Compostability tests for "OK HOME compost"

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 (OK HOME compost for TÜV AUSTRIA and HOME COMPOSTABLE for DIN CERTCO). NF T51-800 is based on NF EN 13432, which regulates characterisation of a compostable product in an industrial environment (OK compost INDUSTRIAL for TÜV AUSTRIA). 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.

WESSLING subjects products to the following successive tests. Packaging that has passed all four tests may be submitted to TUV AUSTRIA or DIN CERTCO to obtain the appropriate label.

Products tested by WESSLING and certified by a third-party certification body (like TUV AUSTRIA) 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.