"compostable" packaging

I’ve always been a little bit sceptical of compostable packaging because I think its just a way to make people feel less guilty about over packaged produce which it would be better to avoid in the first place.

That said I know some of the other volunteers at Shropshire Master Composters have also raised concerns that its made out of stuff which could be food, such as corn starch or potatoes and in the current state of the world food prices to deliberately make non-edible stuff out of food seems like fanning flames of global food insecurity.

We recently got invited to see a compost heap of an elderly chap in Shropshire who has been merrily tossing the 'compostable' packaging which comes from leading supermarkets organic range onto his compost heap.   After about ten months when the time came to empty it we were shocked by how little of the packaging had actually rotted away at all.

As you can see from the picture, most of the plastic had barely started to break down. Not only that, where the plastic had trapped the other compostable  materials, these had started to compost anaerobically – and the smell was awful! Clearly whilst some of the material may compost in lab conditions or in commercial industrial composting facilities people need to take care about what they add to their home compost bins!