r/composting • u/Witch_of_the_boys • 1d ago

Plastic-Like Bag not Decomposing

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Is this bag just meant for industrial/municipal compost? I've had it in my pile for probably 6 months, now.

Note the very hard to read text where it says "This bag is biodegradable."

Bonus panel: musings on the decomposition and decay 🦴☠️🍁

53 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

444

u/Low-xp-character 1d ago

It’s biodegradable, just not in our lifetime.

81

u/Funktapus 1d ago

Needs to be in a commercial composting facility, not a backyard pile. Some packages are starting to make this obvious

Its defined by ASTM D6400

16

u/TheBoyInTheBlueBox 1d ago

"compostable except in California"

6

u/Kaurifish 1d ago

California recently banned them from the compost stream because the damn things don’t break down, even in a municipal pile.

0

u/PurinaHall0fFame 21h ago

No, California requires all material for these bags to be certified organic, which is why most of them say they're not for use in California. They definitely still break down in a proper compost pile regardless. 

0

u/PurinaHall0fFame 21h ago

This is because California requires the bags to be made from certified organic products, and had nothing to do with how the bags break down. 

9

u/Low-xp-character 1d ago

It’s a bullshit marketing tactic is what it is.

17

u/PurinaHall0fFame 1d ago

It isn't. Commercial composting facilities compost differently than your backyard pile, getting over 140 degrees for multiple days during the process. This heat is what helps the bag break down into compost, and without it the bags don't really break down, which is why they say it needs a commercial composting facility.

5

u/sartheon 1d ago

A well maintained hot compost can reach that though

6

u/PurinaHall0fFame 21h ago

Yes and most people do not hot compost at home. 

4

u/Ok-Egg-7475 1d ago

I mean it is, also. It may be a legitimate form of composting and a step in the right direction, but the labeling and advertising for the product is definitely misleading to the consumer.

2

u/Low-xp-character 1d ago

How does it make it there?

3

u/East-Garden-4557 1d ago

We have specific rubbish bins for green waste that get emptied every 2 weeks by our roadside rubbish service. Everything in those green waste bins is taken to a commercial composting facility. The compost is then used for public spaces, and the public can buy bags of it for their own gardens.

7

u/Nauin 1d ago

You should really go check out your county's municipal composting area. Mines out in the open and you immediately understand why there is no replicating what they're doing at home. At least in a way that makes sense financially. Mine use nearly two story tall bulldozers to mix and move piles that are the size of single to double wide mobile homes, which are steaming like they are cooking. You cannot touch it without gloves when they dump it in your truck with how hot it is. This kind of plastic doesn't hold up under municipal conditions. You come across flakes of it in the municipal stuff that's retained some of it's shape while having turned into black gold. It's neat stuff.

233

u/microfibrepiggy 1d ago

Biodegradable /= Compostable

28

u/CocktusOnSteroids 1d ago

≠

You can copy it

11

u/BlackViperMWG 1d ago

=!

2

u/APolyAltAccount 1d ago

Get a load of Jedi master BlackBiperMWG over here with his equals not it does

5

u/Imaginative-Recon-21 1d ago

This is your answer OP

90

u/amilmore 1d ago

Most of that stuff that's labeled as compostable will only break down in industrial compost setups. I actively avoid anything with that label because I already know what will compost and what wont. I just stick to kitchen waste, yard waste, pee, paper and cardboard.

At this point I think pretty much anything labeled as biodegradable (or green, sustainable, or environmentally freindly, etc etc) is just BS. Everything is green washed man lol

9

u/JumpyMango9851 1d ago

This. Stuff like that will only breakdown in industrial facilities where enough heat can get produced. That won’t happen in smaller home compost setup.

7

u/Educational_Pay1567 1d ago

When do I get the fungus that breaks down platic?

1

u/anally_ExpressUrself 1d ago

Pakistani landfill

4

u/AdTiny780 1d ago

But ESPECIALLY pee.

9

u/UnScrapper 1d ago

Same with "flushable". Anything that says it's flushable isn't, anything that is flushable doesn't need to say it.

1

u/sparhawk817 1d ago

Difference is flushable isn't defined by an ASTM Standard like compostable is.

2

u/sparhawk817 1d ago

Cool thing about those products is you can put them in your yard debris bin, at least if your yard debris allows kitchen scraps and compostables.

Yeah, they won't break down in a tumbler, but I don't compost EVERYTHING that I could, there's plenty of stuff that doesn't break down fast enough with bokashi and the worms etc but will in the massive facility I already pay taxes and garbage fees to support.

And if those products aren't ending up in a landfill, that's a win for society.

1

u/Xalipu 1d ago

They’ve banned these from pickup where I live. No way to tell if they’re the “correct” kind of plastic. You’re allowed paper bags or pasteboard boxes to collect scraps, if for whatever reason you don’t just dump waste directly into the bin, that’s it.

1

u/peaheezy 1d ago

Yeah, the restaurant I worked at during my college sunmers was part of a very large botanical garden and advertised all their disposables were compostable. All that shit went in the regular trash at the best of our bosses.

64

u/rollem 1d ago

Correct, it’s not biodegradable. I keep all “compostable” plastic products (things like forks and bags) out of my pile. Who knows the conditions under which they actually break down, I see it as deceptive greenwashing.

13

u/dendrophilix 1d ago

They’ll break down in industrial set-ups with massive heat generated, not in a home compost heap.

6

u/amilmore 1d ago

do those setups have supplemental heat sources or is the heat mostly due to the volume of material?

5

u/saladman425 1d ago

Volume and the inherent insulation that comes with it

6

u/Albert14Pounds 1d ago

I'm not going to definitively say they never do in all climates, but I doubt it because at the industrial scale if you pile up enough organic matter and it has enough oxygen you're typically not worried about having enough heat. Quite the opposite as large piles of wood chips (for example) are a risk for catching fire on their own with the combination of heat from below, sun from above, and a dry surface later.

6

u/PurinaHall0fFame 1d ago

Who knows the conditions under which they actually break down

Um, lots of people? The conditions that compostable(not biodegradable, which is greenwashing) items break down in is... compost piles. Heat, moisture, microbes, and time are what it takes. TUV, BPI, and CMA all test and certify that compostable products with their certifications break down into water in humus, an nothing else, within a certain timeframe, in hot compost conditions.

2

u/MrTwoSocks 1d ago

Same here. I also consider what sort of nutrient value "compostable" plastics would be adding to the pile even if I could get them to break down. As far as I am aware, there isn't really any value to them

11

u/Sure-Squash-7280 1d ago

I once had some shoes that were biodegradable and for about three years in my biodegradable pile, they just kind of kept turning up.

They always looked the same. Dirty but intact. Then one day they were completely gone.

I dug and dug and looked everywhere and they were just gone.

🤷🏻‍♀️

7

u/rooseisloose42069 1d ago

I mistakenly used the green “compost” bags for a while in my cold lasagna pile and I’m starting to see it break down in year 2 with very little turning. Hoping year 3 its all gone, I don’t use the bags anymore

6

u/amilmore 1d ago

I've always wondered how long it would actually take for an at home composter. Post an update when you think its finally all gone!

6

u/getsomesleep1 1d ago

Yes, they are meant for commercial composting, not backyard.

15

u/Darbypea 1d ago

Its not just plastic like. It's plastic!

4

u/Robby_Digital 1d ago

"Is this bag just meant for industrial/municipal compost?"

Yes

5

u/SwiftKickRibTickler 1d ago

I once had a durian husk that survived my hot compost pile for 3 years. This belongs in the trash. also, durian.. yikes. even my compost pile hated it. 😆

3

u/FlashyCow1 1d ago

Your home compost system doesn't get hot enough for long enough to have those degrade it's actually better if you send it into a commercial composter who does

2

u/AvocadoYogi 1d ago

The only ones I have had luck with are the newer veggie bags some places are starting to shift to. But anything else leads to the same results you got with this bag.

2

u/Neither_Conclusion_4 1d ago

I used two differnt brands of compostable plastic 5 years ago. 1 of them was gone in about 2-3 years. The other i still find small pieces of sometimes. I dont think i will find anything next year, I bet 95% of it was gone this year.

I dont compost that kind of stuff anymore, its just an eyesore when i see it. Perhaps I would consider it, if i was constructing a deep hugelkultur bedding, and just buried it deep.

2

u/guilalune 1d ago

There is a norm for compostable plastic bags at home, used for humanure composts. Label is "ok home", but still needs a couple years.