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CHARLESTON--If you drive a car or brush your teeth, chances are you're using a DuPont product.
DuPont, which is collectively the largest private employer in West Virginia, has four manufacturing plants in the state. Each plant produces a variety of materials used in products worldwide. The company began in 1802 and is the longest continually operating company in the United States, according to L. Craig Skaggs, DuPont's external affairs manager for Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia.
He said West Virginia plays a major role in DuPont's worldwide strategy. In fact, the largest DuPont plant in the world is located in the community of Washington, W.Va., near Parkersburg.
"It's the plant where Teflon is made," Skaggs said. "Most of the Teflon in the world is made in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Most nylon bristles are made at Parkersburg, nylon bristles for paint brushes, toothbrushes."
Polyvinyl sheeting that keeps car windshields from shattering is also produced at DuPont's Parkersburg operation.
"Parkersburg also makes a wide variety of things called engineering plastics," Skaggs said. "There are plastics that you make cups out of, pop bottles, toys and then there are plastics that are used in airplanes, automobiles, and those have to be a tougher, highly specialized and much more expensive type of plastic. All our engineering polymers are made at Parkersburg and that's the bulk of what's made at that plant .... Generally, if you open the hood of your car and you see anything that's black plastic, they probably came from Parkersburg."
About 2,700 employees work at the Parkersburg plant, but the facility is currently undergoing a $300 million expansion, during which time another 700 contractors will be working at the plant.
DuPont's other plants in West Virginia are located in Martinsburg, Moundsville and Belle. The company also owns 50 percent of CONSOL Coal Group, operating seven mines and two coal preparation plants. DuPont employs 97,000 people worldwide at...