Sway partners with BPI through 1% for the Planet to advance compostable plastic packaging

USA – Sway has partnered with The Biodegradable Products Institute through 1% for the Planet, funding BPI while seeking certification for its compostable packaging to meet ASTM standards for commercial composting.

Sway has been a certified 1% for the Planet Business Member since its establishment in 2020. 

BPI assesses compostable packaging in North America to confirm that materials meet or surpass ASTM standards and decompose in commercial composting settings without leaving harmful residue. 

Its testing covers disintegration, biodegradation, and ecotoxicity, along with checks for PFAS, heavy metals, and other potentially hazardous chemicals.

The Certification Pathway

Sway’s packaging has already received Certified Home & Industrial Compostable status from TUV Austria in Europe. 

The company will now work with BPI to secure its home compatibility certification for the North American market. 

Unlike Europe’s harmonised compostability standards, North America has a fragmented regulatory landscape where municipal composting facilities accept different material types. 

BPI certification provides a common benchmark that composters, regulators, and brand owners recognise across the US.

Rhodes Yepsen, BPI executive director, commented that the work that Sway is doing is truly cutting-edge, and that Sway’s commitment to BPI emphasises the important relationship between innovation that puts the planet first and the regulations that ensure its value to the planet. 

He noted that by engaging early and supporting the systems that uphold compostability standards, Sway is helping strengthen the entire ecosystem and demonstrating what responsible innovation looks like in practice.

Building Composting Infrastructure

The partners plan to work with lawmakers, waste haulers, and other industry participants on rules intended to help expand the use of certified compostable packaging across the US. 

A packaging material that is compostable in a laboratory setting is not compostable if no facility accepts it. 

BPI’s certification is only the first step; the partnership’s policy work addresses the second: ensuring that certified packaging actually enters composting streams.

Julia Marsh, Sway co-founder and CEO, explained that the company believes in BPI’s mission and the importance of their certification program, and that as Sway grows, it wants its success to interlink with partners and organisations creating real, on-the-ground impact for circularity. 

She noted that becoming BPI-certified is an important milestone on the roadmap, and Sway looks forward to working closely with BPI through this partnership.

When Innovation Meets Certification

A compostable package that lacks certification is a claim. One with BPI certification is proof. Sway’s partnership with BPI, funded through 1% for the Planet, is not about marketing—it is about verification. 

For brand owners, that verification is the difference between a sustainability promise and a compliance risk.

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