The European Commission launched an initiative regarding a study on the ‘Relevance of biodegradable and compostable plastics in a circular economy’[1]. European Bioplastics welcomes the initiative, as scepticism amongst stakeholders towards the relevance of biodegradable certified compostable plastics usually stems from a vague notion about their characteristics (please also see corresponding EUBP press release further below). The study is accompanied by a stakeholder consultation and workshops that aim to define criteria for when a plastic product should preferentially be made from certified compostable plastics. EUBP has developed considerations on criteria as well as a set of example products made from compostable plastics.

In order to ensure that compostable plastics can deliver the optimal contribution to realising a circular economy in Europe, it is important to acknowledge that they are not a general solution but a specific technology for selected products
 that can foremost help to efficiently manage the biggest fraction of the municipal waste stream, i.e. bio-waste.

Plastic products should be produced from compostable plastics if the following criteria apply:

  1. Contamination with food waste;
  2. Likely to end up in the organic waste collection and unlikely to be effectively mechanically recycled in the plastic recycling stream;
  3. Potential to reduce non-biodegradable plastics contamination of bio-waste collection;
  4. No eficient re-design possible in order to move to reusable solutions.

These criteria clarify, that all applications need a differenti- ated consideration concerning their best recycling option.[2] The products covered by these criteria would, in addition, need to fulfil the criteria of EN 13432 for industrially compostable plastics (criteria regarding impact on bio-waste).

The criteria given above lead to the following list of example products:

  1. Bio-waste bag
  2. Very thin plastic bags / fruit and vegetable bags
  3. Tea bags
  4. Coffee capsule, coffee pads, coffee filters
  5. Fruit stickers
  6. Cling-film (and/in combination with) stickers/labels for fresh produce[3]
  7. Paper towels (wet-strength paper)
  8. Catering items, such as cups, trays, plates,cutlery[4] [5]
  9. Multi-material flexible packaging for perishable food

For the identified products that fulfil the four criteria, a step-
by-step switch from no