Fibers of a corn-derived, biodegradable plastic developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nebraska researchers and their colleagues have demonstrated a new technique for improving the properties of bio-plastic that could also streamline its manufacturing, making it more competitive with petroleum-based counterparts. Nebraska's Yiqi Yang and colleagues found that raising the temperature of bio-plastic fibers to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, then slowly allowing them to cool, greatly improved the bio-plastic's normally lackluster resistance to heat and moisture.Its thermal approach also allowed the team to bypass solvents and other expensive, time-consuming techniques typically needed to manufacture a commercially viable bio-plastic, the study reported.Yang said the approach could allow manufacturers of corn-derived plastic -- such as a Cargill plant in Blair, Nebraska -- to continuously produce the biodegradable material on a scale that at least approaches petroleum-based plastic, the industry standard. Recent research estimates that about 90 percent of U.S. plastic goes unrecycled."This clean technology makes possible (the) industrial-scale production of commercializable bio-based plastics," the authors reported.