• Composting
  Composting is the transformation of organic waste into compost, which is obtained in special installations that guarantee correct management of the process. However, composting is based on a spontaneous phenomenon. In the countryside, you may have seen piles of organic material (waste, animal droppings, sawdust, wood shavings, etc.) produce heat and give off steam, as though it were burning without a flame. In fact, the material is not burning, even though the phenomenon that lies behind the production of heat is not so different from combustion. A pile of organic waste is attractive to micro-organisms that are normally present in the environment. If the water content is sufficiently high, the micro-organisms start to consume the nutritional substances, that is, to degrade the organic molecules, producing carbon dioxide, water and heat (biodegradation). At the end of the process, the initial waste is transformed into a substance called compost, which looks and smells like fertile soil, and is sanitised and stable, insofar as it contains no pathogenic microbes or material that decomposes. In the composting plants, this phenomenon is controlled and optimised in order to achieve a high conversion speed, control of the effluent, control of the quality of the final compost, etc.
  
  
• The solution for the compostable fraction of M.S.W. (Municipal Solid Waste)
  Materials, such as kitchen scraps, grass cuttings, waste from canteens, restaurants, etc., contain a lot of water, and decompose quickly. Consequently, they are not suitable for recovering energy by incineration, because the heat is lost in evaporating the water instead of producing electricity. Furthermore, in a landfill, the wet organic materials are the source of considerable environmental problems, such as the production of methane, and possible contamination of the water tables with contaminated percolates. In contrast, treatment of the organic part of solid urban waste (also known as the "wet part") by composting has extremely positive aspects. The production of compost and its use in agriculture completes the environmental cycle broken by urbanisation, by the depopulation of the countryside, and by the adoption of intensive farming practices based on the use of inorganic fertilisers in place of the manure used in the past. After being taken from the fields to our supermarkets, the organic material returns to its place of origin in the form of compost, that is, a substance that maintains fertility, prevents erosion of the soil, reduces the washing away of inorganic fertilisers, and blocks the onset of micro-organisms that are pathogenic to plants, just to mention some of the positive aspects found with the use of compost.
  
  
• Composting: yes to bioplastics
  Composting is currently applied to selected waste, that contains only biodegradable organic material. Traditional plastics are banned from composting because they resist degradation and cause contamination. In contrast, biodegradable plastics are allowed, but only if they satisfy criteria established by norms that define compostable materials. Non-compatible materials were composted in the past, in the absence of rules and in the anarchy of the definitions and test methods, and this caused a lot of harm, especially to the trust of users, and of the technicians responsible for the composting plants. Today, this is no longer possible, thanks to the European norm EN 13432.

Mater-Bi®: Certification of Biodegradability Compostability
Compostability in Europe: Regulation EN 13432