Compostable packing bags manufacturers tell you in typical parlance that the word biodegradable has a different meaning from compostable. While biodegradable refers to an object's natural disintegration into its basic components, "composting" specifically requires that these basic components are organic compounds. Manufacturers of Compostable packing bags tell you that many plastic companies have started releasing products that claim to use "compostable" forms of plastic, usually listed as an ingredient in products made from cornstarch. However, these claims are debatable.

Compostable packing bags manufacturers tell you their own definition of compost, combined with the operation of the biodegradable plastics industry, which is a material that can undergo biodegradation in a compost yard, etc. Visually indistinguishable, and decomposed into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic Compounds and biomass at consistent rates with known compostable materials.
It must be noted that "carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass" includes every substance in the known universe, freeing plastic companies to make compostable plastic bags, utensils, etc. using any substance available to them. Compostable packing bags manufacturers tell you that the inclusion of "inorganic materials" excludes compost, or humus, which are purely organic materials considered high-end products. Compostable packing bags manufacturers tell you that in fact, according to the ASTM definition, the only criterion required for a plastic to be called compostable is that it has to appear at the same rate as anything else that is already known to be compostable according to the traditional definition.