Analysis of the compostability of products
Waste reduction and the development of environmentally friendly solutions have now become a necessity imposed by society and the legislation that is gradually being introduced as a result.
The development of compostable products is a response to these changes, because it allows waste to be recycled. WESSLING offers laboratory compostability tests to determine whether or not products are suitable for composting.
Discover our laboratory
Discover our laboratory
The WESSLING GreenLab
The WESSLING GreenLab
Compostability tests are carried out in France, in the 70m² WESSLING GreenLab. This laboratory is one of the first to carry out these tests in France.
WESSLING GreenLab in detail
The analytical activity and documentation are entirely digital. To this end, the WESSLING GreenLab is equipped with a screen for monitoring the tests. In addition, WESSLING has set up a digital information transmission system, especially for automatic monitoring of test conditions in the tanks containing the samples.
The laboratory consists of a 30 m² area devoted to testing work and a 40 m² analysis room where the samples are placed. The latter is kept in darkness in order to comply with the composting conditions defined by the standards according to which the compostability tests are carried out.
A feature of the laboratory is that it has special sealed walls that make it possible to maintain an internal temperature of 25°C and meet the conditions imposed by the standards for home compostability and biodegradability tests in different environments.
Technical equipment
To simulate industrial composting conditions, the WESSLING GreenLab carries out biodegradation tests in an oven set at 58°C.
The laboratory also has a growth chamber for ecotoxicological tests on plants, which controls all the parameters needed for their proper development. These tests are necessary to ensure that compost containing degraded material does not affect plant development.
Compostability: added value to consumer products
Supplying products or packaging that consumers can put in their composter or that communities can compost industrially to reduce the volume of their garbage brings real added value to the products, because it meets current and future social and environmental requirements.
Domestic and industrial compostability: two different standards
In France, product compostability is currently regulated by two different standards: NF EN 13432 and NF T51-800.
The NF T51-800 standard defines the characteristics that a product must have in order to be considered compostable in a private or domestic context. NF T51-800 is based on NF EN 13432, which regulates characterisation of a compostable product in an industrial environment. The two standards differ because the composting conditions are slightly different. In a domestic setting, smaller volumes are composted at lower temperatures. This makes the process more difficult, so that the demands placed on the products to be composted are greater.
WESSLING offers tests on packaging products and other products, of plastic, paper or bio-sourced materials, to determine whether they are compostable in a domestic or industrial context.
What tests are used to determine if a product is compostable?
WESSLING subjects products to the following successive tests. Packaging that has passed all four tests may be submitted to a certification body to obtain the appropriate label.
What tests are used to determine if a product is compostable?
01 Identification and chemical characterisation of product components
The constituents and physical characteristics of the product must be determined.
02 Biodegradation of the product
Determination of the product's capacity to be consumed by an appropriate microbial flora, via the conversion of organic carbon into carbon dioxide.
03 Disintegration of the product
Determination of the physical fragmentation of the product during composting.
04 Ecotoxicity test
Determination of the quality of the compost resulting from disintegration. Verification that there is no risk of residues of the product tested to human health, animal health and the environment.
Compostable products: what are they exactly?
Products tested by WESSLING and certified by a third-party certification body are compostable by private individuals and/or in an industrial environment. In concrete terms, a domestically compostable product can put in any composter. The certified product will degrade in the composter in a few weeks or months, depending on its characteristics.
Your contact
- Rémy Reboullet
- +33 (0)6 28 05 60 80
- remy.reboullet@wessling.fr
