(GUA) HOME COMPOSTING RUBBISH

Recent research shows that most ‘compostable’ plastic people put in their home compost will still be there after six months. Photograph: Angela Hampton Picture Library/Alamy

Most plastics marketed as “home compostable” don’t actually work, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research.

An estimated 10% of people can effectively compost at home, but for the remaining 90% of the population the best place to dispose of compostable plastics is in landfill, where they slowly break down, releasing methane, researchers say. If compostable plastic ends up among food waste, it contaminates it and blocks the recycling process, the study finds. The only solution is to use less plastic.

“The bottom line is that home compostable plastics don’t work,” said Prof Mark Miodownik, an author of the paper, published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability. “Let’s just stop. Let’s not pretend to ourselves that it’s going to be some sort of panacea, and you can sell people stuff without really having infrastructure to deal with the waste and hope that it’s all going to go away.”

The study showed that most of the plastic that people put in their home compost shouldn’t be there anyway. Researchers found 14% of plastic packaging items were certified “industrially compostable” and 46% have no compostable certification (for example they could be “100% biodegradable”, which typically means it cannot be composted). The Guardian - link - Phoebe Weston - link - more like this (food) - link - more like this (greenwashing) - link