Compostable Plastics Literature Review
Recently, the US Composting Council worked with Nora Goldstein and Craig Coker, with BioCycle Associates, to create the Compostable Products Primer exploring the evolving role of compostable products the marketplace over the past 30 years. It looks at the relationship industrial composting facilities have with the compostable products market and the acceptance of these products at compost facilities. Through the research done for this primer, a compostable plastics literature review was conducted.
The literature review explored the following questions:
- What is the formation and fate in the environment of microplastics derived from compostable bioplastics under industrial-scale composting conditions?
- What are the factors that optimize the disintegration and biodegradation of compostable bioplastics during industrial-scale composting, including additives?
- What are the similarities and differences of biodegradation under anaerobic and aerobic conditions?
Because of CREF’s commitment to expanding compost-related research, the authors of the Compostable Products Primer and the USCC worked with the CREF to create a Compostable Plastics Literature Review highlighting the different research papers that were reviewed for the primer.