The standard-setter vs. the certifier

Standards bodies write the rules. The technical specifications that define what "compostable" means, how fast a material must biodegrade, how completely it must disintegrate, and what residues it may leave behind. In the US, that is ASTM International. In Europe, it is CEN, which produces the EN 13432 standard. These organizations do not test products or issue certifications.

Certification bodies are the referees. They take those rules, run products through the required tests, and issue marks manufacturers can display on packaging. BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute), CMA (Compost Manufacturing Alliance), TÜV Austria, and DIN CERTCO are all certification bodies. When a regulation says a product must be "certified compostable," it is referring to these organizations — not to ASTM or CEN.

The practical implication: a supplier who points to "ASTM D6400" as the basis for a compostability claim needs to be asked whether that claim is self-attested or independently certified. The two are not equivalent.

What regulations actually ask for

Compostability requirements in local ordinances tend to have three dimensions worth parsing. The language rarely makes all three explicit.

The shift from biodegradable to certified compostable. You've likely noticed "biodegradable" disappearing from ordinance language and "certified compostable" taking its place. The shift has been building since California first restricted biodegradable claims on plastic packaging in 2004 and the FTC tightened its Green Guides in 2012: "biodegradable" carries no enforceable timeframe and no verification requirement, making it unverifiable as a compliance standard.

Named certifiers vs. named standards. Some jurisdictions go further than requiring "certified compostable" and name an accepted certifier explicitly (such as BPI) rather than just ASTM compliance. The catch is that this requirement might appear in an implementation guidance document or agency FAQ published alongside the ordinance, not in the ordinance text itself. A compliance team reading only the ordinance may conclude any third-party certification qualifies, while the agency's guidance makes clear only BPI-certified products are accepted in practice. Reading the ordinance is necessary but not sufficient.

Industrial vs. home compostable. A growing number of local ordinances, particularly those targeting straws, stirrers, and single-use serviceware, specify that compliant alternatives must be made with natural fibre, not just industrially compostable. More to this below in this blog post.

The certification landscape

The global map of certification bodies breaks down by geography. North American and European certifications are tested to different underlying standards and are not mutually recognized.

North America certifiers test to ASTM D6400 (plastics) and D6868 (coated paper and fiber):

Europe — certifiers test to EN 13432:

Asia-Pacific and UK:

ASTM D6400 and EN 13432 share the same goals but EN 13432 sets the higher bar on both key dimensions: it requires 90% biodegradation within 180 days versus ASTM's 60%, and it requires full disintegration in 12 weeks versus ASTM's 180 days. EN 13432 is stricter on both rate and speed. A product that passes EN 13432 is likely to pass ASTM on these metrics, but the reverse is not true — and crucially, the certifications are issued by different bodies under different programs, so passing one does not substitute for the other in regulatory terms. For US food service operators sourcing from European suppliers, or European food service establishments expanding into the US, this could be a compliance gap worth noting.

Industrial vs. home compostable — and why natural fiber often wins

Most certified compostable plastics such as PLA cups, PBAT bags, coated fiber containers are certified for industrial composting only. They require the sustained high temperatures (around 55-60°C), controlled moisture, and microorganism activity of a commercial composting facility to break down within the certified timeframe. In a home compost bin, they typically do not break down at all within any practical timeframe.

As noted above, a growing number of local ordinances specify home or backyard compostability rather than industrial. The concern driving stricter cities is the same one we covered in our post on local compliance: access to industrial composting infrastructure is uneven, and a product that requires a commercial facility to compost is not meaningfully compostable for most consumers.

Because most compostable plastics fail the home compostability threshold, natural fiber-based materials (paper, bamboo, sugarcane/bagasse) are the only materials that reliably satisfy the strictest local requirements. For items like straws and stirrers, this means operators in jurisdictions with home compostability requirements effectively cannot use any compostable plastic alternative, regardless of its BPI certification status. The implication is worth being direct about: in these jurisdictions, material substitution instead of certification is the answer.

Home compostable certification is a separate program from industrial certification, with different standards and different certifiers:

What to do now: For any item covered by a local ordinance requiring home or backyard compostability, verify whether the regulation allows certified compostable plastics or implicitly requires natural fiber by specifying the composting environment. If it's the latter, no certification resolves it.

Staying ahead

Compostability compliance is a two-step problem. The first step is knowing what a regulation actually requires: which certifier, which standard, which composting environment. The second step is verifying that the supplier's certification matches those requirements exactly, not approximately. Regulations often use "certified compostable" or "ASTM certified" without naming which certification body qualifies. And a product-level certification mark does not always reflect the certification status of every component.

At Neta AI, our proprietary AI agent parses compostability requirements across state and local regulations, maps them to the specific certification standards each jurisdiction accepts, and flags mismatches between a regulation's language and a supplier's certification claims. Instead of piecing this together manually across disparate ordinances, your team gets targeted alerts with clear context on what the regulation requires and whether your packaging portfolio meets it. If you want to see how Neta AI can close the gaps in your compostable packaging compliance, reach out. We'd love to walk you through it.