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- While all these products have helped increase crop yields, there is growing evidence that degraded plastics are contaminating the soil and impacting biodiversity and soil health, the report warns.
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Chlorinated plastic can release harmful chemicals into the surrounding soil, which can then seep into groundwater or other surrounding water sources, and also the ecosystem. This can cause a range of potentially harmful effects on the species that drink the water.
Oct 17, 2022 · The 29th edition of UNEP’s Foresight Brief highlights how plastics used extensively in farming – from plastic coated plastic fertilizers to mulch film – are contaminating the soil and potentially threatening food security.
All these products have helped increase crop yields, but there is increasing evidence that degraded plastics are contaminating the soil and impacting biodiversity and soil health. This can lead to reduced productivity and could threaten long-term food security.
- Plastic and Plastic Polymer Types
- Sources and Transportation Routes of Plastic in Agricultural Soils
- Abundance of Microplastics in Agricultural Soils
- Units of Macroplastic and Microplastic Measurement
Various plastic types with different compositions are available, and the plastic material selection depends on the task it will perform. Different plastic polymers with different densities are used for different purposes. For example, different polymer types serve specific purposes throughout the harvest period, e.g., LDPE, LLDPE, and high-density ...
As the use of plastic in the agricultural environment increases, the generation and disposal of plastic waste increases, leading to the increased contamination of agricultural farmland. Plastic contaminants enter the soil from either primary or secondary sources. Primary sources are often unintentionally released into farmland, whereas secondary so...
Table 1 shows a summary of the abundance of plastics detected in the agricultural soils of various countries in studies from 2020 onwards. As expected, the soil is a significant recipient of agricultural plastics, although the abundance and composition of plastic contaminants differ spatially and temporally. This variation is caused by factors such...
The use of a uniform unit of measurement across studies is helpful because it allows exact plastic pollution values to be compared. Different measurement units are used in different regions to measure plastics in agricultural soils. To assess macroplastics, centimeters, square centimeters, and kilograms per hectare are often used [35, 36, 47]. To a...
Dec 7, 2021 · Plastic pollution has become pervasive in agricultural soils, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the UN agriculture agency, posing a threat to food security, people’s...
While all these products have helped increase crop yields, there is growing evidence that degraded plastics are contaminating the soil and impacting biodiversity and soil health, the report warns. Moreover, microplastics, such as the one used in some fertilizers, are also impacting human health when transferred to people through the food chain.
