First biofuels, now bioplastics?

An Australian company, Plantic, has come up with a way to turn corn into plastics–turning a relatively nasty oil-based product into a renewable, biodegradable alternative. Welcome, bioplastics.

Similar organic material-based products already exist, but Plantic claims its technology is the first that can be simply grown in a field. More on that at Environmentalgraffiti.

Of course, biofuels are not without issues, and thus bioplastics raises a number of questions, from the impact on the costs of food to the growing demand for water to grow all the stuff.