Is Compostable really compostable?

[rot]

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I found an interesting link on the NPR website.

https://ecotrope.opb.org/2013/02/is-comp ... mpostable/

I tried a noodle soup bowl once that was supposed to be compostable. After several months of no noticeable degradation in my bin, I chucked it.

Anyone try the sun chip bags?

Just something to share.
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[tomc]

..Anyone try the sun chip bags?..

Sun chip bags broke down, "Bamboo" flatware broke down. I never tried the soy clear cartons.

[PunkRotten]

I tried the Sun Chips bag too, and it too broke down.

[cynthia_h]

What gets me after having skimmed through the article is that the definition used by the "commercial composting operation" is 60 days! Even though they turn the windrows and probably maintain a higher temp than some home compost-makers do, that's still a pretty short time frame.

Then they're so generous as to put some items through for a second round. Wow. 120 whole days. //dripping with sarcasm; can you tell?//

Let's see: corn cobs, even when broken in two, take 18 months in my cool compost. (No matter what I do, it stays cool; I think it's the location.) Lots of things want a whole year.

I bet all of the items discussed in the article will decompose, just not within these incredibly short time frames.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[erins327]

We could never get the Sun Chips bags to compost. I think it has been three years now, and still see remnants of pieces floating around in the bin and in the garden.

[rainbowgardener]

I haven't tried it, but I have heard other people say the Sun Chip compostable bags did not break down. I guess it depends on the specific conditions of your compost pile.

The point of the two months was they put it through the regular process the city was using for composting wastes. If it doesn't break down in that time frame/ process, then it is not compostable for the city's purposes, even though it might be for a backyard gardener who uses a slower composting process.

At one point my church tried "biodegradable" bags for putting kitchen scraps in to collect them and put in the compost pile. They did not biodegrade in any reasonable amount of time and we stopped doing that. "Biodegradable" peat pots also do not break down in time to save plants planted in them.

[Happy Days]

The Sun Chip bags did not break down quickly for me (at least within the 2 or 3 month time frame). I think they would decompose eventually and maybe more quickly if cut into pieces, but I just removed them and haven't tried since.

[cynthia_h]

The Sun Chip bags did not break down quickly for me (at least within the 2 or 3 month time frame). I think they would decompose eventually and maybe more quickly if cut into pieces, but I just removed them and haven't tried since.

Patience!

Here's a thread I started several years ago with the "time to decomposition" of several difficult compost ingredients. These times still hold up. So, when you harvest/screen compost, just throw these slower-to-decompose ingredients back in, because they're simply not "done" yet.

I also have a couple of beef bones in the compost: large ones, two ends of a cow femur. These started off at approx. 4 or 5 lb each before the dogs had at them and then left them in the house for quite a while. I threw them into the compost just for fun, knowing that they wouldn't decompose over a human lifetime. (I mean, what is it that archeologists find from thousands of years ago in digs? Bones!)

These two bones have become habitats for several kinds of mold and, of course, red compost worms.

Cynthia

[Happy Days]

Since I only have a small compost bin set up I need things to decompose fairly quickly. The real estate is too valuable.