Green Dot’s biodegradable products are awaiting industrial and home compost certification from TUV Austria, a European Bioplastics certification body.
Personal Remarks
“Laughing tears” in my eyes …. I quote: “TUV Austria is a European Bioplastics certification body” ….
Here’s the screenshot in case they remove it; Bioplastics with a capital letter, so they refer to “European Bioplastics” the EU association …. or shall we say the “German” bioplastic association … you know BASF and consort.
I couldn’t have said it better.
I thought “TUV Austria” was meant to be independent … in theory …. in practice it looks seriously like a European Bioplastics subsidiary …. an affiliate…. or as the French say … a filiale.
Initially, TUV Austria claimed to be “neutral” regarding biodegradable / compostable plastics; so there “official” position was the following…
- we test whether biodegradable / compostable plastics abide to” EU compostable plastics standards” and if they do, we allow them to use the “European Bioplastics” compostable plastics logo on their products.
- we do not promote bioplastics, we remain neutral; we just test it.
Since the last three to four years, there has been some serious “re-shuffle” on point number (2). Now TUV Austria is one of the main sponsors of official European Bioplastics events; and they actively defend compostable plastics on social media. They don’t even hide it anymore cos there’s too much money involved.
I wonder if TUV Austria still has the courage to claim its independence … cos that would put a smile on my face…. that would be one of the best jokes ever. I couldn’t come up with a better one.
I was told by an employee of TUV Austria a few years ago that they didn’t even test all applications that they received for “compostable plastics” …. they used their intuition and experience to pre-filter which packaging would fulfil the requirements ….
So it’s decided …. on a whim? On a case-by-case basis? Or as the french say … A la tête du client … (depending on the face of the customer).
Well, I didn’t read that one in the EU standard 🙂 🙂 🙂 … nothing is mentioned about the “intuition and experience” of TUV Austria employees in the EU standard.
It doesn’t really matter cos the EU standard was mostly written by “industry” people…you know BASF and consort … and the composters got it served as a cream pie in their face.
Bioplastics was supposed to be a revolution …. Well, they seriously screwed up on that one!
Ladies and gentleman, never loose your sense of humour. As you can see, I felt inspired today!
Another screenshot in case:
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