Jobwerx News-If America wants to reduce its consumption of oil and the buildup of slow-degrading plastic in landfills, one answer is softly swaying in the wind on farms across the country.

Some of the nation's abundant corn is already being converted into environmentally friendly plastics and fibers for use in products ranging from mattress pads and golf shirts to soda cups and minidisc wrappers.

Biodegradable corn products are more expensive than traditional plastics for now, but if they catch on they could provide hope for struggling farmers.

"Anything that can be made from a barrel of crude oil can be made from a kernel of corn," said Randy Cruise, a corn farmer in central Nebraska, who was only slightly exaggerating. "I think we're just getting started in this whole arena."

Corn plastics are being developed by Cargill Dow LLC at its plant outside Blair, where refined corn sugar is converted into a substance called polylactide or PLA. The sugar is fermented and distilled to extract carbon--the basic building block for commercial- grade plastics and fibers.

PLA, in pellets the size of BBs, is being pressed into packaging for food, plastic wrap, foam and dinner ware. It is spun into fabrics at plants in North Carolina, Hong Kong and Japan and marketed under the Ingeo brand of clothing and blankets. Cargill Dow- -a joint venture between privately held food giant Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical Co.--says Ingeo means "ingredients from the earth."

Perhaps the greatest appeal of corn plastics is their green credentials. It takes about a month for plastic bags made from corn to degrade in a compost, said Randy Klein of the Nebraska Corn Board. A similar oil-based plastic bag could take centuries to decompose.

Coca-Cola Co. used 500,000 cups made from corn plastics at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Instead of creating a large trash problem, used cups were simply composted and quickly turned into dirt.

"The product performed beautifully. They go back to nature in 40 days," said Frederic Scheer, president of Los Angeles-based Biocorp North America, the food-service company that supplied the cups.

Before giving its stamp of approval to corn plastics, the Sierra Club is waiting for independent studies of the products' biodegradabilty.

"If it's what it appears to be, it will be tremendous," said spokeswoman Laura Kresbach.

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