Cornstarch By Versace

Ethanol is much in the news for its use as an alternative fuel. But another corn-based substance, made largely by NatureWorks, owned by Cargill, is sprouting up in dozens of products. It's in water bottles and baby wipes. Versace Sport makes jackets and sweatshirts out of it. Sony (SNE) uses it in packaging. And last fall, Wal-Mart (WMT) started selling some produce in containers made of it.

The material, made from corn starch, is known as PLA. It's created when corn starch is melted into syrup, fermented into lactic acid, and shaped into a resin. The end product -- pellets that resemble rice grains -- can be melted and spun into fiber or molded into packaging. Since 2002, NatureWorks has been marketing the material as either Ingeo (for textiles) or NatureWorks PLA (for packaging). PLA's eco-credentials -- it's compostable and made from 100% annually renewable sources -- have helped the company grab market share from synthetic products. Some 35,000 retail outlets carry PLA or Ingeo products, including Costco (COST) and Target (TGT). NatureWorks says its sales rose 230% from 2004 to 2005.