CMA Composter Approved
PACKAGING
CONFIDENCE MEDIUM · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
CMA answers a question ASTM D6400 does not. A laboratory result establishes that an item can biodegrade at 58 degrees C under controlled conditions over six months. CMA puts the physical item into operating commercial facilities and measures whether it disintegrates inside that facility's real cycle time, then reports pass or fail separately for windrow, aerated static pile and covered in-vessel. Because modern facilities run shorter cycles than the ASTM protocol assumes, a product can hold a valid ASTM pass and still be screened out as contamination. CMA is the evidence that closes that gap. The frequent mistake is treating CMA and BPI as alternatives. They are not. CMA requires a passing ASTM or EN 13432 lab report and total fluorine below 100 ppm before it will field test at all, so it sits on top of the same evidence base BPI uses. Read the two together and the technology suffix matters more than the logo: CMA-W is a harder pass than CMA-I. The limits are scale and governance. CMA is a private LLC owned by the composters running the tests, with no accreditation body behind it, no published expiry, no published sanction process, and a network covering roughly 13 states.
What it covers
- Field disintegration testing of the actual product in operating commercial compost facilities, not only in a laboratory
- Separate marks for each of the three main industrial technologies: CMA-W windrow, CMA-A aerated static pile, CMA-I covered in-vessel; a product is listed only for the technologies it passed
- Measured disintegration thresholds: greater than 80 percent for fibre-based products and multilayered coated paper, greater than 90 percent for biopolymers, non-paper multilayered coated substrates, and single uncoated substrates with additives above 1 percent
- Field test run over the facility's real cycle time, cited as 49 to 60 days for in-vessel and 90 days for windrow, with the sample extracted after active composting and sifted
- Total fluorine below 100 ppm by a closed-vessel preparation method from a CMA-approved laboratory, as a PFAS screen
- A passing ASTM D6400, ASTM D6868 or EN 13432 laboratory result as a prerequisite, covering biodegradation, heavy metals, spectral analysis and phytotoxicity
- CMA-S, a separate lower designation for items approved as composting substrate such as wood cutlery and uncoated paper, rather than certified compostable
- Photographic before-and-after documentation of each sample, and a public accepted-products list carrying several hundred named SKUs
- Per-SKU granularity: each shape and each colour counts separately, because pigments can affect disintegration
- Contractual control of the mark through a separate licence agreement and fee for use of the CMA name or logo
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- One attribute only: whether the item physically falls apart in a commercial process. Nothing about carbon, water, chemistry beyond fluorine, labour, or sourcing
- No home or backyard compost claim of any kind; all three marks are industrial
- Does not replace ASTM D6400 or BPI certification, and requires the same laboratory battery as a prerequisite; it adds field evidence, it does not substitute for lab evidence
- No external accreditation; CMA writes its own protocol, and the field method is a work item before ASTM Committee D34, not a published ASTM standard
- No published certificate validity period, expiry date, or retesting interval
- No published fee schedule and no published sanction or delisting procedure
- Facility network is limited: roughly 13 US states plus Puerto Rico and a single Canadian site, so a pass at CMA partner facilities is not evidence of performance at the reader's local facility
- Says nothing about whether a consumer has access to any industrial composter, or whether that composter accepts the item
- Does not address litter, marine degradation, or behaviour in landfill
- CMA is owned by the compost manufacturers whose facilities run the tests, an industry-owned scheme with no independent accreditation layer
The scheme
| Issued by | Compost Manufacturing Alliance, LLC — a private for-profit LLC partnership owned and operated by commercial compost manufacturers including Cedar Grove, Denali Water Solutions, A1 Organics and St. Louis Composting. Not a nonprofit and not an accredited certification body |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | North America. Partner facility directory covers Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington, plus Puerto Rico and one facility in Thorold, Ontario |
| Audit and renewal | Not published. CMA publishes no certificate validity term, expiry, or retesting interval; products remain on the acceptance lists until removed |
| Cost | Not published. Fees are charged per SKU, with each shape and colour counted separately, and a separate licence agreement and fee is required to use the CMA name or logo |
What we read
CMA Certification and Acceptance Requirements page, CMA Field Testing page, CMA FAQ and CMA Partners page, all read 26 July 2026. CMA's field testing method is ASTM work item WK 85822 before Committee D34; it is not a published ASTM standard
- issuer, corporate form, ownership by compost manufacturers — a private LLC partnership of compost facilities
- ownership by large compost manufacturers, named partners — The Compost Manufacturing Alliance is owned and operated by some of the largest, most experienced compost manufacturers processing some of the largest volumes of organics feedstock in North America.
- the three technology marks and the substrate designation — CMA-I Certified for Covered In-Vessel Industrial Composting Systems ... CMA-W Certified for Windrow Industrial Composting Systems ... CMA-A Certified for Aerated Static Pile Industrial Composting Systems ... CMA-S Approved as a composting s
- disintegration thresholds and fluorine limit — compliance with applicable ASTM standards, has demonstrated total fluorine <100 ppm by a closed-vessel preparation method, and has demonstrated adequate disintegration in a commercial compost facility (>80% for fiber-based products and >90%
- ASTM lab result is a prerequisite, not an alternative; field test also required — ASTM D6400 or D6868 passing results ... Passing field test result from a CMA conducted field test
- why field testing exists — modern facility cycle times — products designed to break down in 90-180 day systems may not disintegrate adequately before being screened out
- field test durations and protocol steps — Sample Review ... photographed and logged into the tracking system ... 49-60 days for in-vessel composting and 90 for windrow systems ... photographs of the before and after samples
- history and the ASTM work item — Cedar Grove and six partners come together and agree to expand field testing to other primary composting processing facilities in the U.S. ... CMA's field testing method (WK 85822) is introduced in the ASTM D34 Committee.
- per-SKU granularity and separate logo licence fee — each one would count as a separate SKU, as well as each color, as some pigments may affect disintegration ... A separate license agreement and fee must be paid for use of the CMA name or logo
- geographic reach of partner facilities — Partner facility locations include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Puerto Rico and Thorold, Ontario
What we could not establish
Geographic reach is derived from CMA's own facility-directory location taxonomy rather than a published facility count; CMA does not publish a total number of partner facilities, and only four partner companies are named publicly (Cedar Grove, Denali Water Solutions, A1 Organics, St. Louis Composting). Could not establish: certificate validity term, whether retesting is ever required, the fee schedule, whether any product has been delisted and on what basis, the names of CMA-approved laboratories, or the number of facilities a product must pass to earn a given technology mark. CMA's FAQ and requirements pages are silent on all of these. Enforcement is scored 3 on the basis that the acceptance lists are public and per-SKU, so removal is observable, and mark use is governed by a separate licence agreement — but no sanction procedure or delisting record is published. Independence is scored 3 rather than 4 because no accreditation body stands behind the scheme; the mitigating structural fact, which is unusual and worth weight, is that CMA is owned by the downstream composters who bear the cost of contamination, so the certifier's commercial interest runs against the applicant's rather than with it.
Who holds it
Scored companies carrying this mark, highest first. Holding it is not the same as scoring well — the mark is one input of six.
| Company | Scope held | YKO score |
|---|---|---|
| Repurpose. | Not stated | 15.5 |
If you hold this certification, it is already on your record. What a buyer cannot see there yet is the evidence behind the parts this standard does not reach.