ISO 19679:2016 specifies a test method to determine the degree and rate of aerobic biodegradation of plastic materials when settled on marine sandy sediment at the interface between seawater and the seafloor, by measuring the evolved carbon dioxide.

This test method is a simulation under laboratory conditions of the habitat found in different seawater/sediment-areas in the sea, e.g. in a benthic zone where sunlight reaches the ocean floor (photic zone) that, in marine science, is called sublittoral zone

The determination of biodegradation of plastic materials buried in marine sediment is outside the scope of ISO 19679:2016.

Measurement of aerobic biodegradation can also be obtained by monitoring the oxygen consumption, as described in ISO 18830.

The conditions described in ISO 19679:2016 may not always correspond to the optimum conditions for the maximum degree of biodegradation to occur.