Redwood empire on compostable plastic. Compostable plastic goes in the GRAY bin.

This surprised me:
Compostable plastics are not a good choice. Common examples are garbage bags, clear cups, utensils and compostable plastic garden pots.

Problems with compostable plastics are:

• They degrade too slowly for the municipal composting program.
• They are not allowed in certified organic agriculture products. Compost made from curbside yard debris and food waste is listed with OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute.
• Compostable bags contaminate in-store grocery store plastic bag recycling programs as they can’t be mixed with polyethylene plastic film (HDPE #2 and LDPE #4).

For more information, download a compostable plastics article (PDF: 2.28 MB) written by Will Bakx, Soils Scientist for Sonoma Compost Company or call (707) 664-9113.