Compostable Packaging

As citizens, brands, consumers, and policymakers become more conscious of waste and pollution, many (including us!) are working hard to figure out what “optimal” packaging looks like from the planet's perspective and its inhabitants' health.

Over the past few years, the recycling industry has hit some significant roadblocks - the most notable being the China Sword policy implemented in 2018 which severely restricted what recycled inputs China would be willing to purchase. This, coupled with dubious marketing practices by the fossil fuel industry to perpetuate the myth that all plastics are recyclable when only PE and PET are very readily recyclable in the US, has cast doubt on recycling broadly.

Within this broader context, it isn’t surprising that the idea of “compostable” has developed a bit of a halo around it. Brands and consumers have this innate sense that compostable packaging might be a silver-bullet solution to curing all of the evils of packaging, the challenges of recyclability, and plastic packaging in particular. We often see misleading branding copy like “this compostable packaging will disappear” or “compost me so I can become worm food” that spreads this way of thinking.

EcoEnclose is in a unique position in the world of packaging providers as we can design and develop any type of packaging. We can create compostable mailers, recyclable mailers, degradable mailers, and dissolvable mailers with any existing or innovative new material. The only real guardrail we have in designing our packaging is our sustainability vision and framework: Does this new potential packaging solution bring us closer to our vision for sustainability and circularity?

Every year, we use this lens to research and understand the pros and cons of designing packaging for compostability. If our analysis leads to a new conclusion that compostable packaging would lead to positive environmental progress, we would quickly begin offering compostable mailing solutions.

However, our research has always led to the same conclusion - most packaging should not be designed to be composted. Instead, most packaging should be designed to be readily recycled. And while we need to invest in improving this nation’s recycling infrastructure and supply chain, the current foundation is strong for PE, PET, paper, corrugate, aluminum, and (in some regions) glass.

This year, this decision and its issues have hit remarkably close to home for us at EcoEnclose.

We’ve watched packaging wreak havoc on Colorado’s primary industrial composting facility for the past six months, leading them to make the drastic decision last month to accept food and yard waste only going forward.

This means Coloradoans can no longer compost paper towels, tissue, coffee filters, etc. While this is a significant shift for us regionally, it is a nationwide trend for early-adopter composting communities that made forays into accepting packaging (the vast majority of composters nationwide have never accepted packaging). Oregon composters banned all bioplastics in 2019, citing how problematic compostable plastics have been for them.

Programs in California, Seattle, and Vermont are also starting to restrict collections of compostable organic materials to food scraps and yard trimmings only.