The Claim: 100% Compostable. Really?

The cup claims to be 100% compostable.  I've read these types of cups really only compost in commercial composting operations. 



However, I'm going to see what happens in with my semi-anaerobic trash barrel composting method.  I've been dumping a bucket or two of clippings into the trash barrel for months and months now, haven't harvested a bit, but there always seems to be room for more clippings every few days.  I've started thinking of it as more of a digestor or worm-bin than as a true composter.  It's full of very happy earthworms.

Worn-out trash barrel recycled as a composter:


In it goes:


I'll be checking on the decomposition process of the cup, and update you on how fast it does or doesn't decompose.  In the meantime, Hydrangea 'Ayesha', looking like a pink river, and Sedum radicans.  Hard to get a beauty shot of a composter.







Update 12/20/2012 -- nearly 18 months after the original post.  I finally harvested that bin of compost.  The cup hasn't broken down all that much.  How will it look in another 18 months?

 Update 4/29/2013:  The cup has broken into strips but each strip is still totally recognizable.  Slow indeed.  Back into the pile you go...