MATERIALS | TESTING
conditions, there is a move to describe these products as compostable and to support the description with third-party testing of the end product according to the standards that the product is designed to meet, such as ASTM or EN specification standards for industrial or home compostability. Compostability tests include disintegration (the breakdown to small particles) and mineralisation (full biodegradability to carbon dioxide, humus and water, as well as methane if anaerobic) tests along with plant toxicity, heavy metal and other tests. At AMI’s first Bioplastics in North America
conference (in Cincinnati, September 2024), Kelvin Okamoto, PhD, Chair of the ASTM D20.96 Sub- committee on Environmentally Degradable Plastics and Biobased Products and President of consultancy Green Bottom Line, described the relevant ASTM specification standards and some of the upcoming revisions. For example, in the ASTM methods for industrial compostability (D6400 for single-layer plastic products and D6868 for multilayer products), there is currently a 1% limit for a single additive and a combined 5% limit on additives not tested for biodegradability,
but there is discussion about reducing the com- bined limit to 1 or 3%. ASTM is also working on developing a new test method and specification for home compostability, as an update or replace- ment to the current ASTM D5929 test method that some users see as unworkable. In addition to the existing specifications for industrial composting, three ASTM field disintegra- tion test method standards are being developed, with one based on the 18-year old mesh bag method from the Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA) and two from the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) for a bagged and a bagless method. Field test methods are important because they show how products may perform in a “real world” commercial composting environment. CMA and BPI have also added protocols for total fluorine testing to their lab test requirements. CMA and BPI are third-party certifiers of compostable products in the US that provide certification marks. In Europe, compostable products can be
certified to the European standard EN 13432 and can apply for the seedling mark from DIN Certco, which is an organisation run by the TÜV Rheinland Group and DIN, the German Institute for Standardi-
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