Inside Tipa’s home-compostable laminate: Tech VP shines light on global compostability expansion

16 Nov 2021 --- Compostable packaging company Tipa has launched its first home-compostable-certified, transparent laminate called T.LAM 608. 

“T.LAM 608 is [TÜV OK]-certified to degrade in home and community composts, which means they will degrade even quicker in industrial composts,” Dr. Eli Lancry, vice president of technology at Tipa, tells PackagingInsights.

Lancry discusses composting infrastructure and regulatory hurdles in the global markets Tipa’s new laminate serves. He also weighs up compostability’s environmental benefits over conventional plastic recycling.

Preventing plastic pollution
T.LAM 608 is a two-ply laminate with medium-barrier and can be converted into pre-made bags, such as stand-up pouches, zipper pouches, open pouches, side-gusseted pouches, pillow bags and bar wrappers. 

The laminate is suitable for packing energy bars, dried fruit, nuts, pulses, grains, cereals, granola, spices, dry pasta, and ready meals, supporting pioneering food and supplement brands transitioning away from conventional single-use plastic.

Tipa’s new packaging is not designed to be disposed of in natural ecosystems, despite the term “compostability” potentially inviting images of the material’s natural degradation.

“[T.LAM 608] should not be littered [in marine and land environments]. If one of our packages winds up in the environment, we believe it will behave similarly to other organic waste, like orange peels,” Lancry explains.

Food rotting in landfills releases methane, a greenhouse gas approximately 80 times more damaging than carbon dioxide to climate change. One home compost bin can divert roughly 150 kg of waste from landfills annually.T.LAM 608 performs like conventional plastic but can be disposed of in compost bins.

End-of-life disposal evaluated
Home composting in France, Italy, and Ireland is “common,” notes Lancry, while “still evolving” in “other places.” 

“For years, we have been seeing a rise in individuals who want to have a proactive approach to their environmental footprint, particularly when it comes to their waste,” he adds.

According to Innova Market Insights, 20% of global consumers view compostable packaging’s end-of-life disposal to be the most environmentally sustainable method, reaching its highest figures in Germany and the UK (28% each), France (25%) and the US (23%). 

“For this reason [consumer appetite], Tipa focused its R&D efforts on creating home-compostable options for its second generation of films and laminates,” Lancry explains.

Industrially-certified compostable packaging can only compost in industrial composting facilities between 55 to 60°C, making them unsuitable for garden compost. OK compost HOME certification refers to products that also compost at lower temperatures.

Compostability certification is the “most rigorous test,” Lancry details. “What is unique about home compostable materials is that it enables the end-consumer to take care of their packaging waste together with their food scraps.”

According to Innova Market Insights, global consumers still regard biodegradable packaging’s end-of-life disposal as more environmentally sustainable than compostables (41% versus 20%), but compostables are ahead of recycled packaging (16%), reusable packaging (14%) and bio-based packaging (10%). 

An expanding trend 
With a market presence in Europe, the UK, Australia, North America, and South America, Tipa views each region as “developing regulation for plastic packaging as a whole – and compostable packaging specifically – at a different rate.”

“For example, Italy is already very advanced, and has implemented regulation supporting composting because of its high importance for enriching soil, reducing food waste, and reducing treatment of contaminating single-use plastic,” notes Lancry.

“Certified compostable materials offer a truly circular alternative to single-use plastic packaging,” says Lancry at Tipa.Meanwhile, the US COMPOST Act aims to create new grant and loan guarantee programs for composting infrastructure projects, including large-scale composting facilities and farm, home, or community-based projects.

At the time of the bill’s introduction, Tipa public affairs director Gary Robinson told PackagingInsights how the legislation has the potential to make North America a “champion of composting.”

Meanwhile, Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy recently launched the two-year Composting Consortium for increasing the recovery of compostable food packaging and pursuing circular outcomes.

Better than recycling plastic?
In a recent interview, Huhtamaki CEO Charles Héaulmé argued the packaging industry should prioritize recycling plastic over compostable innovation. He maintains compostable packaging can only return to fertilize the earth, but recycling plastic keeps it within a closed loop.

Lancry weighs in on the debate: “The challenge with conventional flexible plastic packaging is that it is nearly impossible to technically recycle thin films and multilayered plastic packaging and not economically viable to do so.”

“This results in recycling levels for flexible packaging that hover around 6%, even in the most advanced markets, such as the UK. The rest is being sent to incineration or landfill.” 

“And even when it is ‘recycled,’ it is downcycled and will persist as a kind of plastic that is even more difficult to recycle. We only postpone the end-result, which is more plastic, incineration, or landfill. Practically, compostable packaging offers the most potential as a viable circular solution for conventional flexible films,” Lancry argues.

UK Prime minister Boris Johnson recently riled up the plastics recycling industry ahead of the COP26 climate change summit by claiming plastics recycling “doesn’t work” and “doesn’t begin to address the [pollution] problem.”

By Anni Schleicher