Eco Xax — Environmental labels and eco claims on | ecoxax.com
One of these words is a standard with pass marks measured in days and percent. The other, used alone, is just an adjective.
Compostable, in the European sense of EN 13432, is a measured property. Packaging certified to the standard must reach 90% biodegradation within 6 months and 90% disintegration within 12 weeks, with heavy metals at or below 100 mg/kg. Three separate tests, three numerical pass marks.
The United States uses ASTM D6400 for the same purpose: a specification for plastics designed to compost in industrial facilities, built on the same logic of measured biodegradation — 90% within six months — rather than promises. A product citing either standard is making a claim a laboratory can repeat.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Ready biodegradability is a different measurement with a different bar. The OECD 301 test passes a material when it reaches 60% of the theoretical oxygen demand within 28 days. It answers whether microbes can break the substance down quickly, not whether a compost heap will.
'Biodegradable' printed alone, with no standard code, no timeframe and no conditions, cites none of these tests. Everything biodegrades somewhere, eventually; the standards exist precisely because the bare word carries no number.
The practical rule: look for the standard, then look for the verifier. EN 13432 and ASTM D6400 claims are tied to certification; a bare 'biodegradable' claim is tied to nothing. The five-step check on the How to Check an Eco Claim page turns this into a routine, and the homepage table puts the pass marks side by side.
Further reading