Compostable plastics may not be compostable, and likely aren’t being composted

• 2 years ago
• Radio
• Duration 8:31

A new study looking at plastic waste marketed as “home compostable” in Europe indicates that in reality the material mostly doesn’t break down in homeowners compost heaps. They also observed that when compostable plastic goes into the waste stream for municipal industrial compost, it was separated out and treated as normal trash. Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials & Society at University College London, was part of the research team, who published their work in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability.