One word says a material eventually breaks down somewhere; the other states the conditions and the timescale.
Biodegradable is close to meaningless on its own: almost everything degrades eventually, and the claim names no timescale and no conditions. Compostable states both. That gap is why unqualified biodegradability claims are restricted in several jurisdictions, and why a compostable mark is worth more than a biodegradable one.
Biodegradable says a material eventually breaks down somewhere; compostable states the conditions and the timescale.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Biodegradable claim symbol | Home compostable symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | plants and arrows | circles and plants |
| Enclosing border | No enclosing border | Sits inside a border |
| Colour | green | Not colour-specific |
| Biodegradable claim symbol | Home compostable symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| States a timescale | No | Yes |
| States the conditions | No | Yes — a domestic heap |
| Independently certified | Usually not | Yes |
| Regulated as a claim | Restricted in several jurisdictions | Certification schemes apply |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Home compostable symbol — Biodegradable says a material eventually breaks down somewhere; compostable states the conditions and the timescale. | Commonly confused with Biodegradable claim symbol — Biodegradable says a material eventually breaks down somewhere; compostable states the conditions and the timescale. |
Greenwashing vs. The Real Deal
Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) · retrieved 2026-07-27
BPI is an industry/certification association with a direct interest in the compostable-vs-biodegradable distinction it describes — used only for the well-corroborated fact that the two terms are commonly confused, not as a neutral arbiter.
Biodegradable vs Compostable Packaging
Compost Connect · retrieved 2026-07-27
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
One is certified, the other is a claim anyone can print. The Seedling means EN 13432 compostability verified by an independent certifier. A generic leaf or sprout labelled 'biodegradable' means only that the material will break down eventually — with no defined timeframe, no defined end state, no standard and no verification.
The seedling certifies industrial compostability, which needs sustained high temperatures a garden heap never reaches. The home compostable mark certifies the much harder domestic case. An item carrying only the seedling put on a compost heap at home will still be there next year, which is why treating the two as interchangeable matters.
CE covers the European Economic Area; UKCA covers Great Britain. Both are the manufacturer's own declaration that a product meets the requirements applying to it, and for most product categories nobody grants or checks them. Neither is a safety certification or a mark of quality, which is how both are widely read. UKCA's territory is Great Britain rather than the whole United Kingdom, because Northern Ireland follows the EU regime.
The EU energy label is mandatory and comparative: it grades a product on a lettered scale shown as coloured arrows, so two labelled products can be ranked against each other. Energy Star is voluntary and a threshold: a product either qualifies or does not, and the mark gives no indication of the margin. A product carrying both is making two different kinds of claim.