What is ISO 14852 about?
ISO 14852 specifies a method, by measuring the amount of carbon dioxide evolved, for the determination of the degree of aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials, including those having formulation additives. The test material is exposed in a synthetic medium under standardized laboratory conditions to inoculums from activated sludge under aerobic conditions.
ISO 14852 enables the assessment of biodegradation to be improved by calculating a carbon balance. ISO 14852 applies to the following materials:
- Natural and/or synthetic polymers, copolymers, or mixtures thereof
- Plastic materials which have additives such as plasticizers, colorants, or other compounds
- Water-soluble polymers
ISO 14852 helps you understand the biodegradability of plastic and make it more sustainable.
Who is ISO 14852 for?
ISO 14852 on the determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials useful to:
- Plastic industry
- Environment safety department
- Plastic testing institution
Why should you use ISO 14852?
With the increasing use of plastics, the recovery and disposal have become a major issue. As a priority, recovery should be promoted. Biodegradable plastics are now appearing as one of the options available to solve such environmental problems. Plastic materials, such as products or packaging, which are sent to composting facilities, should be potentially biodegradable. So, it is important to figure out the potential biodegradability of such materials and to obtain a sign of their potential biodegradability.
ISO 14852 is specially designed for the determination of the biodegradation of plastic materials. The specific requirements necessary affect the choice of the inoculums and the test medium, and there is the possibility of improving the evaluation of biodegradability by calculating a carbon balance.
ISO 14852 finds the level of biodegradation by comparing the amount of carbon dioxide evolved with the theoretical amount (ThCO2) and expressed in percent. The test result is the maximum level of biodegradation, determined from the plateau phase of the biodegradation curve. Optionally, a carbon balance can be calculated to give more information on biodegradation.
During biodegradation, new biomass are built up by the microorganisms and a part of the carbon in the test material is transformed to biomass but not biochemically oxidized. So, analytical parameters such as CO2 evolution and BOD will often not reach 100 % of the respective theoretical values even in the case of complete biodegradation of test material, and insufficient degradation could falsely be deduced from the test results.
ISO 14852 helps you understand the biodegradability of plastic and make it more sustainable.
What is changed since the last update?
BS EN ISO 14852:2021supersedes BS EN ISO 14852:2018. BS EN ISO 14852:2021 includes some technical changes with respect to BS EN ISO 14852:2018. These include:
- In the Scopes oil and compost have been excluded for the inoculums used in this document
- Number of flasks for checking the inoculums activity has been changed from three to two
- The validity criteria have been revised