How compatible are compostable bags with major industrial composting and digestion technologies?

Industrial composting has widely implemented across in Germany for over 20 years. During the last decade and driven by legislation, the separate collection of organic waste has grown more and more popular. As a result, a broad variety of technologies of industrial composting and anaerobic digestion are in place. According to the Bundesgütegemeinschaft Kompost’s (BGK; the German Quality Assurance Association for Compost) classification scheme, there are eight major types of process, so-called ‘Hygiene-Baumusterkategorien’, which differ a lot with regard to their technical components and composting/digestion times.

Compostable biowaste bags have been on the market for more than 15 years. As soon as biodegradability and compostability according to DIN EN 13432 or DIN EN 14995 have been demonstrated under laboratory conditions and have then been certified, the product can be labelled with the compostability logo. Nevertheless, compostable biowaste bags have not systematically been field-tested in all of the different types of industrial composting or anaerobic digestion plants until now. As a result, there is still uncertainty among operators and local authorities as to whether or not compostable bags are technically compatible with on-site technology, especially as to whether the bags decompose fast enough within the usual decomposition times. At the same time, the interest in the subject is increasing, as compostable bags may increase the amount and quality of organic waste collected by households. This paper outlines a project performed in Germany from April 2010 to November 2011. The project is divided into two parts. The scope of the first part was to evaluate the relevant industrial composting and anaerobic digestion technologies for the treatment of organic waste. For this purpose, all plants that are members of the BGK were evaluated. The results showed that six types of process cover approximately 50 % of the total number of plants and the annual capacity of all composting and anaerobic digestion plants listed by BGK.



Copyright: © European Compost Network ECN e.V.
Quelle: Orbit 2012 (Juni 2012)
Seiten: 8
Preis: € 8,00
Autor: Christian Letalik
Dr. Bettina Fink
Andreas Ziermann
 
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