What is corn plastic?
For years, the corncob pipe was a fashion accessory best left to hillbillies, Frosty the Snowman and Gen. Douglas MacArthur. While the look is no less bumpkinish today than it ever was, corn is showing up in the production of more everyday items — and without resembling a prop from “Hee Haw.” What looks like normal oil-based plastic at first glance is actually polylactic acid (PLA) plastic made from specially processed crops. That’s right: corn plastic. You can drink coffee out of it, put groceries in it, wear it and even hang ten on it on a corn plastic surfboard. Most important, you can turn corn into plastic and avoid dependency on petroleum. Much like corn ethanol, corn pla
