Columbus, Ohio-based Plaskolite has seen business rise six-fold since mid-March for its acrylic sheet, makings of the clear plastic barriers that have been installed everywhere from courtrooms to ...

Although chemist and inventor Otto Rohm had first come up with the idea for plexiglass in 1901, it wasn’t until 1933 that the Rohm & Haas company first introduced it to the market under the ...

Alternately called acrylic glass or plexiglass – capitalized and shortened to Plexiglas if it’s the trademarked product – the plastic sheets are now a staple of supply runs.

"Demand is ridiculously high," said Jackie Yong, a 17-year employee of J. Freeman, Inc., a plastics distributor and sign supplier in Boston whose products include plexiglass and other plastic sheets.

Jury trials are slowly starting to get underway in a few Michigan counties with some noticeable protections amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before COVID-19, the market for plastic sheets had been on the decline, mainly due to the slowdown of brick-and-mortar retail businesses, which used to be huge buyers.

Business is opening and the welcome mat comes in the form of acrylic sheets partitioning people everywhere they go, from stores to schools to casinos. In the short term, it’s disconcerting.

These see-through plastic barriers, typically set up between tables and at bar tops or takeout counters, are supposed to provide protective boundaries, safeguarding people from the spread of COVID-19.