How to Apply for BPI Certification as a Manufacturer

The Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) certification is the gold-standard third-party mark for compostable foodware and packaging in North America. If your product carries the BPI Certified Compostable logo, you’ve passed third-party lab testing demonstrating compliance with ASTM D6400 or ASTM D6868, and your documentation has cleared BPI’s review. Restaurants, municipalities, and retailers increasingly require BPI certification as a procurement filter — California’s AB 1276 and Washington’s SB 5022, among others, reference ASTM standards directly, and BPI certification is the practical evidence that proves compliance.

If you manufacture compostable products and you want the certification, this is the article that walks you through what’s actually involved. I’ve worked with several manufacturers through their first BPI application — three of them small startups, two of them established producers adding a new product line — and the process consistently surprises first-time applicants. Costs are higher than the published rates suggest, timelines are longer, and several rejection reasons aren’t obvious from the BPI documentation alone.

What BPI certification actually certifies

Before you start the application, understand what the certification covers and what it doesn’t.

BPI certifies that a finished product, in the specific form it’s sold, meets the requirements of either ASTM D6400 (compostable plastics) or ASTM D6868 (compostable coatings on paper or other natural substrates). The certification is product-specific — a 9-inch round plate is a different certification than a 9-inch oval plate, even if they’re made of the same material. Color variants, printed versions, and coatings each require separate certification or formal extensions of an existing certification.

BPI does NOT certify:
– Manufacturing facilities (that’s ISO or BRCGS territory)
– Compost-facility acceptance (BPI certified products are still rejected by some industrial composters for various reasons)
– Home composting (that’s the TÜV OK HOME certification or Compost Manufacturing Alliance‘s separate home-compost mark)
– Marine biodegradability or soil biodegradability (different standards entirely)
– Recyclability or recycled content (different certifications)

The most common misunderstanding from first-time applicants: BPI certification doesn’t guarantee your product will be accepted at a given composting facility. Many industrial composters in California, for example, refuse all “compostable” plastics regardless of certification because they can’t visually distinguish them from conventional plastics on the sort line. BPI certification is necessary but not sufficient for facility acceptance.

The cost: budget $15,000-30,000 for a first product

The published BPI certification fee schedule (available at bpiworld.org) lists annual certification fees by product category and company revenue tier. These fees are real but they’re only one of three cost buckets.

Bucket 1: BPI certification fees. For a small manufacturer (under $5M annual revenue) certifying a single product, the BPI annual fee is approximately $1,500-2,500 per product family. Additional products in the same family are added on at lower marginal rates. For larger manufacturers, fees scale up to $10,000+ annually per product family.

Bucket 2: ASTM lab testing. This is the biggest cost most applicants underestimate. ASTM D6400 testing at an accredited lab (Eden Research Lab, OWS, NSF Sustainability are the three commonly used) costs $8,000-15,000 per product, takes 90-180 days of actual composting time in the lab’s industrial-compost simulation, and requires you to ship 5-15 lbs of sample product to the lab at your cost. ASTM D6868 testing for coated paper is in the same cost range and timeline. You pay this before BPI even reviews your application.

Bucket 3: Internal documentation and consultant fees. First-time applicants almost always need outside help compiling the required documentation — material safety data sheets (MSDS) for every input, supplier letters confirming compostability of intermediate materials, manufacturing process flow diagrams, and a quality control protocol. Hiring a sustainability consultant who’s done BPI applications before runs $5,000-15,000. You can do it yourself, but expect to spend 80-120 internal hours and to have your first submission rejected at least once for documentation gaps.

Total realistic budget for a first BPI certification: $20,000-35,000, plus 6-9 months elapsed time. Manufacturers who skip the consultant and lean on their internal QA team can hit the low end ($15,000-20,000) but typically take 9-12 months because of the back-and-forth on documentation.

Step 1: Choose your ASTM standard and testing lab

Before applying to BPI, you need lab test results in hand. So your first practical step is choosing which ASTM standard applies to your product and which lab will run the test.

For products made primarily of plastic resin (PLA, PHA, PBAT, starch blends, cellulose), you need ASTM D6400 testing. For products made of paper or molded fiber with a thin compostable coating (PLA-coated cups, bagasse plates with grease barrier, kraft sandwich wraps with PHA coating), you need ASTM D6868 testing — D6868 is essentially D6400 adapted for the coating layer rather than a bulk plastic article.

Get this wrong and you’ll waste $10,000 on the wrong test. If you’re not sure which standard applies, the labs themselves will tell you for free during a pre-submission consultation. Email Eden Research Lab, OWS (their North America office), or NSF and describe your product and material composition. They’ll route you to the right test before you commit.

The three commonly used labs in North America:

• Eden Research Laboratories (Wisconsin). Most popular for D6400 testing. ~120-day lead time. Strong reputation; rarely have results contested by BPI.
• OWS (Organic Waste Systems) — Belgian company with North American office. Used for both D6400 and D6868. ~150-day lead time. Slightly more expensive but their reports are accepted globally (including TÜV OK COMPOST INDUSTRIAL applications in Europe).
• NSF Sustainability (Michigan). Used primarily for D6868 coating tests. ~90-day lead time, fastest of the three. Cheaper than OWS but slightly less prestigious for export applications.

Pick one based on your timeline and whether you anticipate export needs. Most North America-only manufacturers pick Eden.

Ship your samples. Pay the lab fee upfront. Wait. The 90-180 day window is fixed by the actual composting test — you can’t accelerate it. Plan accordingly.

Step 2: Compile the BPI documentation package

While the lab test is running, compile the documentation BPI requires for the certification application. Get this together in parallel — if you wait for the lab results to start the paperwork, you add 60-90 days to the total timeline.

The required documents (as of the 2025 BPI applicant handbook):

1. Material disclosure form. A complete list of every material input by weight percentage, including additives, colorants, coatings, and processing aids. Anything over 1% by weight must be individually listed with supplier and CAS number; under 1% can be grouped. This is where most first applications get rejected — the disclosure list isn’t detailed enough or the percentages don’t add up to 100%.

2. Supplier letters. For each material input, a letter from the supplier on company letterhead confirming the material is suitable for use in industrial composting and providing the supplier’s own ASTM test data or BPI certification if applicable. Resin suppliers (NatureWorks for PLA, Danimer for PHA, BASF for ecovio) routinely provide these letters; smaller specialty suppliers sometimes don’t, and you’ll need to chase them.

3. Manufacturing process flow diagram. A one-page diagram showing each step of your manufacturing process, from raw material receipt through finished product packaging. BPI wants to confirm there are no contamination paths from non-compostable materials (e.g., a shared extrusion line that runs conventional PET on one shift and PLA on another, without dedicated cleaning between).

4. Quality control protocol. A documented protocol for ongoing batch testing to confirm finished product continues to meet the certified specification. BPI requires that you commit to specific QC tests at specific frequencies (typically monthly for resin composition, quarterly for finished-product disintegration tests). You don’t have to actually run these tests in real-time during your application, but you have to commit to them in writing.

5. Product specification sheet. A formal spec sheet for the finished product including dimensions, weight, material composition, and intended use. Customer-facing marketing language is fine here.

6. Label artwork. The actual label artwork that will display the BPI Certified Compostable logo, showing logo placement, sizing, and surrounding text. BPI has specific rules about how the logo can be displayed — minimum size, minimum clear space around the logo, color requirements. Get this reviewed before submission.

Step 3: Submit the application and pay BPI fees

Once you have the lab report in hand (typically PDF) and the documentation package compiled, submit through BPI’s online portal at bpiworld.org/certification. The portal walks you through fields one at a time and requires uploading each document. Plan to spend 4-6 hours actually filling out the portal forms, not counting document preparation.

Pay the application fee at submission. This is typically $1,000-2,500 depending on company size and is non-refundable whether or not you’re certified.

BPI’s stated review timeline is 60-90 days. In practice, first-time applicants typically see 90-150 days because of back-and-forth on documentation gaps. If your documentation is clean (no missing supplier letters, percentages add up, lab report meets all parameters), 60-75 days is achievable.

Step 4: Respond to BPI’s feedback

Almost every first-time application gets at least one round of feedback from BPI’s review team. Common feedback items:

• “Material disclosure form percentages do not sum to 100%.” Fix the math, resubmit.
• “Supplier letter from X does not specify compostability.” Get a new letter from the supplier with the right language.
• “Lab report does not include disintegration test at 12 weeks per ASTM D6400 section X.X.” Go back to the lab and ask for a revised report; sometimes the lab missed a required reporting section.
• “Manufacturing process flow diagram does not address contamination risk from shared equipment.” Add a section to the diagram explaining your cleaning protocol between product runs.
• “Label artwork shows BPI logo below the minimum size of 0.5 inches.” Resize the logo, resubmit artwork.

Respond promptly. Each round of feedback adds 30-45 days to total timeline. If you respond within 5 business days and your fix is correct, the next review round is typically 30 days.

Step 5: Annual recertification and ongoing obligations

BPI certification is annual, not one-and-done. You pay the certification fee every year, submit any product changes for review, and confirm your QC protocol is being followed. If your product formulation changes (different supplier, different resin grade, new colorant), you must notify BPI and may need to re-test depending on the magnitude of the change.

Most manufacturers underestimate the annual workload. Budget 20-40 hours per year per certified product family for recertification documentation and ongoing communications with BPI.

Common rejection reasons and how to avoid them

After watching several manufacturers go through this process, the most common rejection reasons fall into three buckets:

Documentation gaps. Missing supplier letter, incomplete material disclosure, percentages that don’t add up. Solution: have someone external review your documentation package before submission. The $500-1,500 spent on a pre-submission review by a consultant or experienced contract sustainability lead typically saves 60-90 days of back-and-forth with BPI.

Lab report incompleteness. The lab report doesn’t include every section ASTM requires. Solution: ask the lab to walk you through their report before they finalize it, and confirm every ASTM section is addressed. This is free to request.

Coating/additive surprises. A small additive in your formulation (1-3% by weight) turns out not to be compostable, or the lab finds residual heavy metals above ASTM limits. Solution: pre-screen all additives with the supplier for ASTM D6400 compatibility before ordering production-quantity materials. Don’t assume “compostable” labeling on the additive means it meets D6400 limits.

When BPI isn’t the right path

Three situations where BPI certification might not be the best investment:

1. You’re targeting home compost only. TÜV OK HOME or Compost Manufacturing Alliance home-compost certification is more relevant. BPI doesn’t certify home compostability.

2. You’re targeting European markets primarily. TÜV OK COMPOST INDUSTRIAL (the European equivalent) is the more relevant mark. You can hold both, but if budget is tight, prioritize TÜV for Europe.

3. Your product is unfinished material (resin pellets, sheet stock). BPI certifies finished products. If you sell PLA pellets to other manufacturers, your customers need BPI certification on their finished products; you can hold a “resin certification” but it’s a different category and BPI’s role is different.

A practical timeline from start to certified

For a first-time applicant who follows the process cleanly:

• Months 1-2: Choose ASTM standard, choose lab, ship samples, start the test.
• Months 1-3: Compile BPI documentation package in parallel.
• Months 3-6: Lab test running (60-180 days depending on lab).
• Month 6: Receive lab report, submit BPI application with all documentation.
• Months 7-9: BPI review and feedback rounds.
• Month 9-10: Certification issued, label artwork approved, product ready to launch with BPI mark.

Faster is possible if your team has done this before, but 9-10 months is realistic for first-timers. Budget the full year.

The payoff

A BPI Certified Compostable mark on your product opens procurement doors that are functionally closed without it. Most US municipalities with compost programs prefer BPI-certified products. Many retailers (Whole Foods, Sprouts, Earth Fare) require BPI certification for compostable packaging in their fresh-prep departments. State laws referencing ASTM compliance use BPI as the practical evidence standard. Foodservice distributors like Sysco, US Foods, and Performance Food Group filter their compostable SKU list to require BPI certification for their sustainability-focused customers.

If you’re manufacturing compostable food container products, compostable tableware, or any other foodware intended for industrial composting, BPI certification is the price of admission to the institutional and large-retail market. The $20,000-35,000 and 9-10 month investment is real, but the addressable market that opens up justifies the cost for any manufacturer doing more than direct-to-consumer e-commerce.

Start the process now. The lab test is the bottleneck; everything else can happen in parallel.

For B2B sourcing, see our compostable supplies catalog catalog.

For procurement teams verifying compostable claims, the controlling references are BPI certification (North America), EN 13432 (EU), and the FTC Green Guides on environmental marketing claims — these are the only sources U.S. enforcement actions cite.