Biodegradable plastics are different from compostable plastics.
Release time:
2025-11-29
Biobased, "biodegradable" and compostable plastics are different
The term "bioplastic" is often used to refer to plastics that are biobased, biodegradable or both. It is important to distinguish between the source of the material and its end-of-life options. As mentioned above, this report prioritizes "compostable" over "biodegradable".
The term "biobased" describes the source of a material, that is, it is wholly or partly derived from biomass resources. The term "compostable" describes the end-of-life option of a material, that is, a material is suitable for home composting or industrial composting and meets the formal definition standards of the corresponding environment. The term "biodegradable" itself only describes that a material can be biodegraded into natural elements with the help of microorganisms (without further specifying important standards such as the time it takes to degrade in the corresponding environment).
Biobased plastics are not necessarily compostable. Some biobased plastics are designed for the technical cycle (bi0-PET is recyclable), and some are designed for the biological cycle (PLA is renewable and industrially compostable). If the appropriate infrastructure is in place, some biobased plastics (such as PLA and PHA) can be technically recycled and industrially composted.
Similarly, not only biobased materials are compostable. In addition to greenhouse gas-based plastics, some fossil-based plastics (such as PBAT and BASF EcoFlex) can also be industrially composted.
