What biodegradable actually means
Biodegradable means a material can be broken down by microorganisms into natural substances — water, carbon dioxide and biomass. The term is technically true of almost any organic material, including conventional plastic given enough time. The critical question that the label does not answer is: how long, under what conditions, and into what byproducts?
A plastic bag labelled biodegradable may require 200 years in a landfill environment. An oxo-degradable bag — treated with additives to accelerate fragmentation — breaks into microplastic particles that persist in soil and water. Neither outcome represents genuine ecological improvement. The label "biodegradable" on packaging, without further specification, is effectively meaningless.
Compostable: better, but conditional
Compostable products are held to a higher standard: they must break down within 90 days under industrial composting conditions — specific temperatures, humidity and microbial activity. European standard EN 13432 and the Israeli equivalents (Standards 6147 and 5839) define these requirements and provide certification frameworks.
The catch is that industrial composting infrastructure is not universally available. A certified compostable cup deposited in a standard waste bin goes to landfill, where it decomposes no faster than conventional plastic. The product's credentials are real — but they depend on infrastructure that must exist at the disposal end, not just at the production end.
The Israeli single-use plastics tax context
Israel's progressive tax on single-use plastic items has accelerated the market for disposable alternatives. Bags, cups, plates and cutlery labelled "eco-friendly", "plant-based" or "compostable" have multiplied rapidly in retail and food service, many imported from manufacturers with no Israeli certifications.
The tax is well-intentioned and is reducing conventional plastic use. But the replacement market it has stimulated is uneven in quality. Some products are genuinely certified and represent an improvement. Others carry vague claims with no independent verification. The Israeli Consumer Council has flagged several products on the market as not meeting the standards their labels imply.
How to identify genuine products
Three questions provide a reliable filter. First: is there a recognized certification — EN 13432, OK Compost HOME, TUV Austria or equivalent? Without a verifiable certification logo, the claim is unverified. Second: is there industrial composting collection in your municipality? Without it, compostable certification is largely theoretical. Third: is a reusable alternative available for this use case? If so, the reusable option almost always has lower total environmental impact.
For food service businesses and event organizers under pressure to reduce plastic, certified compostable products paired with a composting collection scheme are a legitimate step forward. For individual households without composting infrastructure, the honest advice is to focus on genuinely reusable alternatives rather than disposables with eco labels.
The greenwashing pattern to recognize
Greenwashing follows recognizable patterns: vague terms ("eco-friendly", "green", "natural") without certification; claims that are true but irrelevant ("contains no CFCs" — which have been banned since the 1980s); certification logos that are self-issued rather than third-party; and lifecycle claims that only count part of the product's journey.
The safest approach is to treat environmental claims as hypotheses and look for independent verification. Certification bodies, consumer protection agencies and organizations like Green Solutions that evaluate products against defined criteria are more reliable than packaging copy. When in doubt, asking "who certified this and how?" is the right question.
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