

1. Political Economy Research Institute
2. Center for Public Integrity

External links

★ Official site

★ Environmental Release Report

★ Company Annual Report

★ Tennessee Eastman Company/Eastman Chemical Company in ''The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''
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