Biodegradability claims on bioplastic packaging typically rest on disintegration or weight loss rather than actual mineralisation, and ignore the toxicity of the fragments and intermediates left behind. A material can pass the test the label relies on while still breaking into persistent, phytotoxic residue.
A March 2026 critical review in Environmental Science and Pollution Research examining how biodegradability is actually tested for biopolymer packaging. It argues that the standard tests measure the wrong thing, and proposes a framework of 'effective environmental degradability' that pairs mineralisation data with ecotoxicity metrics.
