Fabric made from fine strands of recycled plastic has been around for years. So has the kind of soy-based foam found in some high-end mattresses. But here’s something new: plywood made from corn stalks, an agricultural waste product.

It’s one of the sustainable materials used to make couches, chairs and headboards by Huntington Industries Inc., a Hawthorne startup that is selling eco-friendly furniture, usually a luxury item, at more midrange prices.

“We’re taking an enormous amount of raw material that (virtually) wouldn’t be used for anything, and we’re turning it into a usable product,” said Hayden Hiatt, vice president of business development for the company, which puts recycled steel springs, recycled plastic padding and wood from sustainably managed forests into its products.

The company is developing a line of furniture that uses CornBoard. Made by a Frisco, Texas, company, the product is said to be similar to plywood or fiberboard, but is made with corn leaves and stalks pressed together with a proprietary, formaldehyde-free resin.

Lane Segerstrom, chief executive of Corn Board Manufacturing Inc., said the corn plant, once stripped of the grain, can be used as filler in animal feed but much goes to waste and it sells for just one or two cents a pound. Some companies are testing it as a feedstock for ethanol, while Corn Board developed its faux wood about two years ago.

Huntington started testing the product this year, making sure it holds the staples and water-based glue the company uses to make furniture frames. Plans are to start making a few CornBoard prototypes this month and be producing a whole line of furniture this spring.

For now, Huntington makes about 50 pieces of furniture a week, mostly under private labels for other companies, such as a line sold by the Plummers chain. An average Huntington-made sofa retails for $1,000 to $1,500.

Hiatt said he pays a small premium for CornBoard and wasn’t sure how much he might price a sofa made with it. The bigger goal is that the new line will get the company’s products under its own name into showrooms of big furniture dealers – and to raise production to about 500 pieces weekly.

“In a lot of other industries, these sustainable products are already available – clothes, household cleaners, almost anything,” he said. “But we found a lack of it in the upholstered furniture industry.”