HOME COMPOSTABLE / HOME COMPOSTING
As more and more people become conscious of the waste generated by their own household and desire to reduce how much they send to landfill, home composting is increasing. Home composting is ideal for fruit and veg scraps, leaves, sticks, twigs and newspapers, lawn clippings, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves etc.
Packaging materials can be certified ‘Home Compostable’ if they conform to the Australian Standard AS 5810-2010 or the OK Home Compost Standard.
Products in our comPOST Range carry either or both of these certifications.
Certified Compostable materials must meet the following four criteria:
COMMERCIALLY COMPOSTABLE / INDUSTRIALLY COMPOSTABLE
Commercial or industrial composting is large-scale composting which is designed to handle a very high volume of organic waste, as opposed to private or home composting, which handles organic waste from one household or facility.
Some materials will decompose under certain conditions which can only be achieved in commercial composting facilities, the key condition being the temperature reached in the compost.
Our comPOST Packs are commercially compostable (as well as Home Compostable).
The composting industry is developing across most regions in Australia and New Zealand to be able to process compostable packaging, however not all of these facilities can process compostable packaging. Please check with your local Organic Waste management facility or council before adding compostable packaging to your organic waste collection.
BIO-DEGRADABLE / BIO-DEGRADATION
Bio-degradation is the disintegration of materials by bacteria, fungi, or other biological means. If a material is bio-degradable (sometimes written biodegradable), it is able to be broken down by bio-degradation.
Bio-degradable plastics can be either made from bio-plastics or from traditional petrochemicals engineered to break down more quickly than normal plastics. Caution needs to be exercised with these plastics as they may break down into microplastic particles and the additives required to accelerate the degradation process can be toxic to the environment.
It is important to note that unlike compostable products – there is no requirement for products labelled 'biodegradable' to meet any eco-toxicity or break-down timeframe requirements.
OXO-DEGRADABLE / OXO-DEGRADATION
Oxo-degradable means a material will break down with exposure to oxygen. Oxo-degradable plastics are being produced and sold in many countries, with society being led to believe they safely bio-degrade in nature. Yet significant research suggests that oxo-degradable plastics do not safely biodegrade but fragment into small pieces, contributing to microplastics pollution.
“The available evidence overwhelmingly suggests oxo-degradable plastics do not achieve what their producers claim and instead contribute to microplastic pollution. In addition, these materials are not suited for effective long-term reuse, recycling at scale or composting, meaning they cannot be part of a circular economy.” – Rob Opsomer, Lead for Systemic Initiatives at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Some of the (totally misleading) brand names given to oxo-degradable bags and other products are BioWrap for magazines, EP Tech “biodegradable” bags and bin liners … you know, the ones with the green frog on them.
POST INDUSTRIAL RECYCLED PLASTIC (PIR) / PRE CONSUMER RECYCLED
Post Industrial Recycled plastic (also known as Pre-consumer Recycled Plastic) is the off-cuts, scraps and waste that result from the process of making products out of virgin plastic. Many would say it isn’t really recycled as it hasn’t truly been used before. It’s also not difficult to collect, usually very ‘clean’ and not mixed with other types/grades of plastic and quick and easy to transport between facilities.
Therefore it’s relatively easy and cheap! A word of caution. As the demand for recycled plastic rises, some manufacturers are deliberately creating Post Industrial Plastic waste so that they can then ‘recycle’ it.
POST CONSUMER RECYCLED PLASTIC (PCR)
Post Consumer Recycled Plastic is plastic that has been used by a consumer. It’s your softdrink bottle, your yoghurt container or biscuit tray… In most parts of the world, this plastic can be collected in curbside recycling and then goes to a depot to be cleaned and sorted into grades for recycling. It takes time and resources to recycle.
It’s a lot harder to work with than Post Industrial Recycled plastic, that’s for sure. Companies using Post Consumer Recycled plastic in their products should be commended.
OCEAN BOUND PLASTIC (OBP)
Ocean Bound Plastic is a type of Post Consumer Recycled plastic. This is plastic collected in regions of the world with very little waste management infrastructure. There’s certainly no curbside recycling! Instead, individual collectors in these coastal communities scour beaches, drains and riverways for plastic pollution. This plastic is often very dirty, hard to sort, and in a bad way after years of exposure to the elements making it brittle and hard.
It’s another level again. Recycling this plastic is super-tough and companies using this in their products should be given ten gold stars!
POLLAST!C is our range of packaging made from Ocean Bound Plastic.
LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS / LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
A Life Cycle Analysis is a standardized method of measuring the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its life cycle; from the resources used to create the product or service, across its use by the user, to what happens when it can no longer be used at end of life.
An LCA lets you know how much CO2 per kg of product is generated over the course of the product’s lifecycle. While an LCA is a reliable measure of a product’s carbon footprint, it does have limitations however as there are some negative environmental impacts (e.g., plastic’s effect on wildlife) that it cannot account for.
