ISO 14855-2:2026

This document specifies a method for determining the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions by gravimetric measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide evolved. The method is designed to yield an optimum rate of biodegradation by adjusting the humidity, aeration and temperature of the composting vessel.

The method applies to the following materials:

• natural and/or synthetic polymers and copolymers, and mixtures of these;
• plastic materials that contain additives such as plasticizers or colorants;
• water-soluble polymers;
• materials that, under the test conditions, do not inhibit the activity of microorganisms present in the inoculum.

NOTE            If the test material inhibits microorganisms in the inoculum, another type of mature compost or pre-exposure compost can be used.

To comply with a standard, you need to quickly understand its issues in order to determine its impact on your activity.

The Requirements department helps you quickly locate within the normative text:

• mandatory clauses to satisfy,
• non-essential but useful clauses to know, such as permissions and recommendations.

The identification of these types of clauses is based on the document "ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 - Principles and rules of structure and drafting of ISO documents" as well as on a constantly enriched list of verbal forms.

With Requirements, quickly access the main part of the normative text!