What’s Your Sign? Check Out Your Green Products for These Environmental Certification Logos!

 

These days, it’s cool to be eco-friendly. And if saving the planet means being trendy, we’ll take it! Lots of eco-friendly green products have buzzwords and logos on them. Some of it is clever marketing and packaging. But in order to get those nifty logos printed on them, these green products must earn their environmental certifications from those relevant government agencies.

 

More and more people are demanding sustainable practices. And we couldn’t agree more with working to reduce carbon footprint and greenhouse emissions. Part of doing that is seeking out the right compostable and biodegradable materials that can hold up their end of the bargain for consumers and their pups while being eco-friendly for the environment.

 

So, when you’re browsing products in stores or online, if you see any of the following certifications and logos, you’re on the right track toward boosting demand for products that will help fight climate change and give us all “paws” to celebrate.

 

BPI Certification

It’s hard to miss the BPI® Compostable logo. Featuring a green circle with a pine tree shaped into a curved, almost recycle-like arrow following a leaf, it’s very easy to notice. In fact, you’ve probably seen it before and didn’t realize the meaning behind it.

 

When you see the BPI logo, you will know that the item you’re choosing has been created to biodegrade quickly in a safe and efficient way. There will be no plastic residue left behind that will sully the integrity of the compost it joins.

 

For a brand to earn this North American certification, they must meet all requirements which earns them the right to use the logo with its own unique certification number. Everything is tested in an independent laboratory to verify the product claims every manufacturer makes for ASTM D6400. So plastic bags with this BPI logo and the ASTM D6400 stamped on it? That’s an enthusiastic tail-wag of approval.

 

Certified OK Compost Home

Another logo to sniff out on the biodegradable and compostable items you buy for your home, family, and pets is the Certified OK Compost Home logo. The logo looks like two boxes side-by-side. The box on the left has a green background with three arrows pointing downward at a flower while the box on the right has the Vinçotte brand logo.

 

The key difference is that for Certified OK Compost Home, the word “HOME” must be along the left portion of the logo. If you don’t see it, that means it’s meant for industrial composting. However, spot “HOME” and you are home-free to compost at lower temperatures so it can go into your garden compost heap and you can sport your eco-friendly cape in celebration of saving the planet.

 

The Seedling Logo

If you see a logo that looks like a seedling, that indicated the registered trademark certification of European Bioplastics, known as TÜV AUSTRIA (which was once Vinçotte). Remember the EN 13432 code? Products that have this logo have followed through with the standards of EN 13432 for compostable items.

 

The Seedling logo is a reminder that you shouldn’t put this kind of plastic into the recycling bin with other plastic items. It’s been created to be biodegradable so while it will tarnish the other plastics that can be recycled, this symbol alerts you to recycling it with garden waste in your compost or with your local community.

 

Why Logos Matter for the Environment

Recycling logos and these ones mentioned above for compostable and biodegradable items make it easy to see at a glance whether it’s worth chasing your tail to buy something. When you put regular, non-biodegradable plastics in with composted ones and vice versa, you’re leading to an increase in processing and disposal costs. Plus, it destroys the compost.

 

But when you choose products that brandish these badges of compostable means on them, you can help keep costs down. You can help keep greenhouse emissions down. And you can raise up a generation of dogs that get a cleaner world. It’s likely we call all woof in agreement for the greater good of our world.

 

Logos really make a difference for the environment so you can see what you’re buying into. Nab a slice of sustainable practices for your home and even by making this one small change, you’re doing big things globally.