Live from interpack: Mars Helps Compostables Find Their Lane

“We have a lot of customers using lidding film to close trays of ready meals for the distribution at the hospital, or for the distribution at the school,” he said. “Having the possibility to collect everything into the compostable waste as an organic waste helps a lot in the organization.”

Coffee capsules were another recurring example.

“Coffee capsules is another typical application where you have a part of organic powder after the brewing of your coffee and a part of plastic,” Radice said. “Today there is the technology to transfer the capsule body and the top lid film into compostable.”

The panelists also repeatedly emphasized that compostables are evolving technically beyond earlier limitations. Radice described compostable materials now reaching barrier and shelf-life performance levels that would have been difficult several years ago, including tests on aggressive condiment applications targeted by Europe’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

Still, panelists consistently avoided portraying compostables as a universal answer.

“It’s not like we’re going to design one package and it fits all solutions,” Klingenberg said.Afsaneh Nabifar of Compostable by Design/BASF (left) and Stan Haftka of Kaneka Green Planet (speaking) discuss certification, infrastructure, and end-of-life realities for compostable packaging during a panel discussion at interpack 2026. Maria Monique Murillo of Taghleef Industries moderated the session.

Infrastructure, certification, and consumer confusion remain major obstacles

If the panelists agreed compostables have legitimate use cases, they also agreed the success of those materials depends heavily on infrastructure and communication.

“I think the non-negotiable is the certification,” said Nabifar.

She stressed the importance of third-party certification systems such as TÜV Austria or BPI, but argued certification alone is not enough. Compostable packaging developers, she said, also need closer collaboration with the composting industry itself.

“At Compostable by Design, we believe that one can go beyond just getting a certification by trying to work closer with the composting and organic recycling organizations,” she said.

That includes validating packaging performance under real-world composting conditions, not only laboratory standards.

“There is a little misalignment between what the rule ... says, and what they are really doing,” Radice added, referring to differences between certification protocols and actual composting operations.

Infrastructure disparities across global markets emerged as another major theme — particularly for multinational brands like Mars.

“If you are thinking about Southeast Asia, where there are no industrial composting facilities existing, maybe thinking about putting an industrial compostable material on the market? Maybe it’s not the best strategy,” Nabifar said.

Instead, she suggested that home- or community-compostable formats may make more sense in regions lacking large-scale waste infrastructure.

Klingenberg expanded on that point from the perspective of global packaging development.

“We know composters out there use different processes,” he said. “They tweak their process depending on their feedstocks, they operate in different areas of the world with different temperature conditions.”

Mars has therefore been targeting home-compostability performance levels during material development, partly because it broadens compatibility across varying industrial composting systems.

“We’re designing for home compostability to meet shorter cycle times for industrial compostability and to meet a broader range of industrial composters,” he said.

At the same time, several panelists acknowledged the industry itself has contributed to consumer confusion — especially around “home compostable” claims.

“Home compostability is misleading,” Haftka said. “It doesn't mean you can destroy material at home.”

Radice was even more direct.

“I think that this kind of definition creates more problems than what it’s solving,” he said.

Consumers, he argued, often interpret “home compostable” to mean packaging can simply be discarded in nature—planted in the garden.

“People think that you can put [the packaging] in your garden and it will disappear in a very short time,” Radice said. “Guys, no.”

That confusion, panelists said, reinforces the need for clearer disposal guidance and stronger consumer education around managed waste systems.

“We have to teach the people to collect and to manage properly the product,” Radice said.As seen elsewhere in the Taghleef booth - A high-speed flow-wrap package produced with Taghleef Industries’ Nativia Plus D823 biaxially oriented PHA film was displayed at interpack 2026 in collaboration with Cavanna Packaging Systems and Corapack. The home-compostable structure was designed for high-speed HFFS packaging applications. Brands like Mars and PepsiCo are putting these new films through their paces.

Compostability’s future may depend on scale and better communication

As the discussion closed, panelists repeatedly returned to a broader challenge: compostables still occupy a relatively small share of the global packaging landscape, while recycling dominates both public discussion and regulatory momentum.

“It seems recyclability has a better PR team than compostability,” moderator Maria Monique said, challenging the panel to explain why.

Haftka argued that much of that imbalance comes down to scale.

“The quantity of biopolymers is maybe less than 1% of the entire plastic consumption,” he said. “Simply more people talk about recycling than composting.”

But he also pushed back on the assumption that compostable materials cannot participate in recycling systems.

“The fact that it’s bio compostable doesn’t mean it’s not recyclable,” Haftka said. “Every bioplastic is always recyclable. The problem is there are two issues, the magnitude and logistical collecting.”

For Klingenberg, the broader opportunity lies in treating compostables as part of a wider portfolio of circularity pathways — not as a singular replacement strategy.

“We’re seeing new materials come out that enable circularity in ways that we didn’t think about before,” he said.

He also acknowledged that technical language and oversimplified messaging have complicated public understanding.

“We as scientists begin to use terms when we are formalizing our think about things, in many cases we’re still arguing and discussing these terms and specific meanings when they’re new,” Klingenberg said. “Often what happens is we get asked to simplify things quickly and we use these terms as scientist that are not interpreted the same way by non-scientist.”

The result, panelists suggested, is an industry now trying to recalibrate the conversation around compostables: less hype, more specificity.

For Mars and others on the panel, the future of compostables appears less about replacing every package and more about identifying where those materials genuinely belong — particularly where food contamination, small formats, and difficult-to-recover packaging make conventional recycling less practical.

“What are the opportunities today and how do we make those better steps today,” Klingenberg said, “but also what are the opportunities that could come tomorrow so we make a better step for the future?”