With more and more businesses of all sizes and scales looking to reduce their environmental impact, packaging is under increasing scrutiny as it’s where most look to go eco. It’s bye to ever-lasting plastic, and hello to materials which leave absolutely nothing behind, regardless of how they’re disposed. We’re talking about compostable packaging, and whether it’s home or industrial, it should be on your radar when considering your packaging materials.
What Does Compostable Mean?
Before we go any further, compostable itself means a material will break down naturally and leave no toxicity behind. Paper and cardboard are the most popular compostable materials, but potato starch is also fully compostable, and is gaining popularity as an alternative to polythene. A material can be home compostable, or industrially compostable, and it’s important you communicate this to your customers so they know the correct way to dispose of your packaging.
What Does Home Compostable Mean?
A home compostable material means you can place it in your home compost bin, and it’ll break down along with your discarded fruit and vegetables, and typically within 90 days. For packaging to be home compostable, every element from the printed ink to the adhesives used also need to be able to break down naturally and leave no toxicity behind.
What Does Industrially Compostable Mean?
Industrially compostable material requires specific conditions to break down quickly and fully. Industrial composting units create an artificial, much hotter, environment which speeds up the degradation process and ensures the material completely disappears, still without leaving anything bad behind. Industrial compostable materials can still decompose at home, but won’t meet the 90 day target which deems them home compostable.
Which Is Best?
Both home and industrial compostable materials are significantly better for the planet than any other packaging materials on the market. As retailers can’t guarantee that each of their customers will dispose of their packaging in the correct way, compostable packaging means that however the packaging is disposed of, it’ll have no lasting or negative impact on the environment. Home compostable packaging is the better of the two, simply as it breaks down quicker and requires absolutely no energy consumption to do so, unlike industrial compostable materials. Home compostable packaging can also even be put into general waste and it’ll still break down within the 90 day time frame. Both types of compostable material are clearly labelled to inform the customer which category they fall into, but it’s up to you to make it crystal clear to them what action, if any, there is on them.
Ask The Experts
If you have any questions or need advice on choosing the right eco friendly packaging for you and your business please contact us. eCommerce despatch operations are our speciality so if you have any unanswered questions or require further assistance then please get in touch – we’ll be more than happy to help.
