Composable Cutlery Experiment
December 19, 2025
We here at the CEC are always down for an experiment! Recently, Kayla attempted to backyard compost take out cutlery from restaurants downtown. While these cutleries normally end up in green bins then industrial composting facilities (where they decompose more efficiently in oxygenated, high heat environments) we thought it would be interesting to see how much decomposition happens with these “compostable” items in a passive, backyard, cold compost system.
We tried composting a wooden fork and spoon, a hard paper fork with a coating from an unknown substance, and a hard “compostable” plastic fork. They were put in a tumbler composter with food scraps and yard waste from May to mid-November. The hard paper fork was the only piece to fully compost, but we still found remnants of its coating. The wooden cutlery was noticeably weaker, and the “compostable” plastic fork could have been washed and used to eat my lunch! Now, things might be different in an industrial composting facility, but compostable plastics are not an allowable feedstock (i.e. input material) in BC…
Vancouver Island composting facilities, like one up in Cobble Hill – which receives most of the Capital regional districts green bin waste- is governed by the Ministry of Environment’s Organic Matter Recycling Regulations. In those regulations, compostable plastics are not an allowable feedstock (i.e. input material) and so Vancouver Island industrial composting facilities cannot accept compostable plastics. We’ve heard from regional industrial composting facilities that they’d prefer no compostable plastics be put into green bins because of this regulation, but also because their technology doesn’t quite allow for the full decomposition of the stuff – they end up sifting out partially decomposed / torn up compostable plastics that they then landfill.
There’s also an overlapping regulation here – the “Single Use and Plastic Waste Prevention Regulation” which provides a framework to phase out certain single-use and plastic items including compostable and biodegradable plastics.
Lastly, plastic single use cutlery, including compostable plastic cutlery is banned under Federal regulations! Ack!
Mostly here at the CEC we really want to amplify the benefits of backyard composting – materials, nutrients and finished compost then stays in the region, and we create more closed look circularity in our food system. And sometimes the variety of products for take out and food storage can be very confusing! The very BEST option ever, is to skip any sort of single use thing – instead choose a reuseable! Bring your spork with you wherever you go, pack your to-go mug in your bag, and choose to dine in at restaurants or pick up your takeout from restaurants using programs like the bread-and-butter collective’s or Nulla’s reusable takeout container programs. If you’re keen to learn more about these topics you can sign up to participate in our Zero Waste Living workshop happening on February 21. And check out the CEC’s Understanding Compostable Plastics Factsheet, Zero Waste Living Factsheet, and the City of Victoria’s Sustainable Takeout Guide.
Posted in Blog, Composting, Fact Sheet
