Is home composting a viable alternative to recycling? How many consumers are composting at home, and what does this look like in practice? What do consumers think about home compostable packaging, and how do they dispose of it?

Right now, nearly 1 in 5 Americans have access to curbside or drop-off programs that accept food waste and some forms of compostable packaging. For the remaining ~82% of Americans without access to municipal composting, home or small-scale community composting may offer a more localized alternative.

But what do we really know about the habits and attitudes of consumers participating in home composting?

Designing home compostable packaging without the full picture

For years, packaging manufacturers, brands, and retailers have wondered if composting and home compostable packaging could be a viable alternative to non-recyclable packaging, especially for product categories like food service or food contact packaging with high amounts of food residue. Yet to date, very little consumer data has existed to help packaging teams make informed choices about whether and how to design home compostable packaging. Home composting has been thought of as a niche behavior done by green-leaning consumers, and little was known about what a more mainstream consumer would do with packaging that was labeled as “home compostable.”

To make inroads in this space, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) reached out to Provoke Insights in late 2025 to better understand current perceptions and participation in composting, as well as how composting can become a more accessible and practical habit.

What did we find? While home compostable packaging offers the exciting promise of at-home management of packaging and food scraps, its success depends on how composting conditions affect product breakdown and how well people use home composting systems in their daily lives.

What are the benefits of composting packaging at home?

While residential curbside collection paired with industrial or commercial composting remains the preferred approach for scaling compostable packaging, home composting offers a more immediate, localized solution —especially for those without access to these systems.

No matter the setting, the benefits of composting and diverting food scraps from landfills are significant. Composting creates more landfill space and, maybe even more importantly, composting helps curb the largest single source of landfill methane emissions: food waste.

Plus, the diverted food scraps and other organic material can be used to create finished compost, which is a rich soil amendment that adds carbon back into the ground and improves soil health. Adding packaging to this process could help create local recovery solutions to bypass global waste supply chains.

Methodology: Determining home composting behaviors

To answer our questions about home composting habits, attitudes, and behaviors, Provoke Insights fielded a 40-question online survey of 1,500 U.S. adult respondents aged 18-65. A random stratified sample was used to ensure census representation of the U.S. population.

The research aimed to help our members better understand:

• How familiar are people with home composting methods?
• How does home composting fit into existing household routines?
• What people know about home compostable packaging, and how quickly do they expect this type of packaging to break down?
• What prevents people from composting at home?

Findings: How Americans really think about composting at home

In our full research report, we found that almost 4 in 5 people are familiar with composting, while nearly 1 in 5 are unfamiliar with any type of composting. Those who do compost at home find it easy and rewarding, while non-composters see it as messy and confusing. Americans in urban communities, on the other hand, often view home composting as impractical.

Beyond home composting, participation in alternative methods remains limited and varies by living environment, with urban residents more likely to have experience with curbside collection, compost drop-off, or subscription services.

Ultimately, composting behaviors come down to education. Understanding how to compost, not interest, is the largest barrier to composting adoption. Approximately 46% of Americans believe that home composting has a major positive environmental impact, yet only 30% know how to compost independently. The half who lack experience say knowing how to compost would motivate them to start.

Home compostable packaging is a growing yet still niche and nascent market in the U.S, with few products sold carrying a home compostable label. In the full report, we’re breaking down what consumers actually do with home compostable packaging and the ways packaging stakeholders can support scalable home compostable packaging solutions. Check out the full report for more context on:

• What consumers think “home compostable” means, and how quickly they expect it to break down
• The percentage of Americans that notice “home compostable” labels
• The proportion of home compostable packaging that actually ends up in home composting systems
• The awareness needed to ensure proper disposal of home compostable packaging
• Common misconceptions about home compostable packaging

These results show that more education is needed to help consumers understand composting at home and engage them in the benefits of this new way of managing food scraps. More should also be done to explain home compostable packaging – how it should (and should not) be disposed, the environment the products were designed and tested to perform in, and how long it typically takes to break down.

Consumers want to do something different with their food scraps – 69% feel guilty throwing food waste in the trash. Yet today, most do not feel empowered to take the next step towards composting. An industry-wide education campaign that involves brands, retailers, packaging manufacturers, composters, and communities would help to motivate and empower consumers to participate in new, local ways of managing their food scraps.

With these new insights about current home composting behaviors and attitudes in hand, brands can make informed choices when adding home compostable packaging solutions to their portfolio and educate consumers on the different composting pathways. Home composting and home compostable packaging can be a smart solution for heavily food-soiled applications, if it’s paired with the right level of consumer education and supporting solutions.

If you’re interested in leading a campaign to support composting education, please reach out to the SPC.