The BBIA has published a document aiming to clarify the role of biodegradable packaging in the circular economy and clear up persisting myths around compostable bioplastics.
The document defines as compostable ‘materials which are certified to biodegrade in a certain time and place’. They are not designed to biodegrade by the roadside and are not a solution to littering; they biodegrade in warm, humid conditions, such as those in industrial composting plants adhering to European standards (EN13432).
Compostable packaging can biodegrade in authorised composting facilities, of which there are 53 in the UK. Compostable packaging cannot go into wet anaerobic digestion (AD) processes, but can go through dry AD.
Composting can help replenish soil health, an urgent matter given that the UK loses three million tonnes of topsoil every year.
The full document, ‘Bioplastics and the circular economy’, can be viewed online.