Composting

GREEN HOME’s food packaging is classified as green or organic waste and is compostable together with other food waste. In a composting environment, all our products will break down (biodegrade) into their natural components of water, CO2 and plant matter.

Degradable, Biodegradable & Compostable – What’s the Difference

Degradable: The ability to break up into smaller pieces. Degradable packaging products will not break down into their natural organic components, just smaller pieces of the original product. Microplastics are an example of this.

Biodegradable: The ability to be broken down by biological (or living) means, via the action of naturally occurring microbes (bacteria and fungi) and maybe some insects. (The prefix ‘bio’ means ‘relating to life’.) Biodegradable products will break down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass. All GREEN HOME products are biodegradable.

Compostable: Compostable products will biodegrade in a composting environment within no more than 6 months (but usually quite a bit less). International compostability standards also ensure that compostable products will break down into harmless soil that is healthy for plants. All GREEN HOME products are compostable.

How long does it take to compost?

Different products will break down at different rates depending on what they’re made of and what kind of composting conditions they’re in. There are many factors, including how wet or dry the compost pile is, what’s in the mix, how big it is and how often it’s turned to oxygenate it. The weather can also make a difference.

That said, 2 weeks to 4 months is a good average for how long our products will take to break down, if conditions are decent.

What is an industrial compost facility?

Industrial compost facilities practice composting on a large scale. While both home and industrial composters seek to speed up the rate of bio-degradation by creating controlled optimum conditions, industrial facilities tend to have much bigger piles which increases the amount of microbes (bacteria and fungi) and speeds up bio-degradation. Industrial composters also often use machinery to shred organic waste and to turn the piles, which further speeds up the composting time.

Compost Solution Providers

We encourage our customers to find a composting service for all their green waste that fits their requirements so that the full cradle to cradle benefit of our products can be realised. Browse our list of composting and waste management solution providers below or contact us for advice.

Our Compost Solutions Providers list includes experts who can assist you with a range of composting and organic waste management solutions at a variety of scales. These include setting up a worm farm, finding the perfect in-vessel composter or finding a composting or full waste management service.

Download our list of Composting Solution Providers:
Composter-Solution-Providers.pdf