New composting study shows value of compostable packaging as a feedstock
Results of a new six-phase study confirmed that compostable foodservice packaging can be effectively used as a feedstock in commercial composting facilities. The US-based testing showed that foodservice packaging performed as well as wood and other traditional feedstocks.
“Knowing that compostable foodservice packaging not only helps supply desirable food scraps to composters but can also reduce the amount of supplemental feedstocks composters must collect or source is a major benefit,” said Lynn Dyer, president of the US-based Foodservice Packaging.
“While the compostable packaging industry believed that these items had value to composting operations beyond diversion of food waste, there was little data to support this,” said Rhodes Yepsen, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute. “The goal of this study was to determine the impact a large volume of compostable foodservice items would have on the composting process, when compared to traditional compost inputs like yard trimmings, straw, wood shavings and grass.”
The Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA) conducted full scale parallel operational field tests at two commercial composting facilities in two different US locations. The test sites used two of the most common composting methods in the US: aerated static pile (ASP) and open windrow (OAW).
It was funded by the Foodservice Packaging Institute and the Biodegradable Products Institute, to understand compostable packaging’s real-life impact on composting.
And something interesting for the composting geeks out there… Here the UK, since the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, catering waste has to be treated at In-Vessel Composting (IVC) or Anaerobic Digestion (AD) facilities to pasteurise any pathogens in animal by-products such as meat or bones. But the US does not have the same Animal By-Product Regulations as the UK, which means that Vegware’s compostable disposables can be composted in the US using methods typical of UK garden waste composting.