USA - California Bans PFAS in Products Labeled "Compostable" or "Home Compostable"

​The Governor of the State of California signed the bill AB 1201 into law on October 5 reforming the labeling requirements for compostable products, giving new defintion to certain terms and prohibiting a product be labeled with the term "compostable" or "home compostable" unless the product itself satisfies specified criteria.

The bill AB 1201 requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to make a specified determination by January 1, 2024, and to adopt certain regulations for determinating whether products are labeled in a manner that could distinguish the products from noncompostable products upon reasonable inspection by consumers on or before January 1, 2026. This would also help enable efficient processing by solid waste processing facilities.

Moreover, the product has to satisfiy certain criteria before labeling with the term "Compostable" or "Home Compostable". One of criertia is that the product cannot contain organic fluorine (i.e. perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS) in a concentration more than 100 ppm. And the product needs to comply with relevant ASTM standard or standard adopted by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and get the certification from an approved entity.