Decision-Making Guide to Accepting or Rejecting Compostable Products

The promise of accepting compostable products for composting is capture of more food scraps, diverting them from landfills, decreasing global-warming methane, and increasing volume and revenue. They must be managed well to avoid increasing costs and contamination. The involvement of policymakers in providing defined requirements for labeling, and that of generators and citizens to properly follow labeling instructions, is needed for success.

Companion reference that explains compostable products.

These resources were introduced at the 3-part Composters Conference on Compostable Products in June and July of 2021.

USCC held a virtual conference discussing these issues in 2021 with vital information about the issues involved in using compostable products as feedstock. You can purchase the recordings of the Conference HERE

The Biodegradable Products Institute, an organization that provides third-party certification of compostable products, held an in-depth process in 2020 to identify solutions to compostability of compostable products. The process produced a Roadmap of Actions, which can be found here.

Here are useful definitions:

Compostable (adj): capable of undergoing aerobic biological decomposition in a compost system, such that the material becomes visually indistinguishable and breaks down into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass.

Compostable Product (n): Any product specifically manufactured to break down in a compost system at the end of its useful life. May be made from plastic, paper, or plant fibers, along with other ingredients that provide necessary form and functionality. The USCC supports the use of compostable products to the extent that they assist in the efficient collection of food and other organics that can be composted, and, by replacing conventional plastics, reduce physical contamination in finished compost products.

Compostable products include items such as bags, take-out containers, coffee pods, food packaging, cups, plates and serviceware.

All compostable products should be certified as conforming to ASTM or other international standards in order to prevent greenwashing, and to ensure that the products do not create problems for composters or the environment. Meeting the ASTM standards (D6400 or D6868) requires individual ingredients to be tested for biodegradability (consumed by microorganism), and the finished product to disintegrate (physically break down during composting), as well as be tested for plant toxicity and heavy metals.

LABELING IS KEY

The US Composting Council and BPI assembled a task force of stakeholders to update legislation developed by the original Compostable Task Force in 2012. See Compostable Labeling Guidelines here.

FIELD TESTING IS AN OPTION

Composters may want to field test already-certified products, to be sure the product will disintegrate in their specific system. To help make these tests more consistent, and collect data on how varying conditions impact disintegration, the Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF) launched an open-source field testing protocol. The Compost Manufacturing Alliance also provides field testing and approvals using varying composting technology.

CALIFORNIA's AB1201

calls for compost allowed in the State of California to be acceptable for organic use; the rules are set by the National Organic Program, and recommended by the National Organic Standards Board. Currently, the NOP does not allow compost made with "synthetic substances" (with the exception of newsprint) to be used by farms seeking organic certification.

The legislation called for a study by January 1, 2024 as to whether "bifurcation", separate collection and processing of compost containing compostable feedstocks from compost headed for organic use, would be a feasible way to handle those products. After a survey and public hearing, on Dec. 31, 2023 CalRecycle determined this would NOT be feasible (see paper here).