P3: Impacts on Agriculture Flashcards
Statistics
There is also an excessive amount of plastic entering the worlds ecosystems through agriculture. According to Bullard et al (2021) 50% of plastic is retained in the terrestrial environment.
Sources of MP in agriculture
The most common sources of micro plastics in agriculture are waste water from irrigation, sewage sludge (ie from clothes fibres in washing machines), fertilisers and pesticides which have a plastic coating, synthetic rubber tyres from heavy machinery and plastic structures (which are banned from being disposed in oceans so instead disposed on land)
Almeria study
Study by Dahl et al. (2021) found high microplastic accumalation rates in areas close to intense agricultural areas in Almeria, spain. They also found an an exponential increase of microplastics in seagrass soils since the 1970s when almeria undewent a trasnformation into a highly agricultural area, now producing 3.5 million tonnes of fruit and veg annually. This has drastic environmental consequences in terms of MP pollution, with the greenhouses of Almería producing about 1390 kg ha−1 plastic waste each year.
Plastics in crops study
Fruit and veg is known to absorb micro plastics through their roots and retain it in there stems and leaves, therefore microplastics in agriculture is having drastic impacts on both crops and humans who consume the crops. Cusworth et al (2023) found micro plastics in every sample of potatoes and carrots (studies in the UK) and concentrations increased in areas where plastic crop covers were used
Solution
Installing filters in washing machines is proposed as the solution to plastic pollution from synthetic microplastic. A study by Erdle et al (2021) proved its effectiveness and found a 50% decrease in microfibres after filters were installed from a study of 97 homes. Preventing at the sources is important given that clean up is so complex and therefore not feasable. however there is still some contamination happening, need for further treatment in water works
