The content in these pages is designed to give current and prospective BPI License holders all of the information needed to navigate the certification process as efficiently as possible. There is a lot of information here, and it is worth setting aside the time to go through the pages in detail to make sure that no important details are missed.
BPI offers two compostability certifications. Commercial Only Certification certifies that items will break down in commercial compost facilities, while Commercial & Home Certification certifies that items will break down in both commercial compost facilities and in properly managed home compost bins.
These certifications are supported by two separate certification schemes, one for commercial compostability and one for home compostability. BPI uses ASTM D6400 as the base standard for assessment for all items going through BPI's Commercial Compostability Certification Program. Optional assessment according to ASTM D6868 and/or D8410 for eligible items is also available. Eligibility is determined by BPI’s technical reviewer (using Appendix D from the BPI Commercial Compostability Certification Scheme) and is indicated on the test scheme that's provided to applicants during the certification process. Assessment to ASTM D8410 is limited to cellulosic-fiber-based substrates only and excludes items where thermoplastic polymer is laminated to cellulosic-fiber-based substrates. It doesn't apply to polymer substrates or materials other than cellulosic-fiber-based ones. BPI’s Home Compostability Certification Program is based on the French Standard NF T 51-800.
Certification according to BPI’s Commercial Compostability Certification Scheme is a prerequisite for Home Compostability Certification. As such, the BPI home certification program is built on top of commercial certification, so there are more similarities than differences between the two programs. The differences are centered around the different operating conditions and subsequent biological environments typically found in the two composting environments.
The differences include:
Eligibility criteria – Pet waste products are limited to Commercial Only Certification for use in Canada since backyard bins don’t typically get hot enough to kill the pathogens in pet waste.
Testing – Disintegration and biodegradation testing temperatures and timeframes differ between the two certifications. Disintegration testing is conducted at 58 +/-2° C for up to 84 days for commercial certification and at 25 +/-2° C for up to 180 days for home certification. Biodegradation testing is conducted at 58 +/-2° C for 6 months for commercial certification and at 25 +/-2° C for 12 months for home certification.
Regulated metals – there are some differences in allowable thresholds of regulated metals between the certifications, which can be seen here.
