The issue of the biodegradability of packaging materials has been a hot topic in the packaging and waste disposal industry for some time now. The cause of controversy is often plastics that are sometimes misleadingly declared as “bio-based” or “biodegradable”, which disrupt the actual processes in common composting plants because they simply do not decompose within the specified time.
Our RECOU material is completely different:
We use 100% plant-based ingredients from nature that we do not biochemically modify – all materials are also approved for composting in the Biowaste Ordinance (BioAbfV). Nevertheless, we were of course very keen to carry out a real practical test. But how should the composting process of our natural material be followed and reproduced in one of the huge composting plants?
We tested this last year with the great Elena Eßer from the disposal specialist AVEA Entsorgungsbetriebe GmbH & Co. KG from the Bergisches Land.
The material was placed in a rotting tunnel in various containers (jute sack and cardboard) in sufficient quantities and without prior shredding. (We were able to use all of the previous production waste for this, so that this was also put to good use. 💡😉) The material was not added loose to the organic waste because the degradation had to be determined and the material would no longer have been separable from the organic waste after composting.
When the tunnel was discharged after 25 days – divided into two rotting phases – the test material could no longer be found and 70% had rotted in the jute sack. This clearly shows the compostability of the packaging material in conventional rotting.
In a further step, we will now investigate whether the material even has beneficial properties for the resulting compost and improves its quality.