What Does "Compostable" REALLY Mean?

As Canadians, we disagree on a lot of things. Take coffee, for example. Tim Horton’s says that they brew the best coffee. This Hour Has 22 Minutes, for one, doesn’t agree. It’s a serious debate that will serve as an example for the division in your social media feeds forever.

Now, great compost? That’s something we should all agree on.

There are a lot of plastic products - packaging items, specifically - that claim to be “compostable.” Full disclosure, I (it’s me, Sean) rarely agree with these claims.

In reality, “certified” compostable plastic products must meet the ASTM D6400 standard, which is obviously impressive because it’s a mix of both letters and numbers. In reality, however, all the standard requires is that “compostable” plastic be in small enough pieces at the end of the process that it is “visually indistinguishable” from the surrounding (truly organic) material.

Products made from “natural fibres,” like unlined or unwaxed paper plates, paper egg cartons, or the take-out trays made famous by the aforementioned Tim Horton’s (see, we’re tying everything together), are certainly more likely to be composted effectively and become beneficial for your soil or garden. However, with no single standard and very little useful guidance from government for how these products should be designed to begin with, even paper-based products are not a sure bet in a Green Bin program. 

In 2018, a shining ray of light arrived for the Compostable packaging world – Ontario’s Food and Organic Waste Framework. This policy document outlined ambitious goals to divert as much food and organic waste away from landfill as possible, and also offered up this fairly clear definition of a compostable product:

Compostable products and packaging: means products and packaging made that are intended to be managed at end of life through composting, anaerobic digestion, or other processes that result in decomposition by bacteria or other living organisms.

But the ambitious Framework and its’ associated policies and definitions are not yet the law in Ontario (regulations and such still need to be adopted by the Legislature), so companies remain free to continue to promote virtually anything as “compostable,” and Cities and Towns are left struggling with how to process these items. 

A big part of the problem is how rapidly these new “compostable” packaging products are changing, and how quickly new, innovative products are added to the market. It’s happening a lot faster than governments or waste processors can design programs to capture and compost these materials. Clearly, there are some problems with this word “compostable,” and we’re just getting started talking about it.

Big claims in a small box.

A simple test to see how compostable an item is to see what happens when exposed to water. For fibre products – does it “pulp up” quickly, and break apart? How a product interacts with water/moisture will determine how it is processed in industrial systems.

We gave them a stir after about a minute. Not even a big stir. We’re a bit impressed at this point.

Certainly, these peanuts fit the ‘visually indistinguishable’ requirement for some industrial standards. While we’re not really sure what the little while bits that remain are made of, we do know what Styrofoam would look like right about now.

Ok, now, when I got my most recent cosmetics order from LUSH, you can probably understand my skepticism at the “certified compostable” packaging peanuts that looked a lot like styrofoam, but are apparently edible. Yeah. So, we put them to a super scientific test… check out the photos to the right. Hover over each image in the carousel for details.

Even Sean had to admit – this is pretty GD impressive, and will definitely function (to some degree) in an anaerobic digester system. And 100% better than Styrofoam packaging as well. LUSH has a history of legitimate environmental efforts, and operates an innovative, effective program to address (challenging to recycle) black plastic waste… so maybe they got this right too. 

Look – at GREENish, we promote waste reduction. We’d love people to avoid disposable products wherever possible – whether they are headed for the Green Bin, Blue Bin, or the Landfill. 

But similar to how GREENish has asked municipal governments for guidance on what is truly compostable, we will be submitting comments to the Federal government’s plans to restrict plastic waste asking for a national “compostable packaging” standard (with an emphasis on “compostable plastic packaging”) to allow municipalities and processors to continue to make clean, healthy compost for our soils and lands. 

Reach out if you’d like some advice on how to provide your own feedback to governments and corporations on why you think compost (and truly compostable products) are important. Or if you have feedback on the flavour profile of packaging peanuts. 😉

And next time, we’re gonna get into “compostable” plastic beer cups. We have LOTS MORE TO SAY.

-SH