Popping-Good Ideas for Saving Planet : Environment: Eco Expo offers thousands of Earth-friendly products. One inventor hopes to make packing peanuts obsolete by replacing them with popcorn.

When Eco Expo returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend, Anthony S. McCready will be making his debut as an environmental entrepreneur by offering one solution to the country’s landfill problem: popcorn.

“We’ve created the first commercial, hot-air corn-popping system for the packaging industry,” he says by phone from his Manhattan office. “It’s an alternative to polystyrene peanuts for loose-fill packaging. We dump 40 million pounds of (peanuts) into landfills every year and they stay there forever. But popcorn biodegrades.”

McCready, 35, was a cosmetics manufacturer before he and partner Robert Simon formed Pop-Pak Systems Inc. in 1990. “We’re environmental,” he says. “I wanted to diversify. My goal is to do something that’s good and also make a living.”

So they designed an industrial popper--a heavy-duty machine the size of a large microwave oven that pops corn, which is funneled from a hopper into packages on an assembly line.

“Companies now have to store styrofoam in 14-cubic-foot bags, but this can be popped on-site in the warehouse,” McCready says. “The potential is vast, and the idea is cute. Even Wharton business-school types like it.”

McCready chose Eco Expo for his coming-out party because it bills itself as the nation’s largest consumer showcase for environmental products and services.

His corn popper is just one of many new Earth-friendly products assembled for Eco Expo, says producer Marc Merson, who launched the first exposition last year in Los Angeles and then took it on the road to New York and Denver.

This year’s Expo offers thousands of environmental products and services in six exhibition pavilions. In addition, free workshops and seminars will cover topics ranging from home energy to toxics and health.

The show’s growth reflects the American marketplace’s gradual ecological shifting, says Merson. “We have a lot more recycled and natural items this year, and people will be surprised at how affordable they are,” he says. “Recycled products like stationery are moving out of the boutique category into mainstream.”

New environmental clothing comes in many forms, including leather-like jackets made from cork and a line of purses, vests and belts made from used tires. Expo visitors also can watch an automated weaving machine knit spools of organically grown “green” cotton into fabric for sportswear.

“There’s also been a big increase in the variety of organic wines, beers and foods,” Merson says.

Activities at a children’s playground will include hands-on tree-planting, art projects and lessons in recycling.

The transportation pavilion has expanded the most since last year, says Merson, both in terms of electric cars from small manufacturers and in alternative fuel models, such as methanol and natural gas from major American auto makers.

“It’s a good look at how Southern California air regulations are the force driving change in transportation,” he says.

Expo hours are 2-7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults; children under 12, free. Information: (818) 906-2802.