Dive Brief:
- The Safer Soils for All coalition has launched in opposition to the Biodegradable Products Institute’s attempts to fast-track federal approval for the use of compostable packaging products as allowable compost feedstocks in organic crops or processed organic products.
- The coalition is made up of some of the country’s largest waste haulers and composters as well as regional groups, including the California Compost Coalition, Napa Recycling and Waste Services, Recology, Republic Services, the Resource Recovery Coalition of California, the Rural County Representatives of California, StopWaste, Waste Connections and WM.
- In January, the USDA’s National Organics Standards Board voted against a similar move from BPI, though USDA is not required to follow the board’s guidance. Some composters that accept packaging like Black Earth Compost, Veteran Compost, Garbage to Garden and Earth Matter, as well as packaging companies and trade groups, have previously signed a letter to USDA in support of BPI’s petition.
Dive Insight:
Compostable products have become a controversial feedstock among composters in recent years. While standards organizations such as ASTM and OMRI have developed basic compostability standards for packaging materials, the components used to make such products can vary from fossil-derived polymers to fiber or other plant-based materials.
Composters are also wary of contamination risk posed by accepting compostable products. Some have found that when they signal to customers a willingness to accept compostables, their contamination rises as packaging that looks compostable but isn’t finds its way into the feedstock. Some composters have stopped accepting such products as a result.
Neil Edgar, executive director of the California Compost Coalition, said composters’ needs vary depending on their size and the markets they serve. California has a much more mature composting ecosystem than the rest of the country, owing to favorable state regulations such as SB 1383 that have led to the curbside separation of food waste.
Composters in California have developed large-scale commercial facilities to take in the high volumes of feedstock in the state. They’re also producing sufficient quantities of finished compost to partner with organic farmers, which must not accept any soil amendment that includes a material on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. Such composters are hesitant to accept compostable products because they’re not listed as an acceptable substance on the list and may lead to contamination, according to Edgar.
“They’ve been composting for more than two decades,” he said. “They’ve learned through experience that it’s just very difficult to manage contamination if you’re telling consumers to deliberately put packaging into the composting stream.”
The national list, which is maintained by the National Organics Standards Board, prohibits materials like ash from manure burning, arsenic and calcium chloride. It specifically names “newspapers or other recycled paper, without glossy or colored inks,” as an allowable compost feedstock, but does not list other acceptable compost feedstocks.
In 2023, BPI petitioned the National Organics Program, which oversees the NOSB, to allow compost feedstocks that meet ASTM standards for biodegradability and compostability. Doing so would accommodate an expanding biopolymer industry and facilitate a transition from single-use plastics mandated by various state laws, BPI argued.
But the NOSB commissioned a technical report on the proposal, and subsequently rejected BPI's petition in January of this year. The board determined incorporating compostable products would not meet criteria related to necessity, environmental and human health, and sustainable agriculture.
Yet BPI has vowed to continue advocating for a policy change with USDA. In February, it called for the federal agency to issue an interim final rule on compost that would allow for compostable products to be covered, circumventing the National Organics Standards Board’s determination.
The Safer Soils for All Coalition is instead advocating for NOSB to evaluate synthetic substances individually for approval in organic agriculture. They note that ASTM or BPI testing protocols allow up to 84 days for disintegration or 180 days for biodegradation, far longer than the typical processing time of 30 to 60 days at commercial compost facilities.
“We believe that [NOSB’s] process at the national level is critical to evaluating the wide array of materials that are in compostable packaging. Compostable packaging is not one thing,” Edgar said.
Edgar also holds a leadership position with the U.S. Composting Coalition, which has chapters in many other states around the country. He said that some composters are more willing to accept compostable materials, in part to recover adequate volumes in areas without diversion mandates. Those composters are also often selling their finished product to landscapers or other end uses that don’t have the strict standards of organic agriculture, he noted.
Edgar said he’s not against compostable products in general. But he said producers need to address key concerns about compostability and identifiability in the heterogenous packaging world before they can be used by more composters.
“I’m a guy that’s made my career on trying to keep material out of landfills,” Edgar said. “I want products that work for composters.”
The USDA’s decision on compostable products is also expected to have particular ramifications in California. There, enforcement of a restriction on the use of a “compostable” label on packaging has been tied to the federal government’s determination on whether such products will be allowed by the NOP. CalRecycle pushed back the start date for that requirement to June 30, 2027.
