Balance out your portfolio with a dash of chlorine and caustic soda, a.k.a. lye.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Products like caustic soda and polystyrene are popular neither with growth-stock buyers nor with environmentalists.

FORBES: Chemical Transformation

First, you dig up bauxite which you then crush and boil in sodium hydroxide (lye, or caustic soda).

FORBES: Rio Tinto's Aluminium Problems: And They're Only Going To Get Worse

The caustic soda is then exposed to the power plant's exhaust, where it combines with carbon dioxide to create, over two steps, sodium carbonate and then sodium bicarbonate.

FORBES: Magazine Article

These use an electrical process to transform salt and water into chlorine and caustic soda (a.k.a. lye), which are the building blocks of everything from plastics to soap.

FORBES: Chemical Balance

In one recent year, the complex boasted an annual production of 1, 785 million pounds of caustic soda, 2, 135 million pounds EDC, 1, 266 million pounds PVC suspension resin, 840 million pounds VCM, 3, 411 million pounds ethylene gas, 1, 484 million pounds High Density Polyethylene, 582 million pounds Linear Low Density Polyethylene, and 1, 495 million pounds polypropylene.

FORBES: The Gluttons of Natural Gas