A kitchen organics bin trial, implemented by the council and Zero Waste, has seen 2000 Whyalla residents trial a new system of food waste recycling within their homes.

The council issued special decomposable bags for use within the organic bins, but local residents may face confusion from new non-council bags also claiming to be decomposable.

The non-council bags do not share the same rapid breakdown properties of the council bags, and cannot be used in the organic bins.

"We need it (the bags) to break down in 12 weeks for us to have a viable composting operation, and they don't," waste and recycling manager infrastructure services Craig Pedler explained.

Mr Pedler is concerned ratepayers may be tempted to use the new bags in the bins, which is strongly discouraged by the council.

"If it (the program) goes city-wide, people would be tempted to put the other ones in their bin, but it's not good - it's misleading," Mr Pedler said.

If non-council bags are used in the organic bins, waste depot staff have to manually remove the rotting food-filled bags and relocate them to landfill.

"It requires more labour, so then production costs increase, (and) we have to sell it for more to break even and recoup costs to not leave the financial burden on ratepayers," Mr Pedler explained.

"It all just goes down the line.

"We realise how confusing it is when it says on the bags to discard into your council's kerbside green waste collection."

Bag manufacturers have labelled these new bags as decomposable without properly consulting the composting industry, which has left composters angry and the community ill-informed.

Many bags claim to be decomposable to AS 4736 2006 guidelines, which may be correct, but no South Australian composting associations or organisations have certified any of these new "decomposable" bags as being acceptable in their operations.

Trials at the Mount Laura Waste and Recycling Depot and Peats Soils in Adelaide have proven decomposable non-council bags begin to break down, but at the end of the composting process in accordance to AS 4454 2003, they are still intact.

"Some start to break down but not in the timeframe we need, and some are shockers -they're still capable of holding 2kg after a few weeks, they're nowhere near broken down," Mr Pedler said.

The ACC is currently investigating several bag manufacturers about the claims of decomposability.