ASTM D6400 vs EN 13432 vs OK Compost HOME: Which Compostable Certificate Actually Matters for Your Market?
Every other week a buyer emails us asking which logo to put on the box. “We do foodservice in the States — do I need BPI or is the EU mark fine?” Or: “I saw OK Compost HOME on a competitor’s plate. Is that the same as home compostable?”
Short answer: these aren’t interchangeable stamps. They’re different tests — run by different bodies, for different end-of-life scenarios — and industrial compostability does not automatically mean home compostability.
What each standard actually certifies
The three names cover two very different worlds, plus a compliance umbrella.
ASTM D6400 is the North American industrial standard — the test backbone that BPI (the Biodegradable Products Institute) uses to license the “compostable” logo in the US and Canada. If an American composter or distributor asks what a plate is certified against, ASTM D6400 with the BPI logo is the expected answer.
EN 13432 is the European industrial standard behind the EU “Seedling” logo, verified by TÜV Austria and DIN CERTCO. It’s written into packaging rules across many EU member states, making it the standard your EU importer or retailer will quote. ISO 17088 is the international umbrella both ASTM D6400 and EN 13432 align toward.
OK Compost HOME (TÜV Austria) certifies home composting — a colder, slower, less managed backyard pile, not a 55–60°C tunnel. Products passing OK Compost HOME almost always pass the industrial standards too.
The reverse isn’t guaranteed: a plate can vanish at 58°C in 12 weeks and still sit half-cold in a garden bin for two years. Home is the harder bar — and the source of most buyer confusion.
What the tests actually measure
Strip the marketing away and all these schemes check the same core things at different temperatures and windows. The rows to ask a supplier for:
- Biodegradation: the share of carbon that actually mineralises to CO2 rather than just breaking into fragments. ASTM D6400 and EN 13432 target about 90% relative to a control.
- Disintegration: whether the item falls apart fine enough to pass a 2 mm sieve within the window, so it doesn’t register as visible litter in the compost.
- Heavy metals & eco-toxicity: caps on cadmium, lead, mercury, etc., plus a plant-germination test.
The deciding variable is timescale and temperature. Industrial schemes target disintegration in roughly 12 weeks at ≥58°C; home-compostable schemes aim for 6–12 months at ambient temperatures (about 20–30°C). The same bagasse fibre can meet one yet miss the other.
The comparison table buyers actually need
| Field | ASTM D6400 | EN 13432 | OK Compost HOME | ISO 17088 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Served market | US / Canada foodservice & retail | EU member states (packaging) | Home & garden composters (EU-focused) | Intl. harmonised umbrella |
| Compost environment | Industrial | Industrial | Home / backyard | Industrial |
| Common verifying body / logo | BPI (Compostable mark) | TÜV Austria / DIN CERTCO (Seedling) | TÜV Austria (OK Compost HOME) | — (framework, not a logo) |
| Biodegradation target | ≥90% of control | ≥90% of control | ≥90% of control | ≥90% of control |
| Typical disintegration window | ~12 weeks at 58°C | ~12 weeks at 58°C | ~6–12 months, ambient | ~12 weeks at 58°C |
| Home-compostable claim | No (industrial only) | No (industrial only) | Yes | No (industrial only) |
| Heavy metal + eco-tox limits | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Per-SKU scope | Varies — check batch cert | Varies — check batch cert | Varies — check batch cert | Varies — check batch cert |
That last row is the one that bites. A certification covers a specific product family and formulation — change the coating, gram weight, or fibre source and the outcome can change, so we re-confirm scope on new SKUs rather than assume a plate certificate covers a bowl. No per-SKU scope is a red flag, not a formality.
Industrial vs home: why the same plate can be one, not the other
An industrial composter is controlled, hot and well-aerated — a commercial facility at 55–60°C for weeks. A home bin is colder, swingier, and full of whatever else got thrown in — closer to a slow rot than a controlled digestion.
So a bowl stamped “compostable” with a BPI or Seedling logo specifically means industrial compostable. Put it in a backyard bin and it may sit largely intact for a year — the claim was never about your garden. If your buyers are home composters, or industrial collection isn’t guaranteed on a route, that’s when you need the OK Compost HOME scheme instead.
And one honest boundary: neither scheme says anything about marine biodegradation. Bagasse will eventually break down in the sea, but it isn’t certified to a marine standard, and none of these logos should be marketed as “marine biodegradable.” A supplier claim otherwise is a compliance exposure.
Which label for which real market
- US foodservice — ASTM D6400 with the BPI logo. American composters and cities largely work off the BPI framework, and many municipal and commercial programs refuse material without it.
- EU retail / packaging — EN 13432 with the Seedling logo. When an EU buyer or compliance team asks, EN 13432 is the box to tick, verified through TÜV Austria or DIN CERTCO — the model most of the EU foodservice takeaway wave runs on. Packaging rules evolve, so treat specifics as subject to current national transposition and 以证书/当地法规为准.
- Home / garden composters — OK Compost HOME. Relevant if you sell direct to eco-conscious households, courts the backyard crowd, or can’t guarantee industrial collection on a route.
- Marine — none of these. Don’t attach a marine claim to a D6400 / EN 13432 / OK HOME logo.
What a credible supplier should actually share
- The per-SKU certificate — scope naming the product and formulation, with the verifying body’s logo and valid dates. Not a “our factory is certified” blurb.
- The test report behind it — biodegradation %, disintegration window, heavy-metal table, eco-tox result. Can’t or won’t produce it? You’re buying a logo, not a certification.
- Batch code traceability — how they map lot codes to certified formulations, so a coating or fibre change mid-contract doesn’t land unannounced in your container.
From our QA line in Qingdao: when a US distributor asked whether the coated 10-inch plate carried the same certification as the uncoated one, the coating was the deciding factor — not the mould or fibre. We made sure the paperwork matched what shipped. It’s the level of detail to demand from any bagasse packaging supplier.
Frequently asked questions
Is ASTM D6400 accepted in Europe?
Not directly. Europe works from EN 13432 (with ISO 17088 as the umbrella). ASTM D6400 and EN 13432 share the same industrial logic — similar temperature, a similar ~90% biodegradation bar — but an EU retailer or authority expects Seedling / EN 13432 documentation, not a BPI logo.
Is OK Compost HOME the same as “home compostable”?
Effectively yes — OK Compost HOME (TÜV Austria) is the recognised scheme behind the “home compostable” claim in much of Europe, testing at colder ambient conditions. A bare “home compostable” claim with no scheme carries less weight than one backed by a logo.
How long does home composting a bagasse plate take?
Under a well-run home pile at roughly 20–30°C, a certified home-compostable bagasse plate is expected to disintegrate over about 6–12 months — slower and more variable than the ~12 weeks at 58°C an industrial facility delivers. The figure depends on the SKU, coating and pile management, so confirm the certificate.
Is a plate certified to EN 13432 automatically home compostable?
No — this is the trap. EN 13432 is an industrial standard. A product can pass at 58°C and still fail in a colder home bin. For a home-compostable claim, look for OK Compost HOME on that specific SKU; don’t assume it from an industrial logo.
Can one product carry both industrial and home certification?
Yes. A formulation robust enough to compost at ambient temperature will almost always pass the industrial test too, so you’ll often see a product listed under both EN 13432 (or ASTM D6400) and OK Compost HOME. Uncoated bagasse is usually the easier case; coated or printed items need the coating and inks checked as well.
What does “90% biodegradation” mean in plain terms?
That at least 90% of the carbon converts to CO2 and biomass within the standard’s window, measured against a control — genuine compost, not micro-fragments that still count as plastics. The remaining ~10% is a guardrail, not a loophole.
Practical caveat: final compliance with any law or buyer policy is decided by the current certificate and local regulation — verify the rule that applies to you with the issuing body rather than relying on a summary like this one.
Bottom line
Let your end market pick the standard: ASTM D6400 / BPI for North American foodservice, EN 13432 / Seedling for the EU, and OK Compost HOME only when home composting is genuinely part of the story. Ask for the per-SKU certificate and the test report behind it.
If you want to compare how certified sugarcane bagasse plates are actually made — coatings, gram weights, what the paperwork should look like — we’re a Qingdao factory running these lines daily. We’ll send a spec sheet and talk through which certification genuinely fits your market.
