A latest FAO report warns about the consequences of soils being polluted with plastics.
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Soil pollution via plastics - a threat to global food security
- The story: Plastics are one of the finest invention of mankind, and they are now threatening its very survival. While plastic refuse littering beaches and oceans draws high-profile attention, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Assessment of agricultural plastics and their sustainability: a call for action suggests that the land we use to grow our food is contaminated with even larger quantities of plastic pollutants.
- Deep damage: Soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics and are known to contain larger quantities of microplastics than oceans. According to FAO data, agricultural value chains each year use 12.5 million tonnes of plastic products while another 37.3 million are used in food packaging.
- Crop production and livestock accounted for 10.2 million tonnes per year collectively, followed by fisheries and aquaculture with 2.1 million, and forestry with 0.2 million tonnes.
- Asia was estimated to be the largest user of plastics in agricultural production, accounting for almost half of global usage. Moreover, without viable alternatives, plastic demand in agriculture is only set to increase.
- As the demand for agricultural plastic continues surge, FAO underscored the need to better monitor the quantities that leak into the environment from agriculture.
- What are the risks: Since their widespread introduction in the 1950s, plastics have become ubiquitous. In agriculture, plastic products greatly help productivity, such as in covering soil to reduce weeds; nets to protect and boost plant growth, extend cropping seasons and increase yields; and tree guards, which protect seedlings and saplings from animals and help provide a growth-enhancing microclimate.
- However, of the estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastics produced before 2015, almost 80 per cent had never been properly disposed of.
- While the effects of large plastic items on marine fauna have been well documented, the impacts unleashed during their disintegration, potentially affect entire ecosystems.
- Microplastics everywhere: Microplastics – less than 5 mm in size – have been found in human faeces and placentas as well as been transmitted to fetuses through their pregnant mothers. While most scientific research on plastics pollution has been directed at aquatic ecosystems, FAO experts say agricultural soils are thought to receive far greater quantities of microplastics.
- Since 93 per cent of global agricultural activities occur on land, further investigation in this area is needed, according to the UN agency.
- This report serves as a loud call to coordinated and decisive action to facilitate good management practices and curb the disastrous use of plastics across the agricultural sectors
- What to do: Lacking viable alternatives, it may be impossible for plastics to be banned – and there are no ‘silver bullets’ to eliminate the damages they cause. The FAO report identifies several solutions based on the “Refuse, Redesign, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover” model. It recommends developing a comprehensive voluntary code of conduct for all aspects of plastics throughout agrifood chains and calls for more research, especially on the health impact of micro- and nanoplastics.
- Knowledge Centre: Soil is the thin layer of material covering the earth's surface and is formed slowly, over hundreds of years, from the weathering of rocks. It is made up mainly of mineral particles, organic materials, air, water and living organisms—all of which interact slowly yet constantly. Soil is a material composed of five ingredients — minerals, soil organic matter, living organisms, gas, and water. Soils are limited natural resources. They are considered renewable because they are constantly forming. Though this is true, their formation occurs at extremely slow rates. In fact, one inch of topsoil can take several hundred years or more to develop. Soil formation rates vary across the planet: the slowest rates occur in cold, dry regions (1000+ years), and the fastest rates are in hot, wet regions (several hundred years).
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain why plastics pollution may be extremely damaging for soils. (2) What are soils? Why is it important for mankind to not take it for granted? Explain. (3) What are the initiatives taken by government of India to control plastics pollution? List and explain.
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