Our MATER-BI bioplastics are certified and guaranteed both during use and at end-of-life, helping to raise industry standards

MATER-BI: biodegradability and compostability certifications

All MATER-BI grades are certified by leading European and international certification bodies, in accordance with key standards. These certifications ensure that MATER-BI biodegrades in various disposal environments, including industrial composting, home composting, and soil biodegradation.

In the bioplastics sector, the European standard UNI EN 13432 is the most important technical benchmark for material producers, public authorities, composting facilities, certification bodies, and consumers. This standard outlines the four criteria that a compostable material must meet to be considered suitable for organic recycling (industrial composting):

• Biodegradability: the material's ability to be converted into carbon dioxide (CO₂) by microorganisms, in the same way natural waste decomposes. Microorganisms use the material as a nutrient source, transforming its chemical energy into energy for their activity, generating new biomass (humus), CO₂, and water.
• Disintegration: the material must break down and become unrecognizable in the final compost.
• No negative impact on the composting process: the material must not interfere with or slow down the composting cycle.
• Low heavy metal content and no negative effect on compost quality: the material must be free from harmful substances and safe for the environment.

   
MATER-BI: eLabel! certification

MATER-BI was the first material to obtain the eLabel! certification, the multi-label promoted by the Kyoto Club, an Italian non-profit organization, to certify the excellence and environmental innovation of products and services, providing information that is transparent from both a qualitative and quantitative viewpoint and enabling the consumer to make an independent and immediate assessment.
 
eLabel! certification attests to MATER-BI’s environmental performance and its level of innovation based on unambiguous and objective information: its content of renewable raw materials, their sustainability, emission of greenhouse gases, end of life and its biodegradability in nature in the event of uncontrolled release.


Find out more on www.multietichetta.it


MATER-BI is the first Italian technology to have been verified by Certiquality with the European “Environmental Technology Verification" (ETV) programme.
The aim of this programme is to consolidate innovative technologies in the environmental field when standards and certifications are not yet available, thus becoming an extremely useful tool in the first phase of innovative development. 

NOVAMONT has achieved ETV certification for MATER-BI’s behaviour in biodegradation in the marine environment. For more information please see the dedicated section on the Joint Research Centre website: Aerobic Biodegradation of Mater-Bi AF03A0 and Mater-Bi AF05S0 (Mater-Bi of Third generation) under marine condition