Disintegration of different materials under simulated composting conditions in a laboratory-scale test

The market of bioplastic has largely developed in the recent years due to an increasing awareness of the negative effects that the production and use of conventional plastic has on the environment. Consequently, compostable packaging production will continue to grow in the future, but a lot of treatment plants are still not ready to accept this kind of waste. The compostability of these products is certified according to international Standards that don’t consider the real conditions of composting facilities. This can lead to a misassessment of the actual composting behaviour of the tested products: materials can be declared compostable even if under industrial plants conditions they don’t behave as such. A laboratory scale test was done on compostable bags, PLA cups, kraft cardboard and conventional PET (negative control) to compare the composting process of these materials in different solid matrixes. To do so, Standard ISO 20200 was taken as the reference procedure followed in the lab to assess the disintegration degree of the chosen materials. Three different inoculums were used: Synthetic Waste, Fresh Waste and Mature Compost. The first one is the inoculum suggested in the Standard, while the other two are selected because more representative of the real environment of industrial composting plants.