Recycling and Circular Economy Standard — WIA-ENE-023
Composting is a BIOLOGICAL_RECYCLING pathway in which microorganisms aerobically decompose organic matter into a stable humus-form soil amendment[1]. This standard distinguishes two composting environments. First, INDUSTRIAL_COMPOSTING operates at approximately 55-65 degrees Celsius and completes decomposition within 12 weeks at engineered industrial facilities; the conformance regime is set by EN 13432:2000 and EN 14995. Second, HOME_COMPOSTING operates at ambient temperatures of approximately 20-30 degrees Celsius and completes decomposition within 26 weeks under domestic conditions; the conformance regime is set by NF T 51-800 (French standard) or OK Compost HOME (TÜV AUSTRIA certification).
The two environments differ on three control axes: temperature, moisture, and aeration. Industrial composting maintains these axes within optimal bands through automatic process control, yielding fast decomposition and low residue. Home composting is exposed to ambient variability, yielding slower decomposition and higher residue. The two BIODEGRADABLE certification regimes (EN_13432-class and HOME_COMPOSTING-class) capture this environmental distinction.
| Criterion | INDUSTRIAL_COMPOSTING | HOME_COMPOSTING |
|---|---|---|
| Standards | EN 13432:2000 · EN 14995 · ASTM D6400 · ASTM D6868 · ISO 17088 | NF T 51-800 · OK Compost HOME · ABA Home Compost |
| Temperature | ~55-65 deg C | ~20-30 deg C |
| Duration | ≤ 12 weeks | ≤ 26 weeks |
| Biodegradation threshold | ≥ 90% within 180 days | ≥ 90% within 365 days |
| Residue (≥ 2mm) | ≤ 10% | ≤ 10% |
| Toxicity | OECD 208 plant growth test | OECD 208 plus soil fauna test |
EN 13432:2000 "Packaging — Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation" is the European standard that confers industrial composting conformance[2]. The standard imposes four conformance criteria. First, the biodegradation test requires conversion of at least 90 percent of the material to CO2 within 180 days at approximately 50 degrees Celsius. Second, the disintegration test requires that at least 90 percent of the sample disintegrate into particles smaller than 2 mm within 12 weeks at approximately 58 degrees Celsius. Third, the soil safety test requires that the OECD 208 plant growth test result reach at least 90 percent of the control. Fourth, the heavy metals test imposes maximum thresholds for 11 metals: zinc, copper, nickel, cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, molybdenum, selenium, arsenic, and fluorine.
The envelope class COMPOSTING_REPORT serialises EN 13432:2000 conformance test results in the following auxiliary fields: en_13432_compliance (boolean), biodegradation_180d (percentage 0.0 to 1.0), disintegration_12w (percentage), ecotoxicity_oecd_208 (percentage), and heavy_metals (an array of 11 metal concentrations in ppm).
ASTM D6400 "Standard Specification for Plastics Designed to be Aerobically Composted in Municipal or Industrial Facilities" is the U.S. industrial composting standard published by ASTM International. The standard is technically equivalent to EN 13432:2000, with some test procedures adjusted for U.S. operating conditions. ASTM D6868 "Standard Specification for Aerobically Compostable Paper-Plastic Composite Products" applies separately to paper-plastic composites such as PLA-coated paper cups.
SEC (Sustainable Environmental Certifications) is a third-party certification scheme verifying ASTM D6400 and D6868 conformance and is among the most authoritative U.S. industrial composting certifications. The envelope class COMPOSTING_REPORT serialises SEC certification identifiers in the SEC_CERTIFICATION auxiliary field. The Korean Ministry of Environment "Biodegradability Certification" signed a mutual recognition memorandum with SEC in 2023.
ISO 17088:2021 "Compostable plastics — Specifications" is the unified international standard published by ISO. The standard integrates the technical requirements of EN 13432:2000 and ASTM D6400, providing a foundation for mutual recognition between European and North American certifications on the basis of a single test result. The Republic of Korea adopted ISO 17088:2021 as KS M ISO 17088:2022 "Biodegradable plastics," and the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) applies it under the "Food-grade biodegradable plastic standard."
The envelope serialises the certification standard in the certification_standard field, recognising seven ENUM values: EN_13432, ASTM_D6400, ASTM_D6868, ISO_17088, KS_M_ISO, NF_T_51_800, and OK_COMPOST_HOME. The envelope validation step automatically applies the cross-standard recognition matrix to determine whether one certification implies another.
BIODEGRADABLE refers to the property of decomposition by microbial action into CO2, water, and biomass. OXO_BIODEGRADABLE refers to fragmentation by UV light, oxygen, and heat into microplastic residues, and is not classified as BIODEGRADABLE in this standard. Oxo-degradable plastics may have larger environmental impacts than ordinary non-degrading plastics, because the fragmented residues accumulate in soil and marine environments. Article 5 of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive 2019/904 placed oxo-degradable plastics on the market ban list.
The WIA-ENE-023 envelope explicitly distinguishes BIODEGRADABLE from OXO_BIODEGRADABLE. Envelopes carrying the OXO_BIODEGRADABLE classification are automatically rejected under EU jurisdiction (jurisdiction=EU), and are also rejected under Korean jurisdiction when the Ministry of Environment "OXO-degradable plastic use restriction notice" (2024) is in force.
The operating cycle of an industrial composting facility comprises five stages. First, intake and pre-treatment: food waste, garden waste, and biodegradable plastics enter the facility and non-degradable contaminants (metals, ordinary plastics, glass) are separated. Second, mixing and moisture conditioning: the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is adjusted to approximately 25-30 and moisture content to approximately 55-65 percent. Third, primary fermentation: the material is maintained at approximately 55-65 degrees Celsius for 4-6 weeks during which pathogenic microorganisms are inactivated and primary decomposition proceeds. Fourth, secondary fermentation: the material is held at approximately 35-45 degrees Celsius for 4-6 weeks for stabilisation. Fifth, curing and post-processing: the material is held at approximately 20-30 degrees Celsius for 2-4 weeks for humus stabilisation, then screened (2-10 mm sieve) and graded for market.
Operational metrics for the cycle are decomposition extent, moisture content, pH, and temperature profile. Decomposition extent is measured by reduction of volatile solids (VS), typically achieving 50-70 percent reduction. Moisture content declines from 55-65 percent (primary) to 45-55 percent (secondary) to 35-45 percent (curing). pH rises from 6.5-7.5 (early primary) to 7.5-8.5 (final). The temperature profile shows clear stage separation with peak at approximately 65 deg C (primary), average at approximately 45 deg C (secondary), and approximately 25 deg C (curing).
Home composting operates in domestic bins of approximately 50-200 L. The standard format is a three-bin rotation, with bin one for fresh waste, bin two for active fermentation, and bin three for cured humus ready to harvest. The cycle is approximately six months and processes about 30-50 percent of household food waste. The Japanese three-bin rotation model has been promoted since the 1990s; in Tokyo, approximately 18 percent of households operate home composting.
The home composting standard NF T 51-800, published by AFNOR (Association Française de Normalisation), requires that at least 90 percent of the material decompose within 365 days at ambient temperature of 20-30 deg C. OK Compost HOME, operated by TÜV AUSTRIA as a third-party certification, is technically equivalent to NF T 51-800. ABA Home Compost is operated by the Australian Bioplastics Association (ABA). Korea is considering adoption of a national home composting standard from 2025.
Compost outputs reach the market through three channels: soil amendment, growing media, and fertiliser. Soil amendment is added to garden, park, and green-space soils to raise organic matter content and is the broadest market. Growing media are used as substrate for flower and vegetable cultivation, with the strictest quality requirements. Fertiliser is used directly in crop cultivation, and in Korea must additionally pass the Rural Development Administration "Fertiliser Process Specification" conformance test.
Quality grades are classified as A, B, and C. Grade A meets the strictest standards for heavy metals, pathogen inactivation, and stability, and is suitable for growing media and food crop fertiliser. Grade B is used as general fertiliser and soil amendment. Grade C is restricted to non-food crop fertiliser and green-space soil amendment. The envelope class COMPOSTING_REPORT serialises the output grade in the compost_grade field as one of the three ENUM values.
The most common complaint about composting facility operation is odour. Primary fermentation generates ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are strong odour sources. The Republic of Korea "Malodor Prevention Act" (Act No. 18468) imposes complex odour and designated odorant emission limits per facility class. Composting facilities are classified as either livestock manure resource-recovery facilities or organic waste treatment facilities under the act. The WIA-ENE-023 envelope serialises odour measurement in the odor_concentration_ou auxiliary field (units: ou per cubic metre).
The two principal odour abatement technologies are biofilters and chemical-scrubbing absorption. Biofilters pass exhaust gas through a microorganism-bearing packing (typically wood chips or coconut fibre) for biodegradation. Approximately 220 of Korea's 280 public composting facilities operate biofilters. Chemical-scrubbing absorption contacts exhaust gas with sulphuric acid or sodium hypochlorite solution. Combined deployment of both technologies can reduce odour emission intensity by more than 90 percent.
Composting offers large CO2 savings relative to landfill. Each tonne of food waste landfilled generates approximately 0.65 tonnes of methane (CH4), equivalent to approximately 16 tonnes of CO2-equivalent based on the IPCC 100-year global warming potential of 25 for methane. Composting emits only approximately 0.18 tonnes of CO2 per tonne directly, yielding a saving of approximately 15.82 tonnes per tonne relative to landfill. Applied to Korea's 92 percent food waste recovery rate, the annual CO2-equivalent saving is approximately 72 million tonnes.
The envelope serialises the composting CO2 saving in the co2_saved_kg_per_kg field and specifies the baseline (landfill or incineration) in the baseline_treatment auxiliary field. The KEITI National LCI Database emission factors take precedence, and the Korean Food Waste LCA Dataset v2.1 (2024) values are used as simulator defaults.
[99] All code samples and the reference simulator for this chapter are reproducible from the GitHub repository cited above.
Composting standards are increasingly extended to marine biodegradability. ISO 16221:2001 "Water quality — Guidance for the determination of biodegradability in the marine environment" specifies the test procedure for marine environment conformance and imposes test conditions different from industrial composting. The marine biodegradability test simulates the low temperature (approximately 15-25 deg C) and low oxygen conditions of sea-floor sediment, with test durations 3-5 times longer than industrial composting.
Korea uses the Marine Waste and Marine Pollution Sediment Management Act to impose biodegradability requirements on plastic products used in marine environments such as fishing gear, fishing lines, and aquaculture floats. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology are the lead administrative and research organisations. The envelope serialises marine-environment products in the marine_biodegradability auxiliary field and attaches the ISO 16221:2001 test results.
Compost outputs connect to the food production system through the nutrient cycle. The nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content of food and garden waste returns to soil via composting and feeds back into crop cultivation. A 2023 Rural Development Administration study reported that one tonne of food waste compost provides fertiliser equivalence to approximately 40 kg of chemical fertiliser. Korea's annual chemical fertiliser consumption is approximately 1.1 million tonnes, and the potential displacement by compost output is estimated at approximately 180,000 tonnes. The Ministry of Environment and the Rural Development Administration jointly support agricultural use of compost outputs under a food-environment linkage policy.
The envelope serialises the nutrient content of compost output in the nutrient_content auxiliary field (a 4-tuple of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter content). Outputs that pass the Rural Development Administration "Fertiliser Process Specification" conformance test are classified as "byproduct fertiliser" and may be used in agriculture. In 2024, Korea had approximately 1,800 registered byproduct fertilisers, of which approximately 320 were food waste compost based.
The Korean edition of this chapter contains additional sections on Korean composting infrastructure: the volumetric pay-as-you-throw food waste system in operation nationwide since January 2013, the three-way split of recovered food waste flow (composting approximately 38 percent, animal feed approximately 28 percent, anaerobic digestion approximately 26 percent), the operational details of the 280 public and 120 private composting facilities, and the household composting promotion policies by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Busan Metropolitan Government, and Incheon Metropolitan Government. The Korean edition also includes detailed coverage of the Korean Society of Organics Recycling Research academic infrastructure, the Korea Organic Resources Association and the Korea Compost Association industrial infrastructure, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) certification process for food-contact-grade biodegradable plastics under the Food Utensils and Containers Standard.
This chapter has presented the two composting environments (industrial and home), the four-standard conformance regime (EN 13432, ASTM D6400, ISO 17088, KS M ISO 17088), the distinction between BIODEGRADABLE and OXO_BIODEGRADABLE, the five-stage operating cycle of industrial composting facilities, the operating model for home composting, the three market channels for compost outputs, the three-grade quality classification, odour management, CO2 savings, marine biodegradability under ISO 16221:2001, and the linkage of composting to the nutrient cycle. The WIA-ENE-023 envelope class COMPOSTING_REPORT serialises composting facility operations end to end and links automatically to the EPR_DECLARATION envelope class for the same producer through the modulated fee structure.
This concludes the first four chapters of the Recycling and Circular Economy Standard. Chapters 5 through 8, prepared by other contributors, develop the operational layers of the standard: the federation protocol (Phase 3), the ecosystem composition (Phase 4), advanced multi-tier flow accounting, and the future-roadmap composition with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and the Korean Carbon Neutrality Framework Act.