What to Do With Compostable Packaging That Can’t Go In

So you bought something in compostable packaging, but your city has no industrial composting. Now what?

That packaging is not automatically trash, and it is not automatically compost either. Here is how to handle it honestly.

Your options

• Check for a local industrial compost drop-off
• Reuse the packaging for storage or shipping
• Repurpose mailers as bin liners
• Send it to a commercial composter by mail

What not to do

• Do not toss it in home compost if it needs industrial heat
• Do not put it in recycling, it contaminates the stream
• Do not assume it breaks down in a landfill, it will not

If no facility exists near you, reuse what you can and choose plain cardboard packaging next time instead.

The honest takeaway

Compostable packaging is only part of the answer, the bigger win is choosing packaging that needs no special facility at all.

• Prefer plain cardboard when you can
• Reuse mailers before disposing
• Support brands that minimize packaging

Choose packaging that needs no special facility, and you never have to wonder whether it will actually break down.