Compostable plastic

Compostable plastic is a material made from renewable materials such as vegetable starch and soy protein. Compostable plastic should be put into your general waste and not your food waste or garden waste.

In north London, food waste is processed in anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities. Mixed food and garden waste goes to in-vessel composting (IVC) facilities. All packaging (compostable liners / Vegware / plastic bags) is removed from food and garden waste by ‘de-packaging’ machinery and disposed of. This has to be done because non-compostable items are often put into the food/garden waste when they shouldn’t be, causing contamination. The de-packaging machinery we use is not currently able to distinguish between compostable and non-compostable packaging when removing contaminants.

Learn more and read our article, 'Everything you ever needed to know about bioplastics'.