OK Compost Industrial
Certifies a material is compostable is an industrial compost facility
Overview
TÜV AUSTRIA’s OK Compost Industrial stamp certifies a material is compostable in an industrial composting plant. This applies to all of the packages components, inks and additives. The OK Compost Industrial protocol follows the European standard EN 13432.
Certification requirements
In order to comply with OK Compost Industrial certification materials need to meet the following requirements in an industrial compost environment:
– Minimum of 90% biodegradation of bioplastic materials within 180 days in compost.
– Minimum of 90% of bioplastic materials should disintegrate into less than 2mm pieces in compost within 90 days.
– Hazardous substances such as heavy metals should not be present above the maximum allowed levels.
– Bioplastic materials should contain more than 50 percent organic materials.
Frequently asked questions
Compostable materials are designed to be composted and unfortunately that means they cannot be mechanically recycled. Although commercial composting systems are not currently widely available on a kerbside basis this is changing rapidly and so too is the rate of home composting. For further reading please see our blog post on Composting vs Recycling.
This is a great question and the answer is nuanced. They don’t contain plastic as most people know it but they are made from bioplastic, which is technically a type of plastic. Swisspac has a range of bioplastics that are made using our compostable renewable Plantmade™ technology.
