It’s no secret that humans have a plastic problem. Single-use water bottles, takeout containers, hygiene products—the stuff is everywhere, and even when we can recycle it, it still ends up clogging our waterways and landfills. In recent years a new vocabulary has come to the world disposable products: compostable packaging. It sounds like a move in the right direction, but the details are… confusing.
The same questions tend to come up around compostable packaging again and again: Is is biodegradable? Can I put it in the recycling? Will it magically turn to dirt in my countertop compost bin alongside my coffee grounds and eggshells?
The good news: Compostable packaging does actually turn to compost just like your food scraps do, which is way gentler on the planet and can get used to help nourish soil. The bad news: It doesn’t break down quite as easily, and you have to know exactly how to dispose of it to get it to turn into plant food.
Olga Kachook, director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), observed that most folks think biodegradable and compostable packaging are basically the same, and the conclusion they draw is that they can just toss a compostable container on the ground or into water, and it’ll dissolve over time (please don’t do that!). Turns out, compostable packaging is a type of biodegradable packaging designed to break down alongside natural waste. It’s usually made of plant-based materials, like corn syrup, cellulose, or paper, that decompose without leaving toxins behind.
Biodegradable packaging, which can be made from bioplastics like polylactic acid that research indicates can turn into microplastics, is a broader category, that simply means a material will break down over time with the help of microorganisms—though there’s no guarantee how long it’ll take or what, if anything, it leaves behind. Disintegration varies widely based on the exact material and the environmental factors, like temperature and moisture (which is why it’s often criticized by sustainability experts). However, research shows that biodegradable waste can linger for much longer than people think—one study reported that biodegradable grocery bags were still intact after three years in soil.
“Many consumers aren’t aware of the connection between compostable packaging and how it can help benefit the environment,” Kachook says. Aside from keeping toxins and microplastics out of our planet, compostable packaging can help curtail our methane fumes. Currently, food waste accounts for more than half of all methane emissions from landfills. “Part of the real ‘value’ of compostable packaging is when it helps to get more food scraps out of landfills by acting as the vehicle for getting those food scraps into the compost bin.”
But none of the benefits of compostable packaging can happen if you don’t dispose of it properly, and that’s where things get tricky.
Because the best tool for the job is the one you’ll reach for again and again…and again.
For starters, compostable products absolutely cannot go into the recycling. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that tossing compostable waste into the recycling bin, “can contaminate and disrupt the recycling stream if intermixed with petroleum-based plastics that are non-compostable,” as grease and moisture degrade recyclable materials and clog the machinery used to sort through waste. That’s why compostable packaging is so helpful for food- and beverage-related products, and not things like mailers or personal care items. “It both supports food capture and it doesn’t confuse consumers who may be used to recycling something and now have to put that packaging in a different stream,” says Mary Katherine Moore, senior marketing and communications expert for the SPC’s umbrella nonprofit, GreenBlue.
