all the things you can put in the compost bin- CTBarimoore
A few months ago I wrote a post about the federal regulations regulating marketing claims of “green plastics”. This post only briefly touched on the testing standards surrounding these claims.
Last week,after hosting a great Webinar titled A New Life for Plastics:End-of-life Solutions in the Age of Greener Materials, greenbiz.com published an article about the lack of standards in the bioplastics industry titled Improved Standards Needed for Bioplastic Claims.
With a lack of standards that match how facilities are really operating,composters are wary of accepting bioplastics since they don’t want to deal with contaminants,nor would they want to slow down their operations to meet possibly longer degrading times needed for bioplastics. -GreenBiz
I wanted to respond to the article but didn’t necessarily understand all the issues fully. Luckily Green-plastics.net responded first. They created a very comprehensive post about entitled Bioplastic Standard 101. I highly recommend reading it and bookmarking it if you are involved in the bioplastic industry.
Why is this article so great? Here’s a few points:
- Defines the difference between a specification and a test method standard.
- Explains how companies abuse standards by claiming to conform to a standard that is actually a test method (therefore cannot be a pass or fail)
- Explains how aerobic biodegradation is tested.
- Defines what is required for compostability in laboratory conditions
- Emphasizes the differences between laboratory conditions and actual compost facilities (e.g. your results may vary).
- Additional specifications for marine water biodegradation and compostable coatings in municipal and industrial facilities.
- Discussion on who creates standards and who enforces them.
- Case studies on various claims and why they are misleading.
It is a long post,but it is full of valuable information. I know I will be bookmarking it and reading it as a reminder from time to time. Be sure to read Bioplastic Standard 101,and read it often.
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[...] in the site,but I trust everything posted on Green-plastics.net as being gospel. I have actually written posts about how much I appreciated what was written on their site. A must read [...]