The Compostable Coalition UK has reported a five-fold increase in consumers disposing of their compostable packaging in a food waste bin as part of consumer behaviour trial.
In a six-week “first-of-its-kind” trial, 120 households in Medway, were told that they could dispose of compostable packaging in their food and garden waste bin. It currently isn’t mandatory to dispose of compostable packaging in food and garden waste bins nationally and advice varies between local authorities.
The Compostable Coalition UK said the trial found that with “clear communication and labelling” consumers were able to identify compostable packaging and dispose of it in their food waste bin. Contamination levels in food waste bins also dropped by the end of the testing period.
The amount of food discarded in food waste bins increased by 23% while contamination levels in food and garden waste bins fell from 9% to 3% on average by the end of the trial, the Coalition said.
Throughout the trial, households received boxes with goods in both compostable and plastic packaging. Items included confectionery, snack food, fresh produce, tea bags, coffee pods, and shopping bags from retailers and brands including Co-Op, Ocado, Lipton Teas and Infusions.
The compostable packaging featured new labels developed by Hubbub, with input from OPRL (On-pack recycling labels).
Households also received educational resources designed by Hubbub, with insight from behavioural scientists at the University of Sheffield, which explained the composting process, and encouraged residents to check packaging labels and use their food waste bin.
The Coalition said compostable packaging is designed to be collected and treated along with food and other bio-waste in industrial composters. However, it said many councils do not include compostable packaging as a target material due to “contamination and processing concerns”.
The Compostable Coalition UK worked with advisory board members M&S, Ocado, Tesco, OPRL and WWF on the trial.
Julia Schifter, VP Strategy Analysis, TIPA & Co-Founder, Compostable Coalition UK, commented: “Compostable Packaging offers a new way to achieve circularity for some of the most challenging hard-to-recycle plastics.
Compostable Packaging offers a new way to achieve circularity for some of the most challenging hard-to-recycle plastics.
“Yet, the proper collection and treatment of compostables is key to achieve a full circularity for these products. The results of our study clearly prove that once consumers are provided with a label that positively instructs them where to discard such packages, their ability to behave accordingly increased dramatically.
Alongside the trial in Medway, the Coalition also undertook a composting trial at EnVar, one of the largest composting sites in the UK.
As part of the trial, 13 tonnes of compostable items including coffee pods, tea bags, fresh produce packaging, twist wraps, snack food packaging and single-use service ware were tested for their effectiveness to biodegrade under the normal operating conditions of an industrial composting site.
The Coalition said the results showed that products supplied in their ready-to-use state biodegraded successfully, with the finished compost passing PAS100 certification, the standard for compost in the UK.
