Closed Loop Partners launches “most comprehensive” US compostable disintegration study

27 Jan 2023 --- The Composting Consortium, a collaboration of industry partners managed by Closed Loop Partners, announced the launch of its Compostable Packaging Degradation Pilot. The initiative is said to be “the most comprehensive collaborative study of real-world compostable packaging disintegration in the US to date.” 

The consortium says the project marks a milestone, as it aims to improve available data on how certified, food-contact compostable food ware and packaging are currently breaking down at different composting facilities. 

“By donating data to the [Compostable Field Testing Program] CFTP, Closed Loop Partners and its Composting Consortium help enable our organization to launch an open-source database on compostable packaging degradation results,” says Diane Hazard, executive director at the Compost Research and Education Foundation, a founding partner of the CFTP. 

Facing challenges 
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that around 4% of food waste is composted in the US, and as the composting landscape in the US evolves, new materials are flowing through the organics stream. With these changes comes increasing pressure to successfully recover and process food scraps and food-contact compostable packaging. 

Composters face challenges in efficiently processing inputs and maximizing valuable outputs.Many cities across the country are setting ambitious zero waste goals and, in some cases, mandating organics diversion. Amid these efforts, the compostable packaging market is poised to grow 17% annually between 2020 and 2027, adding complexity to the challenge. 

With lookalike and imposter materials contaminating composting and recycling facilities, composters face challenges in efficiently processing inputs and maximizing valuable outputs, warns the consortium. 

The Composting Consortium
Working with these industrial composting facilities across the US, the Compostable Packaging Degradation Pilot will evaluate the disintegration of more than 30 types of certified compostable products and packaging across facilities operating with varying climates, composting methods and equipment. This includes compostable cutlery, molded fiber bowls, bioplastic cups and snack packaging. 

Data gathered from the assessment will inform the consortium’s broader work to align the rapid growth of compostable packaging with on-the-ground operational and business needs of industrial composters.

Pilot development was informed by the expertise of the consortium’s partners, including key industry collaborators such as the US Composting Council and the Compost Research and Education Foundation, as well as the Biodegradable Products Institute, BioCycle, Resource Recycling Systems and consumer and packaging brand companies. 

These “key stakeholders” contributed technical knowledge to ensure that the pilot’s objectives, methodology and data align with the operational realities of composting facilities, as well as support circular and economically viable outcomes for composters, explains the consortium. 

The Degradation Pilot aims to identify best practices in consumer understanding of compostable packaging. The Degradation Pilot
CFTP is a non-profit international research platform which facilitates field testing across North America anddesigned to develop comprehensive baseline data that correlates composting conditions with the disintegration of common compostable products and packaging. 

The consortium’s donation of data will accelerate the open-source publication timeline for the CFTP’s data set. 

Additionally, the Degradation Pilot will serve as a trial for the first, and still-developing, in-field standard for assessing disintegration of compostable items at compost facilities under development within ASTM International. 

Participating facilities include AgChoice; Atlas Organics; Black Earth Compost; The Dayton Foodbank, Ohio; Happy Trash Can Curbside Composting; Napa Recycling; Specialized Environmental Technology’s Empire Facility; Veteran Compost and Windham Solid Waste Management. 

The Degradation Pilot is said to be a critical step in the Composting Consortium’s broader work to identify best practices in areas including consumer understanding of compostable packaging labeling and collection, sortation and sensing technologies and policy. 

The consortium says it will continue its collaborative work to build a roadmap for catalytic capital inputs that can support composting infrastructure in the US, find ways to increase the amount of food waste diverted from landfills and determine where compostable food packaging could add value to the system.

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim

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