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Biodegradability

Biodegradable Label

Despite advertising claims, not all products touted as natural will biodegrade in the environment. Some compounds used in everyday products can amass in harmful concentrations under certain circumstances.
Following rigorous guidelines from ASTM International, Scientific Certification Systems has for over ten years provided third-party certification of biodegradability for household cleaners, detergents, degreasers and the like.  The SCS Biodegradability Certification standard verifies whether products degrade safely and efficiently, and whether under worst-case circumstances they are likely to build up harmful concentrations in the environment.
For a product to qualify for SCS Biodegradability Certification, 70% of the compound used in the product formula must, under aerobic conditions, break down into the simple substances of carbon dioxide, basic salts, and water within 28 days. Guideline test methods are provided in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 40, Subpart D, 796.3100-3400, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Any compound known to be at concentration levels exceeding the lowest NOEC (No Observed Effects Concentration) value in sludge or water leaving a wastewater treatment plant must be shown under anaerobic conditions to be degradable into carbon dioxide, water, and basic salts. It must also be shown not to build up into harmful concentrations in the environment. The compound must also degrade at a rate such that residual concentrations of it, when released into receiving waters and/or associated sediments, are less than the NOEC value measured on selected species. This criterion is adapted on a state-by-state or other recognized jurisdictional basis. Relevant experimental test methods are provided in the CFR 40, Subpart D, 797.

The amount of the given compound or metabolite in a receiving body and its absorption characteristics on sludge (or sediment) must be such that the compound does not adversely affect the rate of degradation nor displace harmful substances otherwise absorbed or adsorbed on the sludge.

Product formulas may contain no compound found to contribute to the eutrofication of receiving waters, as phosphates have been shown to do.