First thing's first — YES our packaging is plant-based and compostable. NO that does not mean you can throw it on the ground and it'll disappear. Always remember to leave no trace and find the proper place to dispose of your waste!
Now that we have that out of the way, let's learn how to compost.
HOW TO COMPOST OUR WRAPPERS
There are a number of electric table top home composters including Ouaken, Reencle, and Food Cycler which are able to handle our wrappers and successfully turn into usable compost.
To compost our wrappers in a pile, shred or tear the wrapper into small pieces to speed up decomposition. Add "brown" (carbon) materials in thin layers (around 4 inches), mixing them with nitrogen-rich "green" materials to maintain a balanced pile. If using a tumbler, make sure you're getting enough heat and rotating frequently. If using a pile, make sure you're rotating every 7-14 days to ensure proper oxygen flow which helps materials break down faster.
For piles and tumblers, the breakdown period can vary depending on your system and environmental conditions(3-12 months).
ABOUT OUR PACKAGING
When compared to the plastic wrappers used by most snack bar companies which can stay in landfills for decades, our plant-based compostable packaging will break down when composted to help reduce our impact on the planet.
All our packaging is made from wood cellulose (wood pulp) from FSC Certified sustainably managed forests in the Pacific Northwest. It is also substantiated ASTM D6400 Industrial Compostable. The ink is both home and industrial compostable, Certified to the EU standard, EN 13432.
COMPOSTING VS BIODEGRADEABLE
The main difference between these two types of materials is that when compostable materials are composted properly, they are turned into nutrient rich compost for the earth whereas biodegradable materials simply break down into innocuous elements naturally.
It's important to point out that compostable materials are biodegradable, but biodegradable materials are not compostable.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I PUT MY WRAPPER IN THE TRASH?
In a landfill environment, there is no oxygen to convert innocuous elements into usable, nutrient rich compost. Therefore, materials in these environments can have the ability to biodegrade, but not turned into compost. If your wrapper makes it to a marine environment, the material still cannot become compost because the temperature is too low and it requires terrestrial life to decompose it (fungi, certain bacterium) that are not present in the ocean.. So please, whenever possible, take the steps to make sure your packaging is composted correctly to give back to our beautiful, natural world!
*In our pursuit to find the most sustainable and eco-friendly materials, BAR-U-EAT will constantly reevaluate our packaging and seek out new sustainable materials as they become available.
