Degradation is a process that all substances and materials experience.
The time it takes for degradation to be completed remarkably varies, depending on how long a specific material or substance lasts.
Such process occurs in organic substances as well, and then it is known as biodegradation. Organic substances are de-composed by microorganisms into basic elements and entirely put back into nature’s life cycle.
This is nature’s way to keep balanced by recovering organic substances from dead animals and plants. The ability of organic substances, as well as some man-made materials, to undergo such process is known as biodegradability.
Compost looks like topsoil and it is so rich in organic substances that it is used as a fertiliser.
It is the result of a process called composting, which aerobically biodegrades the organic materials into basic elements that are eventually mixed into the compost.
The composting process may use different techniques to recover organic substances from waste, but all of them are based on the same principle, the biodegradability of the source material. So an organic material that can turn into compost through a composting process is called compostable.
A EU rule on “Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation” (EN 13432) lays down the criteria for a material to be considered compostable:
1. BIODEGRADABLE: minimum 90% degradation in 6 months, in an aerobic environment (oxygen-rich); to be tested against EN 14046 standard (also known as ISO 14855);
2. DISINTEGRABLE: after 3 months of contact with organic materials, the mass of material must crumble, i.e. at least 90% of it must crumble into less than 2mm fragments; to be tested against EN 14045.
3. NO ADVERSE EFFECTS ON THE COMPOSTING PROCESS;
4. LIMITED CONCENTRATION OF SOME ELEMENTS: heavy metals, pH, salt, volatile solids, nitrogen, phosphor, magnesium and potassium.
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