Biodegradable plastic - what you need to know | Hertfordshire County Council

Compostable and biodegradable plastics come in a variety of materials. Not all can go in your garden / food waste collection.

Some will compost in a home composter, others won’t. Many aren't suitable for your kerbside garden and food waste collections - some simply break down into micro-plastics that cause pollution.

So here's what you need to know...

1. Don't put any compostable and biodegradable plastics in your recycling, garden / food waste bins except for food waste caddy liners showing the seedling logo.

2. If your caddy liners don't have the seedling logo, we can't accept it.

3. Products that say they're home compostable are fine for your home compost bin. But don't put them in your kerbside garden / food waste bin.

They'll break down slower, which is fine for your compost bin but no good for our facilities. It's also almost impossible for crews to know the difference between these and regular plastics.

4. Biodegradable plastics, bioplastics or biobased products sometimes say they're recyclable. Currently they're not recyclable in Hertfordshire. Again, if there's no seedling logo, it can only go in your general waste bin.

Bioplastic describes what it's made from, not how it degrades.

5. Water soluble plastics - often made from seaweed and used to make some washing liquid and food sachets that break down in water and drinking balls such as Ooho balls (trialled at the London Marathon 2019).

However, they're almost impossible for our crews to distinguish between these and traditional plastics. As such, we can't accept them in any kerbside bin other than the general waste bin.

Biodegradable product labelling

With no standard labelling system, the world of biodegradable and compostable plastic products is confusing.

Here's what to do with them:

Home compostable logos

Only put these plastics in your general waste bin or home compost.

Home compostable logos - all say "home compostable" or "Home OK compost".

Compostable logos

Only put these plastics in your general waste bin.

Compostable logos - all say "OK compost"

However, if they have a seedling logo on, you can put them in your food waste bin.

Biodegradable logos

Only put these plastics in your general waste bin.

Biodegradable logos - all say "100% biodegradable" or "100% plastic free"

Some of these logos suggest that biodegradable plastics are recyclable. However, the facilities to recycle these are not yet widely available which can cause confusion.

Bioplastics logos

Only put these plastics in your general waste bin. They're not suitable for composting or recycling.

Bioplastics logos - all say "OK biobased" or "Biobased more than 85%"

Oxo-degradable plastics

Only put these plastics in your general waste bin. They're not suitable for home composting or recycling.

Oxo-degradable plastic bags have been banned in the EU and are likely to disappear from circulation. They are, however, in widespread use in other parts of the world.

Name	Type	How we use it	How long we use the information for
ASP.Net_Sessions	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
ServerID	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
_ga	Required functionality	To track the effectiveness of our website using Google Analytics.	2 years
saved-pages	Performance and feature	To save the pages that you visit by clicking the heart at the top of the page.	1 month
geoPostcode	Performance and feature	This stores your postcode (or partial postcode) when we ask you for your location.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
geoCoordinates	Performance and feature	This stores your location as a pair of latitude / longitude coordinates.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
reckonerName-history	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of all answers submitted to the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
reckonerName-content	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of what content cards are clicked on when using the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION	Required functionality	This used to track user sessions on forms hosted on eservices.hertfordshire.gov.uk	Just for the time you are on our website.

Service name	Purpose	More information
Google analytics (_utma/b/c/z)	These are used to compile reports for us on how people use this site. Cookies of the same names are also used for the same purpose by other websites such as Building Futures, Countryside Management Service and Hertfordshire LIS.	Visit the Google Analytics website for more information about the cookies they use. You can prevent data from being collected and used by Google Analytics by installing Google's Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Google Translation - googtrans	This cookie is used to remember which language to translate each page into if you have chosen to do so.	It expires at the end of your browser session.
Bing	We use a Bing cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Bing to find out more about their cookies.
Google	We use a Google cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Google to find out more about their cookies.
Facebook	We have a number of presences on Facebook, which we may link to. Facebook may set some of its own cookies if you follow these links.	Visit Facebook to find out more about their cookies.
Twitter	We have a number of presences and feeds on Twitter, which you may wish to follow or read from this website. Twitter may set some of its own cookies.	Visit Twitter to find out more about their cookies.
YouTube	We have a YouTube channel, which we may link to. YouTube may set some of its own cookies if you follow those links.	Visit YouTube to find out more about their cookies.
Netloan	This ASP.NET_Sessionid cookie is essential for the Netloan secure online payments website to work, and is set when you arrive to the site. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.
HotJar	This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.	Visit HotJar to find out more about their cookies.
Siteimprove	These cookies are set to help us report on how people are using the site so we can improve it.	Visit Siteimprove to learn more about their cookies.

Biodegradable plastic - what you need to know

Rate this page

Cookies

Why do we use cookies?

How do I change my cookie settings?

Cookies we use

Third party cookies