Overview The Biodegradable Products Institute is a third party association comprised of individuals and businesses within the biodegradable products community.
Objectives The BPI has 3 objectives: 1. Instruction - It aims to educate individuals, organizations, and governmental groups of the advantages of employing compostable products. 2. Certification - It certifies products as compostable in a municipal composting facility and allows products that meet this certification to utilize the BPI logo on their packaging. 3. Alliances - It creates partnerships throughout the biodegradable materials and packaging niche to encourage more use and recovery of biodegradable supplies and the adoption of homogeneous standards for compostability throughout the world.
Certified Supplies The Biodegradable Products Institute has a list of products and materials that have been certified compostable according to ASTM standards. This list focuses on: - Compostable Trash and Produce Bags, - Compostable Food Packaging, - Compostable Polymers, and - Compostable Product Packaging
Why is the Biodegradable Products Institute Crucial? There exists a lack of awareness between both consumers and businesses that the scientific classifications of the words "biodegradable" and "compostable" signify two distinct things.
Materials that are recognized as compostable have to go through organic decomposition at a composting facility as part of a readily available program, such that the product is not visually identifiable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic substances, and biomass, at a speed consistent with known compostable substances (e.g. cellulose), and leaves no toxic residue. These items need to meet strict scientific specifications that make certain that: 1) the item biodegrades by sixty to ninety percent in one hundred and eighty days (biodegradability), 2) that less than ten percent of the leftover item is of a size 2mm or greater (disintegration), and 3) that the material leaves no levels of heavy metals in the soil or compost above that of a control group (eco toxicity).
Products that are biodegradable though only have to degrade as a result of naturally existing microbes (e.g., bacteria) over the course of a period of time. There is in this case however no time requirement for this degredation.
Consequently, several products in the market are actually greenwashing (e.g., Perfectouch Hot Cups) and misinforming consumers of their environmental qualities by claiming they are compostable when they are actually just biodegradable and don't satisfy the standards of ASTM D-6400 or D6868.
Buying Compostable Products Organizations and consumers that are seeking to buy compostable products and packaging should search for products that are certified by the BPI or another 3rd party certifier (e.g., OK Compost).
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