Three Problems with Compostable Packaging
Compostable packaging sounds like a great idea. Instead of packaging food in plastic that lasts for hundreds of years, stores and restaurants are offering compostable packaging that will decompose in weeks. That’s a lovely promise. Unfortunately, the reality is often quite different.
Three problems make compostable packaging less than ideal.
Lack of composting infrastructure
I live in the Seattle area, where the local waste hauling company provides three bins for curbside collection. The organics bin is for yard trimmings, food scraps of all kinds, and compostable packaging. A truck drives down my street to cart it away to an industrial composting facility, where it will be ground into small pieces and subjected to the right combination of heat and humidity to degrade into compost in less than two months.
Less than two percent of households in the US have access to curbside pickup of food scraps and compostable packaging. Even in my area, many apartment residents have no place to deposit these items. The only convenient option is to throw them into the trash bin. They will end up in a landfill.
When organic waste is sealed in a landfill, it can last decades without degrading. In Garbology, author Edward Humes tells the story of researchers excavating buckets of waste from a landfill. They discover identifiable avocado pulp along with old newspapers. The date on a newspaper is still legible, revealing that the avocado has been preserved in the landfill for twenty-five years!
Like the avocado and the newspaper, compostable packaging will not turn into compost if it goes to a landfill.
Residents without curbside pickup of organic waste can still compost. Home composting is excellent for fruit and vegetable peels and seeds, especially when mixed with dry leaves or paper and enough water to keep everything moist.
But many types of compostable food packaging are only industrially compostable, not home compostable. The temperature in most home composting bins does not get high enough to break down cups and flatware made from polylactic acid (PLA).
2. Confusing or hard-to-read labeling
Compostable packaging can be hard to distinguish from other types of packaging. There is no uniform labeling standard.
While some PLA forks and spoons feature a cut-out design, others look identical to conventional plastic flatware. There is wording somewhere that says “compostable,” but it is often on the backside of the tableware in tiny, raised print that does not stand out. It is frustrating to inspect each item to determine whether it is compostable, especially for those of us who need reading glasses to make out the fine print.
Paper-based boxes can be compostable, but usually only if they are not coated to keep grease from seeping through the packaging. The safest bet is to examine the bottom of the box for wording that states whether it is industrially or home compostable.
Then there is packaging labeled as “eco” that is not compostable. The eco-friendly label might mean only that the packaging contains some minimum amount of post-consumer recycled content. Unless we inspect
3. Hidden contaminants
An article in the March 2022 Consumer Reports reported on PFAS chemicals found in food packaging. PFAS, which is short for perfluoroalkyl substances, are called “forever chemicals” because they are toxic and bio-accumulative. That means that each time we are exposed to them, they build up in our bodies.
The coatings on paper wraps and boxes that keep food oils from leaking out sometimes include PFAS. Most of the products that Consumer Reports tested were fast food packaging. But their tests also showed PFAS in paper plates that were labeled 100% compostable. That particular product has now been taken off the market, but how many more are out there?
The growing awareness has many restaurants and grocery stores pledging to reduce PFAS contamination in their packaging. Meanwhile, if oil from fried snacks or nuts seeps through to the outside of your paper bag, you can see that as a good sign. The packaging is probably safe from PFAS, and you can toss it into the compost bin when you’re done eating.
I write all this not to tell you to avoid compostable packaging. It can be a great solution, especially when used at outdoor festivals or sporting events that sell food. If all the packaging is compostable—and if the location has access to industrial composting—participants can dump everything into one bin when they finish their meal.
But compostable packaging is not necessarily the best alternative to plastic packaging in all situations. Some products, like fruits and vegetables with an outer inedible rind or peel, need no packaging at all. Those rinds and peels, however, are definitely compostable.