Citizen science project investigates what happens to biodegradable plastics in compost heaps
Testing the biodegradability of plastic through citizen science
Burying plastic in your garden doesn’t sound like the most eco-friendly approach to recycling… unless the plastic is compostable of course. Almost 10,000 citizen scientists in the UK have participated in a nationwide experiment investigating home compostable packaging by ‘gathering public opinion on compostable and biobased plastics, food waste strategies and home composting’.
The Big Compost Experiment started in late 2019 and recently published on its findings. For the first part of the experiment, 9701 participants filled in a survey designed to assess public attitudes towards biodegradable plastics and their behaviours around the materials. The second part of the experiment, completed by 902 people, encourages participants to place a few pieces of biodegradable plastic into their home compost and report back on how the material degrades over time.