Does Compostable Packaging Actually Turn into Compost? Industry Experts Share Insights
October 31, 2024
Compostable packaging has become increasingly popular on retail shelves––but can it turn into compost if accepted at composting facilities?
In a joint interview, field testing experts, including the Compost Manufacturing Alliance and the Compostable Field Testing Program—both partners of the Composting Consortium, an industry collaboration managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy—share what they have uncovered after 10+ years of in-field experience.
Read more to find out how well compostable packaging actually breaks down into compost, and what’s needed for these materials to work in the organics stream. Curious to learn more about how field testing works? Scroll to the bottom of this post to learn more.
What is your organization’s role in the composting industry?
Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA): CMA field tests compostable packaging disintegration and reviews acceptance criteria for some of the largest composting facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Our published list of certified and accepted compostable products includes a significant percentage of compostables throughout North America, with over 5,000 unique, individual products certified or approved from hundreds of global manufacturers. CMA originated from composter-led efforts to address the challenge of some certified compostable packaging not breaking down in the compost process. In 2007, Cedar Grove started a field testing program to develop lists of accepted compostables for its municipal partners and commercial clients, which became nationally recognized. In 2016, CMA’s founder, Susan Thoman, expanded Cedar Grove’s program nationwide, partnering with five large compost facilities. Today, CMA aims to ensure compostable packaging disintegrates properly, protecting composter and packaging manufacturers’ investments and preventing landfill waste.
Compostable Field Testing Program (CFTP): CFTP supports composters with methods and test kits to field test compostable product disintegration at their sites. We then collect and open source the resulting data, including both product disintegration and compost operating conditions. As an international, nonprofit research platform, we look to understand how compostable products break down in real-world conditions. Founded in 2016 by the Compost Research & Education Foundation and BSIbio, our origins begin in 2013 working with university partners to refine and pilot the US Composting Council’s (USCC’s) original “mesh bag” field test method and create a new “dose” method for sites where a bag won’t work.
Composting Consortium (CC): The Composting Consortium, managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, conducts in-market tests and in-depth research to support the industry in advancing composting infrastructure and the recovery and processing of food-contact compostable packaging and food scraps in the U.S. We launched in 2021, bringing together leading voices across the composting and compostable packaging value chain––from the world’s leading brands to best-in-class composters running the operations on the ground.
Why is field testing compostable packaging important?
CFTP: Composters can only accept compostable packaging if they know that these materials will truly break down and not negatively impact their end product––healthy compost! Biodegradation testing, which happens in a lab environment, is important. It proves that an item is really getting converted at a molecular level by microbial activity. But disintegration testing to see compostable products visibly breaking down is equally important. Field testing compostable packaging is a way to bridge between lab results and real-world disintegration in actual industrial and commercial settings.
CMA: It’s critical to building trust in the composting industry. Many of today’s largest facilities must use technology that works for an evolving list of feedstocks, including post-consumer food scraps. These are different systems than what was used in the beginning years of yard waste and pre-consumer food scrap composting. Commercial composting and compostable packaging have evolved significantly and are continually improving. It’s true that lab standards are now only one step in confirming product safety and disintegration in various composting systems. Products must be proven to break down in facilities to ensure they are not treated as contaminants and end up in landfills.
CC: Compostable packaging is a promising innovation for diverting food waste from landfills to composting facilities, but to be successful, infrastructure must be willing and able to process these materials. Prior to 2024, limited public information existed on the performance of compostable packaging, and we’re glad to see that is changing. Data from field testing replaces anecdotes with data that can drive discussions, decisions and policymaking that will shape a more resilient future for the composting and compostable packaging industries.
What are some of your key findings thus far?
CMA: Contrary to common belief, biopolymers generally disintegrate well in composting. Fiber-based products do not disintegrate as well as biopolymers overall, although compost manufacturers are more comfortable taking in fibers because bioplastics often resemble traditional plastics and are often sorted into the organics bin by mistake. We are also narrowing down the composting conditions that most affect product disintegration. While time is certainly a factor, it is not necessarily conclusive. The interaction between time, moisture, carbon to nitrogen ratio and agitation is complex and dynamic. Our data suggests that no single variable can be considered the key to successfully breaking down compostable products. Each variable within this set of acceptable conditions––such as moisture, carbon to nitrogen, bulk density––affects other variables.
CC: Our report features our top 10 findings, and to be even more succinct, we can boil it down to three key takeaways. First, certified food-contact compostable packaging breaks down effectively at commercial composting facilities that meet reasonable operating parameters––such as moisture, water and temperature––as defined by the Composting Handbook. We collaborated with composters to collect daily and weekly pile readings within these parameters. Second, compostable plastic and fiber packaging met field-testing thresholds for disintegration, achieving 80% and 90% thresholds at the material category level, as per CMA’s standards. Lastly, fiber packaging disintegration improves with mechanical or manual agitation and consistent moisture levels above 50%. For more details, read our report here.
CFTP: Our data shows us that composter acceptance is more complex than just whether a material will disintegrate or not––contamination mitigation, and the role of materials in the composting process play an important part. The results for fiber products always surprise folks; both lined and unlined fiber products––such as “food-soiled paper”––don’t tend to break down as quickly as we might expect, despite their widespread acceptance. On the other hand, biopolymers consistently prove to break down better than what is anecdotally reported in the field. In either case, tests across different technologies––like windrow and aerated static pile––have shown that the operating conditions have to be right for the products to break down. Temperature and moisture have the most significant impacts. The right conditions vary by material, and these conditions apply regardless of technology. Our new online Results Dashboard allows visitors to view how different materials perform, in different facility types and under different conditions.
Where have you seen opportunities for further collaboration or joint work?
CMA: Research in this space is vitally important, but funding for research is scant. Pooling resources to fund, design and conduct research can move the composting and compostable products industries forward faster and more efficiently than any one entity can alone. Conversations, like this one, can shed light on different stakeholders’ perspectives and where we can find common ground. From that common ground, we can each use our own platforms to dispel misperceptions that often lead to bad policy and thwart true progress.
CFTP: Although disintegration trends appear similar across data sets, there are tangible differences in methodology between different testing groups that could benefit from standardization. Creating a collaborative industry standard for field testing could result in more reliable testing and more comparable data between tests. We’ve been collaborating to standardize methods since 2021 under ASTM International, one body which published lab-based disintegration and compostability testing and labeling standards in the 1990s.
CC: Given the key insights that are similar across our organizations, working together to educate composters, policymakers, and packaging manufacturers and brands on the topic of field testing can help expand end-of-life options for compostable materials and close the loop on food waste. We’re really proud of the way our teams are collaborating already! We are all contributing to the development of an ASTM field testing standard, and our team will donate data to developing this method, like we have to CFTP for the launch of its open-source database.
Any final thoughts?
CFTP: Compost operations are as unique as fingerprints, and even a single composter using the same technology will experience a range of operating conditions––such as temperature and moisture––season-to-season or pile-to-pile. Pursuing research on field testing results that correlate to operating conditions is going to help move the needle on understanding compostable packaging, and help composters feel confident in accepting these products, without having to test every product themselves. Importantly, field testing alone can’t solve the challenges facing the circular economy for food scraps and compostable packaging. An aligned and science-based approach that ties policy, systems and technology together is essential, and it’s for this that the CFTP’s non-profit and open-source approach is designed.
CMA: CMA continues to hold a space to connect product designers with compost manufacturers. When we collectively work manufacturer-to-manufacturer, we have a much more efficient way to address the disintegration performance of materials in real world systems. Working together, we can explore the relationship between product constituencies and pile science. Continued collaboration around field disintegration testing and settling on a method, and then a standard, within the ASTM D34 committee, can harmonize research efforts and provide all stakeholders with greater clarity and focus for the future.
CC: Our team has launched several new programs to engage packaging manufacturers, composters and municipalities (cities and counties) to scale infrastructure, and we welcome a conversation with these groups about the results of our disintegration study. If you want to learn more about how we’re supporting the scale up of composting infrastructure, please reach out to Caroline Barry at [email protected].
Learn more about how field testing works below!
How do you test the disintegration of certified compostable packaging?
CMA: The “mesh bag” method has been central to CMA’s composter-centered testing for nearly 20 years. Samples are marked, placed in mesh bags, and layered within a freshly made compost pile at a commercial facility. What makes our testing distinct is that CMA retrieves the mesh bags at the end of the active cycle, as opposed to the end of the curing phase. This means that the bags are extracted, cooled and dried, then our field technicians sift each bag and samples are sent to the lab for further processing. CMA evaluates visual disintegration, which aligns to compost manufacturers’ concerns about visual contamination in their end-product. Our thresholds to “pass” CMA’s field-testing criteria for certification are based on composters’ perspectives. Fiber-based remnants in finished compost are generally considered less problematic than plastic remnants because fiber-based remnants will often continue to disintegrate after active composting, just as they do in ambient conditions. Compostable biopolymers, on the other hand, may or may not continue to disintegrate after active composting and can look like conventional plastic in the finished product. Thus, compostable biopolymers must show >90% disintegration to pass while fiber-based products must show >80% disintegration.
CC: Our disintegration study tested over 23,000 units of fiber and compostable plastic packaging, making it the largest field test of certified compostable packaging in North America. All products and packaging tested in our pilot were either BPI-certified or in the process of certification. This intentional choice ensured no harmful chemicals, such as PFAS, were deliberately introduced into the composting process. We trialed both the mesh bag method and the dose method. Disintegration was measured by percentage reduction in weight and surface area at Day ~47 and at the end of the curing phase. The compostable packaging remained in the compost piles for 49 to 94 days, depending on the facility’s technology. A distinct aspect of our study is the level of data and detail we’ve obtained on composting parameters––such as temperature, moisture and more––alongside disintegration results, which were assessed both in-field and in-lab. Compost operators tracked daily pile temperature, weekly moisture and oxygen readings, and periodically measured bulk density, pH, carbon to nitrogen ratios, compost maturity, and stability. This comprehensive data collection allowed us to correlate the composting conditions with the disintegration performance of the packaging, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of different composting processes.
CFTP: Most field tests we’ve coordinated have used the ‘mesh bag’ method, where several different items are packed with compost feedstock into a large mesh bag. The bag is tracked along with operating conditions like temperature, moisture and compost maturity, throughout the full composting process, both active composting and curing. At the end of the test, the material in the bag is sifted. Residuals from the test items are extracted and analyzed to measure disintegration by both weight and surface area. We provide a baseline test kit with the same test items across all tests, so we can better see the impact operating conditions have on disintegration. We also developed the “dose” method, similar to the mesh bag method, but with test items loosely piled instead of bagged. More details are available on the CFTP’s results dashboard and website as of fall 2024!
How do your approaches to field testing align or differ from the other groups here? What should stakeholders understand about the differences and similarities in your approaches?
CMA: Cedar Grove Composting’s initial method has been widely adopted, leading to similar mesh bag techniques across organizations. However, CMA has refined its approach, using Ingeo™ PLA as the primary control due to its consistent disintegration in all composting processes. Office paper is also used, though its disintegration varies. CMA avoids the “bulk dose” or open pile method, which places samples directly into the pile. Despite logistical challenges, this method may evolve with continued use. CMA tests products in “real world” scenarios with no pre-shredding or pre-treatment of samples, and only tests disintegration during the active composting phase, unlike other tests that extend into the curing phase, and/or may use pre-shredded or pre-treated samples. Certification requires evaluation after the active phase because some composters screen materials between these phases. Products without additional curing are screened out and reprocessed or sent to the landfill. CMA extends studies through the curing phase upon request but bases certification on active phase results to align with typical composting practices.
CFTP: As a non-profit project, the Compostable Field Testing Program’s activities are funded by grants and donations, both financial and in-kind. The CFTP is committed to open-sourcing the data it collects in as much detail as possible, while honoring our commitment to anonymizing facility’s operating data. CFTP is rooted in collaboration between organizations supporting the circular economy and science-based research to advance industry and inform policy, evidenced by our founding partners BSIbio and CREF, and in providing advisory and implementation services for the Composting Consortium’s Disintegration Study. This model has kept the program grounded in science and problem solving, supported by forward thinking organizations. Also, relative to other field testing initiatives which tend to focus on larger–scale facilities, the CFTP aims to make field testing accessible to composters of all sizes, from community-scale to the largest commercial-scale facilities.
CC: Since our start, the Consortium has aimed to be additive in the field of compostable packaging testing, collaborating with several of our partners including CMA, CFTP and CREF along the way. We were the first group to trial the still-developing ASTM field testing method, where both CFTP and CMA participate. We have donated data to CFTP to support the public launch of their open-source database, and we belong to international collaborations to share insights about our experience field testing compostables. One key difference in our approach is that we measured disintegration at 2 points of the compost process (Day 47 and at the end of curing). This means we may have pulled the mesh bags or packaging from the compost piles later than other field testing groups. We also did not test packaging with the intention of passing or failing any one product. We’ve collected as much data as we have with the intention of applying it to support best management practices for composers who want to accept these materials. While we will not carry out more field tests in the next two years—CMA and CFTP have that covered—we intend to work with the USCC to integrate our findings to update best management practices for composters who accept these materials.
Composting Consortium Releases New Data to Compostable Field Testing Program, Enabling Launch of Database on Compostable Packaging Disintegration
October 24, 2024
The new platform by the Compostable Field Testing Program shares critical data on compostable packaging disintegration from field tests over the last 10 years
USA & CANADA, October 21, 2024: The Compostable Field Testing Program (CFTP) and Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy are pleased to announce the launch of the CFTP’s much-anticipated data-sharing website, offering public access to detailed results from compostable packaging field testing over the last decade, through a dynamic interactive dashboard.
The CFTP’s new platform allows users to explore compostable product disintegration data with an unprecedented level of detail, helping composters, policymakers, regulatory agencies, brands, packaging manufacturers, researchers and consumers evaluate the potential of and opportunities for compostable packaging, and advance the practice of field testing.
The launch of the database is made possible through data donated from the Composting Consortium, an industry collaboration managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. This data comes from the Consortium’s groundbreaking study in 2023 which analyzed the disintegration of over 23,000 units of compostable packaging in the largest known field test of certified, food-contact compostable packaging conducted in North America. The CFTP provided support on field testing methodology, logistics and data analysis for this study. They also provided test items from their baseline sample kit, unlocking a larger sample set for data collection.
Data donated from the Consortium allowed CFTP to hit its critical anonymization threshold to open-source field testing data collected over the last decade. This marks a milestone for the composting industry, filling a historical data gap on compostable packaging disintegration in-field and providing access to a necessary baseline to inform improved recovery.
“The Composting Consortium’s goal is to support the recovery of compostable packaging, ensuring that the material disintegrates in real world conditions and brings value to composters and the organics stream. Field testing compostable packaging plays a key role in achieving this goal, and was a top priority for the Consortium in 2023, alongside characterizing contamination at compost sites,” says Caroline Barry, Program Manager at Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. “CFTP played an instrumental role in the success of our disintegration study, and we’re thrilled to share data for their platform, providing the industry with insights that help move the needle on compostable packaging recovery.”
“We had to hit a critical threshold of data and repeated testing under certain conditions to be able to publish the data we’ve been collecting over the last 10 years,” says Emily McGill, Program Director of the Compostable Field Testing Program. “Now, with the data from the Composting Consortium’s disintegration study, we have not only more product disintegration data, but more results on the composters’ operating conditions that provide a crucial link to understanding product breakdown and refining field test methods.”
The collaboration between the organizations has enabled both to share valuable insights into the factors that affect compostable product breakdown, offering practical data to support better product design, composting practices and regulatory standards. The impacts of the Composting Consortium’s disintegration study extend beyond this initial data release. The Composting Consortium recently launched its Composter Innovator Program and Municipal Partner Platform, sharing insights and enabling collaboration to advance the circularity of food waste composting and food-contact compostable packaging.
Later this year, the CFTP will be releasing its refined methods for field testing and a field report, providing more valuable analysis and insights to inform thoughtful compostable packaging development and recovery in the U.S. and Canada.
Explore the Website
Visit the new website for key takeaways of the field testing results and to explore the interactive dashboard at compostabletesting.org.
Media Contacts:
Emily McGill, Program Director, Compostable Field Testing Program
Bea Miñana, Communications Director, Closed Loop Partners
About the Compostable Field Testing Program
The Compostable Field Testing Program is a non-profit research initiative dedicated to providing methods and materials to conduct field testing to composters across North America and beyond. Operating since 2016 as a collaborative venture between Compost Research & Education Foundation and its partner BSIbio, the CFTP provides a standard test kit and a customizable protocol for the common ‘mesh bag method’. When participating facilities share back their results, this data is collected by the CFTP, aggregated and anonymized for eventual public release in an online database. By helping composters evaluate and report on the real-world performance of compostable products, the program provides valuable data to support sustainable product development and composting practices.
About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
Closed Loop Partners is a firm at the forefront of building the circular economy. The company is comprised of three key business segments. Closed Loop Capital Management manages venture capital, buyout and catalytic private credit investment strategies on behalf of global corporations, financial institutions and family offices. Closed Loop Builders is an operating group that incubates, builds and scales circular economy infrastructure and services. The Center for the Circular Economy (‘the Center’) is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners. The Center executes research and analytics, unites organizations to tackle complex material challenges and implement systemic change that advances the circular economy. The Center’s expertise spans circularity across the full lifecycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets. Learn more about the Center’s work at https://www.closedlooppartners.com/the-center/
About the Composting Consortium
The Composting Consortium, managed by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, is a multi-year industry collaboration on a mission to build a world where organics are kept in circulation. The Consortium advances composting infrastructure and the recovery and processing of food-contact compostable packaging and food scraps in the U.S., to reduce food waste and mitigate climate impact. The Consortium brings together leading voices across the composting and compostable packaging value chain––from the world’s leading brands to best-in-class composters running the operations on the ground. Through in-market tests, deep research and industry-wide collaboration, the Consortium is laying the groundwork for a more robust, resilient composting system that can keep food waste and compostable packaging in circulation. For more information, please visit www.closedlooppartners.com/composting-consortium/
Leading Retailers Accelerate Industry Collaboration to Eliminate Single-Use Bag Waste
October 23, 2024
Target, CVS Health, Kroger and other retailers reaffirm their continued participation in the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag to identify, pilot and implement proven bag waste reduction strategies.
October 23, 2024, New York, NY — Today, the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, an industry collaboration managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, announced a renewed collaboration with many of the world’s leading retailers, expanding its groundbreaking work to eliminate single-use bag waste.
Retailers Target, CVS Health, The Kroger Co., Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Meijer and Walmart are renewing their long-standing commitment in the Consortium, focusing on implementing more sustainable and convenient solutions to eliminate single-use retail bag waste. Building on four years of collaborative work and extensive in-market tests and research, this strengthened commitment will allow the Consortium to continue scaling proven bag waste reduction strategies.
Highlighting the successes of the last four years and charting a path forward for potential impact, the Consortium is also releasing a new report, Sparking a National Culture Shift to Reduce Plastic Bag Waste. The report shares findings from the Consortium’s largest in-market reusable bag tests in 2023, which spanned 160 retailers and 375+ stores of all sizes across Denver, Colorado and Tucson, Arizona. Through the tests, retail stores encouraged consumers to develop the habit of bringing their bag or opting to go without one, resulting in nearly 5% fewer single-use plastic bag transactions. This equated to the potential elimination of up to 9.5 million bags annually across the two test geographies, demonstrating the impact of supporting customers at different stages of their journey to reuse a bag or go without one.
The findings from the Consortium’s 2023 in-market tests serve as a blueprint for the Consortium’s upcoming work to scale bag waste reduction strategies. By acting together to advance solutions that support customers and avoid waste, the Consortium aims to achieve positive environmental impact and minimize unintended consequences.
“100 billion single-use plastic bags are used in the U.S. every year. From the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag’s work over the last four years, we know that retailer collaboration and customer engagement are critical to making single-use bag waste a thing of the past. The Consortium is proud to bring retail industry leaders together in a renewed commitment to making circular strategies a reality on the ground. As we expand from ideation to implementation of solutions that support customers and reduce single-use bag waste, we aim to drive a cultural change toward reduction and reuse,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director and Head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners.
The Consortium’s continued collaboration signals the collective commitment of many retail industry leaders to implement tested solutions that move the needle toward zero waste goals and the importance of working together to achieve these. As policy around bags gains momentum in the U.S. and new solutions are needed to address the single-use bag waste crisis, the Consortium will share legislative best practices gathered from its holistic assessment and continue identifying, testing and implementing new innovative solutions.
“We are proud of the shared progress achieved with the Consortium and across the retail industry over the past four years, meeting shoppers where they are with accessible, adoptable alternatives to single-use plastic bags,” said Agata Ramallo Garcia, vice president, head of enterprise sustainability at Target. “The partnerships we continue to forge through the Consortium demonstrate the power and need for collaboration in order to innovate and scale solutions that will meaningfully reduce single-use plastic bag waste.”
“Reducing single-use bag impacts is a positive step for both the environment and our health,” said Jenny McColloch, vice president of sustainability and community impact at CVS Health. “We are excited to move forward with the next phase of work with the Consortium and come together to drive innovation across our sectors, especially as packaging policies continue to evolve and consumer experiences vary from retailer to retailer.”
“We believe that learning and working collaboratively is the best way to reduce the number of single-use plastic bags in the U.S.,” said Lisa Zwack, Head of Sustainability at The Kroger Co. “By assembling a number of major retailers in the initial phase of this work, the Consortium laid a foundation for innovation and systems change. We look forward to extending this collective effort to create more circular, waste-free systems that support our customers and our stores.”
With deepened collaboration and reach across the retail industry, the Consortium is poised to scale bag waste reduction and reuse strategies that enable behavior change and support a broader cultural shift to eliminate single-use bag waste.
Retailers of all sizes are invited to join the Consortium’s multi-year collaboration to engage their customers and communities, advance their sustainability goals and co-create a waste-free retail future.
Interested in learning more about the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag? Learn more here.
Interested in reading the Consortium’s latest report? Visit here.
About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
The Center for the Circular Economy is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners, a firm at the forefront of building the circular economy. The Center executes research and analytics, unites organizations to tackle complex material challenges and implements systemic change that advances the circular economy. The Center for the Circular Economy’s expertise spans circularity across the full lifecycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets. Learn more about the Center for the Circular Economy at closedlooppartners.com/the-center/
About the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag
The Beyond the Bag Initiative, launched by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, aims to identify, pilot and implement viable design solutions and models that more sustainably serve the purpose of the current retail bag. Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy manages the Consortium, with Target, CVS Health and The Kroger Co. as Strategic Leads, and Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Meijer and Walmart as Supporting Partners. Learn more about the Consortium here.
The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project: Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo Lead Brands Launching City-Wide Reuse System in California City
July 09, 2024
The collaboration, led by the NextGen Consortium, makes reusable cups the default option in national and local restaurants across the City of Petaluma.
July 9, 2024, Petaluma, CA –– Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Peet’s Coffee, Yum! Brands and other global and local brands and restaurants are partnering in The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project from the NextGen Consortium, led by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, to activate an unprecedented collaboration to drive reuse. Starting August 5, more than 30 restaurants in the City of Petaluma, CA, will swap their single-use cups for to-go reusable cups to all customers at no cost, and widespread return points will also be available across the city. This program marks a significant milestone for reuse, as the first initiative of its kind that makes reusable to-go cups the default option across multiple restaurants in a U.S. city, with the opportunity to drive more customers to reuse and displace hundreds of thousands of single-use cups.
The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project is focused on supporting customers to create return habits, a key factor to the success of reuse. The city-wide initiative is a critical step forward to catalyze and scale reuse systems, building on half a decade of work by the NextGen Consortium––a collaboration managed by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, in partnership with many global foodservice brands.
The mix of large national chains, local independent restaurants, convenience stores, community hubs and public locations makes this initiative distinctly powerful in shaping consumer habits and cultural norms. More than 30 restaurants in the City of Petaluma will be participating in the initiative, including Starbucks and licensed Starbucks cafés in Target and in Safeway, owned by Albertsons Companies; Peet’s Coffee; KFC and The Habit Burger Grill, owned by Yum!; Dunkin’; as well as many local cafés and restaurants. The initiative was made possible through extensive public-private collaboration, with support and engagement from the City of Petaluma, Zero Waste Sonoma, Recology, community groups and local businesses.
“It takes an entire community to build the future of reuse that we want to see,” says Michael Kobori, Starbucks chief sustainability officer. “Our environmental promise is core to our business and that’s why we’re working toward a future vision of every Starbucks beverage served in a reusable cup. Together with fellow foodservice brands, local stores and community stakeholders, we’re leading this initiative to help further unlock behavior change toward reusables, making it easy for our customers, and any customer, to choose to reuse and reduce waste.”
Across the U.S., 50 billion single-use cups are purchased and disposed of each year. Most of these cups are used out of a restaurant and disposed of at home, work or school, with an average lifespan of less than one hour before going to waste, according to the Center for the Circular Economy’s research. While reuse is growing quickly, use of personal cups and existing takeaway reusable cup systems still face low adoption or low returns. For reuse to scale responsibly, it’s imperative to create an easy and enjoyable consumer experience that makes it easy for customers to remember to bring their own containers or to return one that was given to them.
“To create a world without packaging waste, we need to ensure that food packaging reuse systems are scaled in a way that creates a positive environmental impact––meeting the current needs of people while driving a cultural shift toward reuse,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director and Head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “By testing reuse across an entire city in partnership with key stakeholders from the community and industry, we can scale reuse collaboratively through thoughtful experimentation, building a future where reuse is the norm.”
The City of Petaluma, CA, located in the northern Bay Area, was selected for the initiative for many reasons. In this region, businesses and consumers are receptive to adopting reuse, given the policy environment promoting the phase-out of non-recyclable single-use packaging. The city also participated in a returnable cup test at participating Starbucks locations in 2023. The size and dense layout of downtown Petaluma, with its tight cluster of restaurants and local shops within walking distance, and proximity to suburban and rural areas, creates the right conditions for testing a reuse system for to-go cups. Collaboration with local stakeholders has helped adapt the initiative to local policy and infrastructure, identify optimal return points across the city and engage the broader community.
“The City of Petaluma is laying the groundwork to make cup reuse not only an option, but the default,” says Kevin McDonnell, the Mayor of the City of Petaluma. “We have an amazing, engaged community, and we look forward to assisting the success of this program, alongside our local restaurants and participating global brands that service our community.”
“Imagine a neighborhood where all to-go cups are reusable, and returning these cups required no extra steps. By making reusable cups as convenient and accessible as single use, we can offer an alternative for residents when they forget to bring their own cups with them,” says Leslie Lukacs, Executive Director of Zero Waste Sonoma. “Universal accessibility creates the foundation for a cultural shift towards reuse.”
The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project will install more than 60 cup return bins across Petaluma. After use and return, the reusable cups will be collected, washed and recirculated for future uses by participating businesses and customers. Muuse, a winner of the 2018 NextGen Cup innovation challenge, was selected by the NextGen Consortium to manage all servicing and reverse logistics for the initiative.
“Transitioning to returnable packaging systems is a critical part of reducing single-use packaging waste, and we need to focus on supporting the operations behind it. These systems must be thoughtfully and responsibly implemented to ensure we are minimizing our impact of creating more waste in the process,” says Brittany Gamez, COO & Co-Founder of Muuse. “It is through initiatives like this that we can identify what is needed to operationalize shared systems at this level and inform how reuse is implemented at scale.”
The initiative, which runs until November, will collect baseline data that measures customer participation and the environmental impact of offering reusables as the default choice for customers, testing whether the model is operationally viable for scale. Data from the initiative can be leveraged by businesses and regulators to support them as they design new reuse systems and draft well-informed packaging regulations.
This is another key step in the NextGen Consortium’s longstanding work to advance reuse. Since 2018, the NextGen Consortium, its brand partners and the Center for the Circular Economy ecosystem have been at the forefront of the reuse movement. In 2019 and 2020, the NextGen Consortium launched groundbreaking trials in the San Francisco Bay Area to understand how reusable cup programs might operate simultaneously across multiple restaurants, leading to a foundational reuse report. Starbucks, a NextGen founding partner, has launched cup share programs in over 25 markets globally, including saturation trials in California. They also recently became the first national coffee retailer to accept reusable cups for drive-thru and mobile orders, making significant progress to incentivize customers to bring their own cups to stores. The work to advance reuse also extends beyond the cup. In 2023, the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, also managed by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, wrapped its largest returnable bag program, alongside its largest bring your own bag program, in partnership with CVS Health, Target and other leading retailers.
Moving forward, the NextGen Consortium will continue its work and collaboration with stakeholders from across the reuse value chain, from innovators and activists to global brands and policymakers, to effectively scale reuse systems that are better for the environment.
About the NextGen Consortium
The NextGen Consortium is a multi-year consortium that addresses single-use foodservice packaging waste by advancing the design, commercialization and recovery of foodservice packaging alternatives. The NextGen Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. Starbucks and McDonald’s are the founding partners of the Consortium, with The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo as sector lead partners. Peet’s Coffee, with its parent company JDE Peet’s, Wendy’s, Yum! Brands, Delta Air Lines and Toast are supporting partners. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the environmental advisory partner. Learn more at www.nextgenconsortium.com.
About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
The Center for the Circular Economy is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners, a firm at the forefront of building the circular economy. The Center executes research and analytics, unites organizations to tackle complex material challenges and implements systemic change that advances the circular economy. The Center for the Circular Economy’s expertise spans circularity across the full lifecycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets. Learn more about the Center for the Circular Economy at closedlooppartners.com/the-center/
Does Compostable Packaging Actually Break Down? Composting Consortium Reveals Groundbreaking Findings from Largest Field Test in North America
April 16, 2024
Data in new report reveals that certified food-contact compostable packaging breaks down successfully at commercial composting facilities that meet reasonable operating parameters.
NEW YORK, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Composting Consortium, an industry collaboration led by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, released a groundbreaking report that fills a critical data gap for the U.S. composting industry: how well does certified, food-contact compostable packaging actually break down in real-world composting facilities? The report, Breaking It Down: The Realities of Compostable Packaging Disintegration in Composting Systems, shares findings from an 18-month study––the largest known field test of certified, food-contact compostable packaging conducted in North America––revealing the realities of compostable plastic and fiber disintegration in diverse in-field composting conditions.
In total, the study tested over 23,000 units of certified food-contact compostable packaging within large-scale industrial composting environments. This encompassed 31 types of fiber packaging & products and compostable plastic packaging & products––such as PLA and PHA––across 10 diverse composting facilities across the U.S.
The data is released at a critical time, as compostable packaging grows as an alternative to conventional plastics amidst an urgent waste crisis. Roughly one-third of the world’s food is wasted each year––a loss estimated at $230 billion. Nearly 60% of the uncontrolled methane emissions from municipal landfills are caused by discarded food, highlighting its significant impact on the environment. To address the urgent food waste and climate challenge, demand for organics circularity is rising, and with it, the volume of food-contact compostable packaging––a market poised to grow 16% annually in the U.S. until 2032, 4x faster than traditional plastic packaging. Today, the U.S. composting industry is in an early stage of transformation to accept and process more food waste; approximately 70% of the composters who process food also accept and process some format of food-contact compostable packaging, with the understanding that accepting these materials helps bring in more food waste to their facilities.
For compostable packaging to reach its full potential as a circular packaging solution, disintegration at end-of-life is critical, in tandem with consistent labeling and design that differentiates compostable and non-compostable packaging further upstream, as well as policies that incentivize robust composting infrastructure to process these materials. In this new study, the Composting Consortium focuses on how compostable packaging breaks down. Previously, scant information was publicly available on the disintegration of compostable packaging, particularly on the compost environments in which they disintegrate.
This groundbreaking study found that overall, compostable packaging breaks down successfully at composting facilities that meet reasonable operational parameters (e.g., compost pile temperatures, moisture, oxygen, pH, etc., defined in The Composting Handbook). While the Consortium’s study did not assess disintegration with the intention to “pass” or “fail” any specific compostable packaging or product, notably, the average compostable plastic and fiber packaging in-field performance in this study met disintegration thresholds used by industry groups:
- Compostable plastic packaging and products broke down successfully across five composting methods, and all 10 facilities’ varying processing timeframes and operating conditions, achieving 98% disintegration on average by surface area, which exceeds industry thresholds to achieve a 90% or higher disintegration.
- Compostable fiber packaging and products achieved 83% disintegration on average by surface area, meeting industry thresholds to achieve an 80% or higher disintegration. Findings showed that certain operating conditions, like turning, agitation and consistent moisture levels above 50%, support increased disintegration of fiber packaging and products.
The findings point to the viability of certified food-contact compostable packaging as an alternative packaging solution to single-use conventional plastic packaging. It also highlights the importance of ensuring that these materials align with available recovery infrastructure, and the importance of expanding robust recovery pathways to divert compostable packaging, and the food scraps they carry, from landfill––that is at the core of the Composting Consortium’s mission.
The Composting Consortium, in collaboration with its brand and industry partners, the US Composting Council, the Compost Research and Education Foundation and other groups, will leverage these findings to help inform policymaking around compostable packaging, update best management practices for composting facilities and shape a field test standard for evaluating compostable packaging disintegration at composting facilities. Data from this study will be donated to the Compostable Field Testing Program (CFTP), which will later launch an open-source database on the disintegration of compostable packaging. Additionally, ASTM International is currently developing an in-field test method for assessing disintegration of compostable items at composting facilities, and the data from this study will be used to inform the draft field testing method. As the Consortium moves into its next phase of work, the results of this study will shape its engagement and education efforts with composters, municipalities, regulators, brands and packaging manufacturers.
“Field testing for disintegration has been ongoing for three decades, and the Composting Consortium’s work across the value chain has significantly advanced insights for the industry,” says Diane Hazard, Executive Director of the Compost Research and Education Foundation. “The collaborative approach and open-source data from this project both advances field testing methods and equips compost manufacturers and brands with the knowledge to better understand the variability of disintegration across different systems, all major steps towards successfully processing compostable packaging.”
“Brands and manufacturers must prioritize material selection and design and labeling for compostable packaging to achieve optimal performance in composting environments, which can then incentivize composters to accept food-contact compostable packaging materials at their facilities,” says Frank Franciosi, Executive Director of the US Composting Council, an industry partner of the Composting Consortium. “As feedstock for composters becomes diversified and more complex, it’s important for all entities within the supply chain to support consumer education on source separation of organics and reevaluate best management practices to support those composters who choose to accept compostable packaging, and this study is another tool for our industry to be able to start that process.”
“Alongside design and reduction as well as reuse and recycling, composting is an important solution for waste mitigation. Through this research, the Composting Consortium sheds light on what is needed for compostable packaging to have the greatest positive impact. Informed by this robust data, we can together ensure the responsible growth of compostable packaging and composting infrastructure, and drive toward circular outcomes, including increased diversion of food scraps and compostable packaging from landfills,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director and Head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners.
The study brought together the Consortium’s corporate brand partners, including PepsiCo, the NextGen Consortium, Colgate-Palmolive, Community Impact at Danaher, Eastman, The Kraft Heinz Company, Mars, Incorporated and Target Corporation; technical partners including the US Composting Council, Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), the Compostable Field Testing Program (CFTP) and the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI); and a cohort of compost partners including Atlas Organics, Napa Recycling & Waste Services, Specialized Environmental Technologies, Windham Solid Waste Management, Black Earth Compost, Ag Choice Organics Recycling, Happy Trash Can Compost, Veteran Compost and Dayton Foodbank. Advisory partners include 5 Gyres, Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), ReFED, the Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF), the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA), Eco-Cycle, University College London (UCL), Western Michigan University (WMU), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
About the Composting Consortium
The Composting Consortium is a multi-year collaboration to pilot industry-wide solutions and build a roadmap for investment in technologies and infrastructure that enable the recovery of compostable food packaging and food scraps. The Composting Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. Learn more about the Consortium at closedlooppartners.com/composting-consortium/
About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
The Center for the Circular Economy is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners, a firm at the forefront of building the circular economy. The Center executes research and analytics, unites organizations to tackle complex material challenges and implements systemic change that advances the circular economy. The Center for the Circular Economy’s expertise spans circularity across the full lifecycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets. Learn more about the Center for the Circular Economy at closedlooppartners.com/the-center/
First-of-Its-Kind Study by the Composting Consortium Analyzes Contamination Rates Across U.S. Composting Facilities
February 28, 2024
Commonly held assumptions about contamination were put to the test, revealing new data on the realities of contamination at composting facilities.
February 28, 2024, New York, NY — Today, the Composting Consortium, an industry collaboration led by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, released an unprecedented report on compost contamination, Don’t Spoil the Soil: The Challenge of Contamination at Composting Sites. The report reveals first-of-its-kind data on the amount of contamination at U.S. composting facilities, and the significant cost to manage it. Working with composters across the U.S., the Consortium’s in-field study quantifies contamination rates in feedstock and finished compost, highlighting a need for policy, innovation and packaging design to help composters improve contamination mitigation and strengthen organics recovery processes.
The report is released at a critical time for the composting industry, as pressure increases around the growing food waste crisis in the U.S. Today, nearly 40% of food is wasted and sent to landfill in the U.S.––at a loss of $430 billion––and only about 4% of all post-consumer food waste generated by Americans is sent to composters. Organics collection and infrastructure is one key solution to the crisis. To meet growing demand, the U.S. composting industry is shifting. While most composting facilities in the U.S. still only process yard trimmings, curbside organics collection has surged by 49% since 2021. Composter feedstock acceptance policies are also slowly shifting to match demand, with approximately 145 full-scale compost facilities in the U.S. now accepting food waste and some forms of food-contact compostable packaging—that packaging can be a key vessel for diverting food waste to compost, if recovered at composting facilities.
There is eagerness among compost manufacturers to be a part of the food waste solution, but concerns about contamination risks in the organics stream continue to be the one of biggest barriers to greater acceptance of food waste and food-contact compostable packaging. Concerns are increasing amidst the growing volume of compostable packaging in the U.S., largely due to look-alike, non-compostable packaging inadvertently entering the composting stream due to unclear labeling and confusion among consumers. This creates operational and financial challenges for haulers and composters, hindering further acceptance of food waste across the country.
Before the Composting Consortium released this report, there was little to no publicly available data on the amount and types of contamination in feedstock or finished compost products, or the time and money spent by composters to manage contamination at their facilities. To support the composting industry in its transition to accept food waste and food-contact compostable packaging, the Composting Consortium set out to address this data gap by conducting a first-of-its-kind study with 10 leading composters of varying sizes across the continental U.S., capturing a geographically and operationally diverse dataset on contamination volumes and decontamination practices.
The study measures and characterizes contamination across different points of the composters’ processes––and analyzes the financial cost to composters to handle contamination. The study examines five commonly held assumptions about contamination and compostable packaging, and breaks down in-field realities in a data-backed and easy-to-follow format. Key findings include:
- Conventional plastic is the most common contaminant received by composters, making up an average of 85% of the contamination that composters receive, by volume;
- Despite diligent efforts to combat contamination, conventional plastic can persist in the finished compost; 4 out of 10 composters in the study had trace amounts of conventional flexible plastic in their finished compost;
- Contamination has a significant impact on the bottom line; on average, 21% of composter operating costs are spent on contamination removal;
- Most composters had contamination, irrespective of whether or not they accept compostable packaging; several factors contribute to the levels of contamination that a facility receives;
- Eight out of nine composters who accept compostable products in the study had no detectable amounts of compostable packaging in their finished compost.
The data confirms the pervasiveness of plastic contamination, and the need to further mitigate this challenge, both upstream and downstream in the composting value chain. It also highlights that more consistent and standardized compostable packaging design and labeling is needed to ensure that certified, food-contact packaging is properly sorted and recovered at end of life. In the same vein, non-compostable packaging should be distinct in its design and labeling to reduce the risk of conventional plastic packaging making its way into the organics stream. Composters must be supported and incentivized to accept food and certified food-contact compostable packaging, to ensure these materials drive value and circular outcomes to the composting industry.
“Addressing contamination is critical to paving the way for broader organics recovery as a key solution to the food waste crisis in the U.S.,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “The Composting Consortium’s findings shed light on the significant opportunities––and challenging realities––of composting in the U.S. today. This study lays the groundwork for future research and investment to scale end-of-life solutions for food and food-contact compostable packaging to drive circular outcomes.”
This study is an important snapshot of a pervasive challenge that affects the compost industry. This work represents the Composting Consortium’s continued efforts to break siloes and bring together the key stakeholders––upstream, midstream and downstream––to remove barriers and advance a circular economy for organics and compostable packaging. Addressing contamination requires enhancing transparency, intensifying educational efforts and championing innovation. Additional research and collaboration across the entire composting and compostable packaging ecosystem can help pave the way for a circular future, turning food waste into a valuable resource and relieving composters from the burden of contamination.
About the Composting Consortium
The Composting Consortium is a multi-year collaboration to pilot industry-wide solutions and build a roadmap for investment in technologies and infrastructure that enable the recovery of compostable food packaging and food scraps. The Composting Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. PepsiCo and the NextGen Consortium are founding partners of the Consortium. Colgate-Palmolive; Community Impact at Danaher; Eastman; The Kraft Heinz Company; Mars, Incorporated; and Target Corporation joined as supporting partners, and the Biodegradable Products Institute, the US Composting Council and the U.S. Plastics Pact joined as industry partners. Our compost partners for the Contamination Pilot include Ag Choice, Atlas Organics, Black Earth Compost, Dirt Hugger, The Food Bank at Dayton, Happy Trash Can Compost, Napa Recycling, Specialized Environmental Technologies (SET), Veteran Compost, and Windham Solid Waste Management District. Our advisory partners include 5 Gyres, Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), ReFED, Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF), the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), Compost Manufacturers Alliance (CMA), Eco-Cycle, University College London (UCL), Western Michigan University (WMU), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Learn more about the Consortium at closedlooppartners.com/composting-consortium/
About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
The Center for the Circular Economy (‘the Center’) is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners, a leading circular economy-focused investment firm in the U.S. The Center executes research and analytics, unites organizations to tackle complex material challenges and implement systemic change that advances the circular economy. The Center for the Circular Economy’s expertise spans circularity across the full lifecycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets.
Closed Loop Partners and the U.S. Plastics Pact Release First-of-Its-Kind Report on Insights from Customers Engaging with Reusable Packaging Systems in the U.S.
January 08, 2024
Key findings support the development of more effective reuse systems that meet customer needs and increase return rates of reusable packaging
NEW YORK – January 9, 2024 – Today, Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy (“the Center”), in collaboration with the U.S. Plastics Pact, published a first-of-its-kind report, Unpacking Customer Perspectives on Reusable Packaging, sharing new insights on customer behavior toward reuse in the U.S. The report seeks to understand customer attitudes, preferences and behaviors around reusable and refillable packaging solutions to help companies, cities and other key stakeholders navigate the current reuse landscape. To effectively address the global plastics waste challenge, we need widespread adoption of reuse systems. Understanding customer preferences is crucial for implementing successful solutions.
Since 2018, the Center for the Circular Economy has been testing diverse reusable packaging solutions in retail stores and restaurants. The Center’s Reuse Insights Lab conducts qualitative and quantitative research and data analytics through in-market testing, focus groups and customer interviews, to identify how to design and build the architecture for a reuse system that brings the circular economy to the forefront in our everyday life. In 2023, the Center’s Reuse Insights Lab collaborated with the U.S. Plastics Pact, engaging the customer bases of 16 innovators participating in the U.S. Plastics Pact’s Reuse Catalyst Program. Based on surveys, interviews and an analysis of hundreds of customers using reusable packaging across the U.S., our methodology focused on early adopter behavior. Rather than asking customers what they would do, we asked them what they already do. This allowed us to avoid the “intention-action gap” that can occur when relying solely on sentiment instead of in-market behavior.
The report shares five key insights distilled from these real-world customer experiences:
- Ongoing education and clear communication are vital to familiarize customers with reuse logistics and enable adoption on a larger scale;
- Technology can simplify reuse tracking—particularly on the backend—but too many tech hurdles on the frontend can overwhelm customers;
- Thoughtful design choices that balance utility, sustainability and appeal are key for reuse systems to achieve their intended impact;
- Choice and availability of reuse options help customers feel empowered to participate; and
- Reuse solutions that meet customers where they are rather than demanding perfection are most likely to support long-term habit formation.
As the Center works to build bridges for reuse systems, we recognize that achieving high return rates for reusable packaging is key to successful adoption. Without high returns, reuse models will struggle to achieve their intended environmental impact. However, with customers at various stages in their reuse journey, building reuse habits takes time. As brands and retailers increasingly look to reuse models as a core sustainability strategy, this timely report provides data-driven guidance on how to successfully scale reusable packaging by understanding customer perspectives and meeting customer needs.
Reuse systems are an essential part of moving away from a linear “take-make-waste” economy towards a system focused on resource circulation. However, to scale reuse sustainably and mitigate unintended consequences of low return rates, solutions must seamlessly integrate into consumer lifestyles and meet customer needs. By reporting on direct feedback from early adopter reusable packaging users, the report provides valuable intelligence on how to optimize participation by assessing real-world experiences, practical applications and perspectives. The insights aim to help both public and private institutions make reuse an accessible, everyday reality.
Kate Daly, Managing Director of Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy notes that, “We’ve reached a crucial moment to make reusable packaging a normal part of everyday life. The research in this report charts a course toward transforming reuse by starting from the customer’s point of view—understanding and overcoming the obstacles people face that stop them from developing a habit of reusing.”
Similarly, Emily Tipaldo, Executive Director of the U.S. Plastics Pact, underscores that, “If businesses and organizations can collaborate to deliver reusable options that truly fit into customers’ lifestyles, reuse can shift from occasional to habitual.”
In the coming year, Closed Loop Partners will release additional insights, building upon this research, as part of an ongoing initiative to accelerate the transition to scalable and durable reusable packaging systems across the U.S. By translating the report’s insights into practical solutions focused on optimizing convenience and value for customers, businesses, advocates and municipalities can propel a culture shift in which reusable packaging models can become the everyday norm.
About the Center for the Circular Economy
The Center for the Circular Economy (‘the Center’) is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners, a leading circular economy-focused investment firm in the U.S. The Center executes research and analytics, unites organizations to tackle complex material challenges and implement systemic change that advances the circular economy. The Center for the Circular Economy’s expertise spans circularity across the full lifecycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets.
The Center’s Circular Insights Lab conducts quantitative and qualitative research and data analytics through in-market pilots, focus groups, iterative testing and consumer interviews, identifying circular trends, challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors and themes, including reuse.
About the U.S. Plastics Pact
The U.S. Plastics Pact is a solutions-driven consortium, launched as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network. The U.S. Plastics Pact connects diverse public-private stakeholders across the plastics value chain to rethink the way we design, use and reuse plastics, to create a path forward to realize a circular economy for plastic in the United States.
In line with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s vision of a circular economy for plastics, which unites more than 850+ organizations, the U.S. Plastics Pact brings together businesses, not-for-profit organizations, research institutions, government agencies and other stakeholders to work toward scalable solutions tailored to the unique needs and challenges within the U.S. landscape, through vital knowledge sharing and coordinated action.
What Brands Need to Know to Increase the Recovery of Compostable Packaging
November 28, 2023
Permitting for composting facilities is complex, but critical. The Composting Consortium breaks it down.
Over the last few years, demand for compostable packaging has grown quickly, as more brands explore alternatives to single-use conventional plastic. Whether in the form of a bowl, fork or a chip bag, compostable packaging is becoming more prevalent each year. At its best, compostable packaging could play an important role in reducing food and packaging waste by helping deliver food scraps within packaging to composting infrastructure, avoiding the greenhouse gases emitted if food were to end up in landfill.
But the reality is that the U.S. composting infrastructure in existence today was predominantly designed to process only yard trimmings––leaves, grass clippings and woody debris––because of a policy trend in the late 80s and early 90s that banned yard waste from landfill in dozens of states. As climate change mitigation and zero-waste goals have emerged, the composting industry is modernizing, diversifying feedstock inputs to include post-consumer food waste and certified compostable packaging. But it is only at the beginning stages of that transition.
The Composting Consortium, a multi-year collaboration across the entire compostable packaging value chain, has been studying composting infrastructure for several years. In the U.S., about 70% of the 200 full-scale composting facilities that process food waste also process some form of compostable packaging. Most of these facilities are located in urban areas. The rest of the over 2,500 composting facilities in the U.S. only process yard waste, meaning most Americans lack convenient options to compost food waste, including food-contact compostable packaging. Creating circular outcomes for compostable packaging hinges on scaling the recovery of food scraps, and brands, packaging manufacturers, industry groups, composters and investors all need to be involved.
What needs to happen so that compostable packaging doesn’t end up as waste?
Several things need to be in place for compostable packaging to operate within a truly circular, waste-free system. Consumer education, supportive policy, and clear and consistent packaging design and labeling all play important roles––and recovery infrastructure is a critical piece to the puzzle.
When envisioning a future system where composting facilities accept not just yard waste, but also food scraps, and the compostable food packaging those scraps often arrive with, the first step is to consider what must be true for facilities to upgrade from yard waste-only composting infrastructure to also recover food.
Only when more food waste is recoverable at composting facilities will it be possible to also see more recovery of food-contact compostable packaging. This infrastructure upgrade is a key steppingstone to reducing packaging waste.
Why do permitting requirements matter?
While there is opportunity to upgrade existing yard trimmings composting facilities to recover food waste––and potentially, also food-contact compostable packaging––it is often difficult to get the necessary permits to do so. In many cases, yard trimmings-only composting facilities are permitted to compost only yard trimmings. To obtain a permit to also compost food waste and make all the necessary upgrades, these facilities would need to go through a lengthy and expensive permitting process.
The Composting Consortium, BioCycle and Craig Croker evaluated each of the 50 states’ permitting requirements across five factors to produce a “Composting Infrastructure Retrofit Score” that measures how easy or difficult upgrading existing yard trimmings-only composting facilities would be across different states.
The final Composting Infrastructure Retrofit Score looked across five factors:
- Ease of permitting process: The difficulty of obtaining a permit to compost food waste in a particular state.
- Presence of permitting tier: Whether a state has rules for composting facilities depending on how much and what types of food waste they accept. Some states have stricter rules for facilities that accept large amounts of food waste or food waste that may be contaminated with pathogens.
- Cost to upgrade: The cost of upgrading a yard trimmings-only composting facility to process food waste.
- Time needed to upgrade: The amount of time it takes to upgrade a yard trimmings-only composting facility to process food waste.
- State food waste disposal ban: Whether a state has a ban or mandate that restricts disposal of food waste.
The findings uncovered a patchwork landscape of permitting conditions across the county as shown in BioCycle’s heatmap below. New York state stood out among the 50 states as having a comparatively straightforward process to obtain permits required for infrastructure retrofit, while most states including South Carolina, Rhode Island and California make navigating permitting requirements significantly more costly and time-intensive.
Original Source: BioCycle
In many states, permitting requirements for food waste composting are one of the major factors standing between compostable packaging and the recovery pathways needed to ensure they are a circular alternative to single-use plastic packaging.
What role do brands play in navigating permitting requirements?
CPG brands have a unique opportunity to play a leading role in scaling up a more circular system for food-contact compostable packaging in the U.S.––by investing in recovery solutions for food-contact compostable packaging, advancing consumer education, designing packaging that is compatible with food waste composting infrastructure, and advocating for policies––like extended producer responsibility––that can support the development of food waste composting infrastructure.
To advance the necessary upgrades to composting facilities, brands can be supportive of efforts of composting industry groups like the US Composting Council, who advocates for standardized state regulations for composting. Permitting requirements are a determining factor in creating more opportunities for compostable packaging circularity and navigating them requires the engagement of stakeholders across the value chain.
In 2024 and 2025, the Composting Consortium will continue to connect the dots and work with the compost industry, policymakers, and packaging manufacturers and brands to lower the barriers to scaling food-waste composting infrastructure and unlock value to all stakeholders across the composting value chain. Through this unprecedented collaborative work, the Composting Consortium aims to build a more circular composting system, one that drives values to all stakeholders.
Learn more about the work the Consortium is doing to scale circular outcomes for compostable packaging.
About the Composting Consortium
The Composting Consortium is a multi-year collaboration to pilot industry-wide solutions and build a roadmap for investment in technologies and infrastructure that enable the recovery of compostable food packaging and food scraps. The Composting Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. PepsiCo and the NextGen Consortium are founding partners of the Consortium. Hill’s Pet Nutrition parent company Colgate-Palmolive, Danaher Foundation, Eastman, The Kraft Heinz Company, Mars, Incorporated, and Target Corporation joined as supporting partners, and the Biodegradable Products Institute, the US Composting Council and the U.S. Plastics Pact joined as industry partners. Our advisory partners include 5 Gyres, Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), Google, ReFED, Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF), the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), TIPA, University College London (UCL), Western Michigan University (WMU), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Learn more about the Consortium at closedlooppartners.com/composting-consortium/
New Report from the NextGen Consortium Shares Path Forward for Paper Cup Recycling in the U.S.
November 01, 2023
Insights include solutions for paper mills, materials recovery facilities, brands and communities to increase recovery of paper cups and reduce waste to landfill
Nov. 1, 2023 — Today, the NextGen Consortium, a leading industry collaboration managed by Closed Loop Partners, with partner brands including Starbucks, McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, JDE Peet’s, The Wendy’s Company and Yum! Brands, released a report with new findings to accelerate paper cup recycling in the U.S. The report, Closing the Loop on Cups: Collective Action to Advance the Recovery of Paper Cups in the U.S., assesses the role of each stakeholder across the paper cup recovery value chain––including paper mills, materials recovery facilities (MRFs), brands, consumers and local communities––and provides recommended actions to increase paper cup recovery opportunities and advance a more circular system.
Every day, millions of people around the world drink from paper cups. They’re safe, functional and convenient–– so much so that globally, more than 250 billion cups are produced each year. But convenience comes with environmental consequences: the majority of cups end up in landfill today. The NextGen Consortium has taken a three-pronged approach to address cup waste holistically: 1) Advancing reusable cup systems that keep materials in circulation for multiple uses, 2) Exploring material science innovation that enhances the sustainability and recoverability of cup materials, and 3) Strengthening materials recovery and recycling infrastructure that recaptures cups after use.
In this report, the NextGen Consortium focuses on the need to strengthen existing materials recovery and recycling infrastructure systems to recapture more paper cups. Recovering and recycling paper cups ensures the value embodied in paper cups—primarily comprised of fiber and a plastic liner—is recovered, rather than wasted in landfill. These cups contain high-quality fiber that is valuable to paper mills as other paper sources like newsprint and office paper decline. While the challenges for paper cup recovery and recycling are significant, collaboration among various stakeholders involved in paper cup recovery can help address its scale and complexity. The report highlights key challenges and opportunities, including:
- Today, only about 11 percent of communities accept cups in their recycling operations. This poses a significant barrier to cup recycling, as residents have few options to properly recycle their used cups.
- While only a handful of cities in the U.S. are officially accepting cups in their recycling programs, the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) identified more than 30 paper mills that accept paper cups in mixed paper bales representing 75 percent of U.S. mixed paper demand, and an additional five mills accepting cups in carton bales. These mills are taking recovered paper materials, including cups, and reprocessing them into new products.
- In 2023, the NextGen Consortium, in collaboration with FPI and Moore & Associates, identified more than 15 additional mills across North America that are interested in testing cup acceptance or that can process cups today. This new interest is a tremendous endorsement for the work that is taking place and can catalyze cup acceptance at MRFs and in new communities in the months and years ahead.
- Each stakeholder in the value chain has an important role to play in improving paper cup recycling. The report outlines key calls to action, including calling on:
- Mills to conduct recycling tests on paper cups to determine if the fiber can be captured without any negative operational impacts at their facilities;
- MRFs to conduct material flow studies to determine where best to site interventions for cup sortation and to collaborate with mills and communities to expand acceptable recycling lists as more mills accept cups;
- Communities to engage with MRFs and mills to evaluate feasibility of adding cups to accepted recyclables list;
- Consumers to bring their own reusable cups when they can and to check local recyclability options and guidance when using disposable cups;
- Brands to source recycled paper content when procuring their cups and other packaging, among other activities.
“The waste generated from to-go paper cups has become a highly visible representation of our disposable, take-make-waste culture. However, these cups also are a valuable resource with growing opportunities for recovery,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director and Head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “We know that collaboration across stakeholders––from mills and MRFs to brands and cities––is going to be critical to solving this challenge and ensuring paper cups don’t end up in landfill or polluting our environment. The NextGen Consortium plays a key role in advancing the innovation, testing and partnerships needed to make this possible.”
Since its founding in 2018, the NextGen Consortium has taken a holistic and collaborative approach to addressing the challenge of single-use cup waste, advancing reuse models, exploring material science innovations and strengthening materials recovery and recycling infrastructure that recaptures cups after use. While material reduction and reuse are key pathways to reduce reliance on virgin resource extraction, end-of-life recovery pathways are equally critical to ensure that the value embodied in all types of cups, including single-use paper cups, is recovered, rather than wasted in landfill.
As the NextGen Consortium works toward its goal of eliminating foodservice packaging waste, it will continue to work to improve and align recovery and recycling infrastructure across the entire value chain, from collection and sortation to processing and strengthening end markets. Collaborative action, data-driven decision-making and iterative testing continue to be critical to closing the loop on a greater diversity and volume of valuable resources and avoiding unintended consequences. The learnings from this report aim to guide the industry towards a future in which reusing valuable materials in products becomes the commonsense norm, shaping a more circular economy.
About the NextGen Consortium
The NextGen Consortium is a multi-year consortium that addresses single-use foodservice packaging waste globally by advancing the design, commercialization and recovery of foodservice packaging alternatives. The NextGen Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. Starbucks and McDonald’s are the founding partners of the Consortium, with The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo as sector lead partners. JDE Peet’s, The Wendy’s Company and Yum! Brands are supporting partners. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the environmental advisory partner. Learn more at www.nextgenconsortium.com.
About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
Closed Loop Partners is at the forefront of building the circular economy. The company is comprised of three key business segments: Closed Loop Capital Management, the Center for the Circular Economy and Circular Services. In 2018, Closed Loop Partners launched its innovation center, the Center for the Circular Economy, which unites competitors to tackle complex material challenges and to implement systemic change that advances the circular economy. Closed Loop Partners brings together designers, manufacturers, recovery systems operators, trade organizations, municipalities, policymakers and NGOs to create, invest in and support scalable innovations that target big system problems. Learn more about the Center’s work here.
Reuse
When Reusable Cups Reach End-of-Life: 5 Tips to Ensure They Don’t Go to Waste
October 18, 2023
We know reuse plays a critical part in reducing foodservice packaging waste. And we’ve seen progress and innovation across all types of packaging and foodservice venues, whether cup share programs, reuse at concerts and events, or even for food delivery services. However, for reuse models to be successful and impactful, they need to check a lot of boxes––they have to fit the lifestyle of customers and align with the reality of retail operations to ensure reusable packaging is sufficiently reused. They also have to be recyclable so that they don’t become waste when they end up somewhere other than the return bin at any point in their lifecycle. Whether a reuse program has a 95 percent (terrific!), 75 percent (needs improvement) or 25 percent (look out!) return rate, designing for recyclability is key, especially as more reusable packaging enters the ecosystem. Appropriate end-of-life management is necessary to maximize the intended environmental benefit that reusable products offer.
Since 2018, the NextGen Consortium has been leading efforts to identify the role reuse can play in addressing foodservice packaging waste, alongside material innovation and recovery [see: Bringing Reusable Packaging Systems to Life: Lessons Learned from Scaling Reusable Cups]. In addition to examining the realities of consumer behavior and retail operations when deploying reuse systems, one critical question we recently investigated is: what happens when a reusable cup ends up in the recycling system?
Reusable foodservice packaging is often designed for durability––both in how long it can be reused and how many times it can be washed––but not always for recyclability. As a result, when reusable cups are decommissioned, or end up anywhere but the reuse bin, they inevitably end up in our waste streams. From NextGen’s consumer research, we know that unless disposal options are convenient, these cups will likely end up as waste. Designing reusable packaging for both consistent reuse and eventual recyclability will help increase recovery opportunities and reduce waste to landfill and the environment.
How do we ensure reusable cups do not become waste when they can no longer be reused or end up in a recycling bin rather than a reuse bin?
Testing is key. There are excellent design guidelines, such as APR’s design for recyclability guidelines, to help suppliers ensure their packaging meets the stated needs of the recycling system today. But reusable cups also need to be tested within the recycling process to see if they can be successfully recovered. There are three critical stages of the recycling process:
- Collection: how recyclable materials are collected in residential or commercial waste streams
- Sortation: how a package will flow at a material recycling facility (MRF)
- Reprocessing: how a package aligns with similar materials to be processed and remanufactured into new materials
In early 2023, the NextGen Consortium collaborated with Van Dyk Technology Center to test how a dozen different reusable polypropylene (PP) cups would sort within a MRF and see if they would end up in the correct material bale, in this case PP.
The test mimicked the flow of a typical MRF, followed APR’s sorting guidance and tested how size, compression, 2D and 3D sortation, and near infrared (NIR) sortation impact how well a cup can be sorted. The results were mixed and provide critical design insights for the companies who are manufacturing and deploying reusable cup formats.
The Results: the good, the bad and the unrecyclable.
When designed with recycling in mind, a reusable PP cup should successfully sort into the correct bale at a MRF. In our tests, the top four best performing cup models were sorted correctly more than 90 percent of the time. The test ran 50 samples of each cup through four separate runs so that each cup model ran through the facility 200 times. The results are no coincidence: successful sortability was driven by specific factors, including color, shape, opacity, thickness and material composition. The highest performing cups were typically opaque, thin and rigid but had some flexibility or bounce, and were all read clearly by the optical sensors of the sortation equipment. Cups that performed poorly, sorting less than 50 percent of the time (or sometimes not at all), often were more translucent than their successful counterparts. Overall, while only four of the cups achieved successful sortation (and a fifth cup was borderline), simple design corrections can improve the fate of the others.
Design Tips: Making recyclability a priority for reusable PP cups.
The Van Dyk sortation test gave a window into what happens to various types of reusable PP cups traveling through a MRF. However, this only assessed one step in the recycling process––sortation––and does not confirm compatibility with reclamation systems nor prove that the cup can be recycled effectively into a new package. Additional testing is needed to confirm assumptions that reusable PP cups are truly circular. For now, reusable foodservice packaging companies and suppliers can design with sortation in mind and improve end-of-life outcomes by considering the following:
- Follow the design guidelines created by APR and other groups: There are many resources available online to help packaging designers/suppliers ensure greater compatibility with the recycling system. For plastic packaging, the APR Design® Guide is a great place to start.
- Avoid all black plastics: While there have been technological advancements to help sort black plastics, most MRFs do not possess that technology. Both opaque and translucent black packaging is problematic and reusable cup manufacturers should design cups with today’s system in mind. If black is absolutely required, use an NIR sortable black colorant. Colorants that have passed APR testing can be found on APR’s website here.
- Not all polypropylene is equal: PP is a wide class of material. PP sorters in the recycling process are designed to detect and separate PP that is common to single-use plastic such as tubs and lids; however, other PP grades may not be as easily identified.It is critical to engage with your cup suppliers and test if needed to confirm compatibility.
- Mono materials (cups made of just one material) are best: A reusable cup that is multi-material (i.e., part plastic, part fiber, part silicone, etc.) is simply not compatible with today’s recycling system. Cups designed to be in a high-volume sharing system should be made of a singular material and avoid too many add-ons. Cups with ridges (i.e., a built-in sleeve) may also impede sortation; however, it does not appear that those design features are overly detrimental.
- Think twice before adding tech: Tracking systems are typically needed to assess the impact of a reuse system and enable traceability, but features such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags need to be evaluated further for their impact on the recycling system. While an RFID tag is unlikely to hinder a package’s sortability, it might impact whether a material can be reclaimed or recycled. APR’s guidance lists RFID tags as “detrimental,” and the NextGen team is investigating the impact this technology has on the system.
When in doubt, TEST.
Despite widely available design guidance, reusable packaging that is not compatible with today’s recycling system continues to be manufactured. The conversation needs to be more nuanced and shift from only discussing designing for durability and the number of washes a package can withstand, to the realities of how the packaging will actually be used and travel through a system. Most reusable wares in an open system would be lucky to hit 40 reuses (which would assume a >95% return rate)! Sortation and recovery testing can help provide reusable foodservice packaging companies with additional peace of mind and ensure that their packaging has a better chance of staying out of landfill.
The NextGen team looks forward to continuing this journey to study and test optimal conditions for reusable packaging to succeed and achieve a positive environmental impact within a circular economy.