CREF's Compostable Field-Testing Program and recent highlights

CREF’s Compostable Field-Testing Program (CFTP), a nonprofit collaboration between CREF and BSIbio Packaging Solutions/BÉSICS^® (BSIbio), was in the news recently. On April 30, Coast Waste Management Association (CWMA)—a Canadian membership association serving the solid waste industry across British Columbia and beyond—hosted a virtual 90-minute session, "Field Testing Results for Compostability Presentation & Roundtable." The use of conventional single-use plastic packaging has long been a significant environmental challenge. Compostable packaging was created with a vision to give single-use products a circular lifecycle.

Established in 2016, CFTP was designed to field test compostable food ware. In clarification, lab scale/biodegradation testing deals with the micro-scale, while field testing/disintegration deals with the macro-scale. CFTP is, to our knowledge, the only nonprofit, research-focused field-testing project in the world.

Emily McGill, CFTP Program Director, tee’d up the event with an overview of the CFTP program, including the development of the testing and analysis protocols. McGill then provided a high-level review of the disintegration results from more than 30,000 units of packaging. This dataset represented 82 different types of individual fiber and compostable plastic packaging and products and 18 diverse composting facilities to date. And more are on the way!

CREF’s Executive Director, Diane Hazard, followed with a sneak preview into the CFTP Results Navigator, an open-source, collaborative research platform currently under development with the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute. CFTP plans to launch the database platform in the fall of 2024.

With over 80 registrants and over 60 attendees at the virtual session, a robust discussion ensued. CFTP’s goal is to reinforce the idea of science informing policy. The roundtable included composters, both private and municipal, from community to commercial scale. There were also representatives from compostable producers, researchers, regulators and policy analysts.

Missed the webinar? No worries! For the cost of admission, you’ll not only get a copy of the recording, but a PDF of the presentation slides and summary notes. Contact sheila@cwma.ca for more information.

In other news, Closed Loop Partners (CLP) made public on April 16 their eagerly anticipated report, "Breaking It Down: The Realities of Compostable Packaging Disintegration in Composting Systems."

CFTP was brought on to CLP’s consultant team, and the resultant 50-page report clearly and attractively summarizes the results of that collaboration. The report provides specific data on disintegration using both mesh bag and dose method testing protocols. It also explores a nuanced comparison of both the testing protocols and the data analysis methods.

In #10 of the Top 10 Take-Aways, the report states, “Widespread adoption requires collaboration across the value chain, starting with clear labeling of compostable and non-compostable packaging, as well as investing in the appropriate infrastructure to collect these materials.”

You’ll find the report here.