Industry Knowledge

Through the 1970s, polystyrene foam cups (Styrofoam-style) became dominant in American foodservice. Understanding the foam era origin provides B2B context for the current foam phase-out and modern compostable alternatives.

The idea of a fully compostable music festival stage sounds like a stunt. Some festivals have actually done it — built secondary stages out of mycelium blocks, bamboo lashings, hemp cloth, and bagasse panels, then composted the whole structure after teardown. Here’s what the projects looked like, what worked, and the limits of the approach.

The board game industry has quietly been experimenting with compostable game pieces — wooden meeples reissued in molded fiber, plastic tokens replaced with seeded paper, plastic miniatures swapped for cornstarch-PLA. The reissue versions exist; whether they fully compost is a more interesting question. Here’s what’s actually happening in the category.

Germany’s 1991 packaging ordinance — establishing extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging — pioneered EPR framework that subsequently influenced global regulatory development. Understanding German EPR history provides B2B context for modern EPR programs.

The 1997 Cargill-Dow Polymers joint venture launched what became NatureWorks LLC — the first commercial-scale PLA production facility globally. Understanding the history provides B2B context for modern compostable industry foundations.

Native ground-nesting bees — the majority of bee species globally — face habitat loss from conventional landscaping. Compostable mulch mats and other ground covers can either help or hurt depending on specifics. Here’s what’s actually known about bee-mulch interactions and how to garden for native bees.

Mater-Bi, a starch-based bioplastic developed by Italian chemical company Novamont, has been used since the 1990s for compostable bags. Beginning in the late 2010s, Novamont and several Italian research labs developed compostable food-handling gloves using Mater-Bi blends. The story is one of incremental materials innovation that’s surprisingly hard.

Capital flows shape supplier capacity, pricing, and consolidation in compostable packaging. This B2B procurement guide maps the investment landscape — venture capital, private equity, strategic corporate investment, public markets, and government programs — and explains how each capital source affects supplier behavior, contract terms, and supply continuity.

Microsoft developed a partly-compostable computer mouse in 2020 and released it as the ‘Ocean Plastic Mouse’ in 2021. The project involved recycled ocean plastics for the shell and mycelium-derived materials for some components. The story is interesting both for what it achieved and for the harder problems it didn’t solve.

BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) was founded in 1999 to provide independent certification of compostable products in North America. Understanding BPI’s founding history provides B2B context for modern compostable certification standards.

Bagasse — the fibrous residue from sugarcane processing — is the largest single material used in compostable foodware today. Combined with other plant fibers (bamboo, wheat straw, palm leaf, banana fiber), it forms a category that has displaced billions of polystyrene plates and bowls. Here’s how it actually works.

PLA — the most commercially common compostable bioplastic — depends on lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation as the critical first step in its manufacturing pathway. Understanding LAB fermentation supports informed B2B procurement evaluation.