Composters

Composters and food scrap haulers are a crucial part of the circular bioeconomy and to BPI’s mission, which is why BPI offers free memberships to entities collecting and/or processing compostable materials, and reserves seats on the Board of Directors. This ensures that the perspective of composters, haulers, municipalities, and other stakeholders within organics diversion systems are represented within BPI, given voice in committees, and decision-making power with positions of leadership.

Composters and municipalities have the following benefits as BPI members:

• FREE Membership – BPI waives Membership fees for Stakeholder Composter/Municipality Members, which comes with member voting rights, eligibility to apply for the BPI board, and reduced/free registration for BPI events (e.g. webinars, BPI Summit).

• Committees – Gain access to all BPI Committees, including the Composter & Municipality Committee (a group reserved specifically for this class of BPI Members) that meets monthly and advises BPI on industry leading programs and initiatives.

• Newsletter & Monthly Member webinar – Obtain the exclusive members-only newsletter and monthly member webinar to stay up to date with compostable products related news, programs, and initiatives.

Become a Member BPI Committees

Whether you’re a Member or not, BPI has been advocating on behalf of composters:

• Composting Microgrants (NEW in 2024) – BPI offers microgrants ranging from $500 to $5,000 to fund food scrap collection and processing programs that incorporate compostable products.
  • Composting Microgrants

• PFAS – BPI was the first certification to ban the use of PFAS back in 2017, way ahead of this becoming mainstream news, to make sure composters (and consumers) could trust certified compostable products. 
  • Fluorinated Chemicals

• Labeling – BPI requires on-product labeling as a criteria for getting certified, another industry first, focused on moving the needle to improve consumer identification and tackle contamination.  We also partnered with USCC on labeling principles for state laws, and utilize these in BPI’s highly active public policy work.
  • Labeling
  • Guiding Principles

• Only Food – For more than a decade BPI has only certified items associated with feedstocks that composters accept (like food scraps), and delisted items like pet waste bags (for the US) and generic cleaning wipes to build composter confidence in the products BPI is directing to their facilities.    
  • Compostability Certification

• Compost Infrastructure and Markets – BPI has invested >$100,000 to update Organic ag rules so that facilities taking compostable products can also sell into the valuable Organic ag market.  And we’ve been a leader in advocating for composting and compostable products to be included in extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws, built on shared principles developed with USCC.
  • Organic Agriculture
  • Guiding Principles

• Field Testing – BPI has supported field testing initiatives like the Compostable Field Testing Program and the work done Closed Loop Partners. Over 1,000 items have been shown to break down in <50 days in field trials. We’re leading a multi-year effort to create an ASTM field test to bring disparate voices together and create a common method.   
  • Field Validation
  • CREF Compostable Field Testing Program
  • ASTM - New Test Method for Determine the Degree of Disintegration of Items under Defined In-Field Composting Conditions

• Roadmap – BPI and BioCycle convened a series of workshops across the entire value chain in 2021 to develop a Roadmap and Action Plan. In it, we identified and confirmed the top barriers to the acceptance and successful processing of certified compostable products and attempted to build consensus for a single set of acceptability criteria.
  • Composter Workshop Report
    • Roadmap

• BPI Summit – A unique in-person conference for those working with compostable products to come together to collaborate, learn and interact, with a big focus on composters and policies that support our collective success. Registration was waived for both member and non-member Composters and Haulers in 2023 and 2024.
  • Events: BPI Summit

• Overs Testing – A big concern about the rate of compostable breakdown in the field is actually due to lookalike contamination. BPI launched a free service for composters to determine whether items in their overs pile are compostable or not.
  • Overs Testing

Partnerships – We cannot do this alone, and BPI advocates for composters in our work with dozens of groups like USCC, Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), Closed Loop Partners’ Composting Consortium, AMERIPEN, US Plastics Pact, Plant Based Products Council, and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition/GreenBlue. We are also joining every state composting group in the US, to actively engage with these boots on the ground organizations.

• Composting Consortium’s Consumer Testing on Labeling for Compostables, Disintegration at Full Scale Composting Facilities, and Contamination at Composting Facilities
• USCC’s Compostable Products Primer and Decision Making Guide on Accepting or Rejecting Compostable Products, and Compostable Products as a Feedstock study with waste sorting methodology
• Green Sports Alliance’s Food Waste Diversion and Compostable Packaging Playbook
• US Plastics Pact’s Design for Compostability Playbook.