Photos: Baking plastic from plants

Stephan Garden, a senior vice president at the company, displays some of the packaging and picnic-ware made from Cereplast plastic.

The bioplastic tableware can compost in 180 days. However, the material is therefore fragile and may start to deteriorate in the summer sun if left, say, for weeks in a store window.

Cereplast mixes U.S.-farmed corn, wheat, and potato with tapioca grown in Africa and Asia. There may be more of some plant starches than others, depending upon prices at a given time. That flexibility helps the company to absorb market shifts and dampen costs. Also in the resin are some 10 compostable materials including organic nano-clays.