If a plastic milk jug can find new life as a restroom partition, then it's not farfetched to think about walking on a floor made from wine corks you'll expertly sniff tonight.

At least that's what a Missouri couple is hoping. Steve Yemm and Deborah Hart Yemm, who own a business dedicated to manufacturing products from recycled materials, are conducting an experiment with wine corks.

They are trying to collect enough corks, about 160,000, to process into a block that can be sliced into thin sheets and resold as flooring.

"There will probably be little purple spots here and there in the flooring," explains Mr. Yemm. The corks would be ground up, and a binder added, but still, some of the grape stains from the wine will remain.

In the recycling experiment, he says everyone who sends in corks, even one or two, will get a sample of the product.

Ultimately, says Mr. Yemm, they hope to have enough information from the experiment to set a price and provide a small financial incentive for recycling the corks.

Mr. Yemm's company has had success with recycling plastic milk jugs into restroom partitions and parts of rubber tires into flooring. He's hoping he will be able to find willing buyers among environmentally conscious designers and architects.

To participate, send your corks to: Wine Cork Recycling, Yemm & Hart Ltd., 610 S. Chamber Drive, Frederickstown, MO 63645. For more information about cork, visit the Web site at www.yemmhart.com.