Emily McGill is the Program Director of the Compostable Field Testing Program (CFTP) (https://compostabletesting.org/), an international research project gathering real-world disintegration data for compostable items from composting facilities across North America, cofounded by the Compost Research and Education Foundation and BSIbio. With a bachelor in Bioresource Engineering, Emily has conducted and remotely coordinated field tests since 2014, and is contributing to the development of standardized methods for field testing within ASTM. Emily will be presenting the first public preview of the CFTP’s results at COMPOST2024 in the Compostables Track on Thursday.

Her consulting experience includes solid waste management planning at corporate and municipal levels as well as policy development and product design for zero waste and single-use plastic reduction. Since 2015 she has fostered community-based projects in urban sustainability, circular economy and regenerative systems design. She is a micro-composter, feeding the soil in her collaborative community garden in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is the co-founder of Master Recycler Vancouver, a zero waste education program for adults.

Session Code: 5C

Track: Future of Compostable Products

Session Name: Can We Move The Needle on Compost Manufacturer Acceptance of Compostable Packaging? Field Testing Data and What’s Next

Session Time: Thursday, February 8, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Presentation Title: Compostable Field Testing Program’s Open-Source Data Project: Results and Next Steps

Presentation Description: The Compostable Field Testing Program (CFTP) is an international research platform for composters to field test compostable foodware and packaging in their real-world operations. This presentation covers the results of field testing disintegration of compostable items across a range of facilities in scale, geography, and technology, a preview of the open-source database to be launched later in 2024, and future directions arising from the research e.g. test method evolution and standardization efforts.