Kampala, Uganda – In the Mbale de Uganda district, famous for its production of Arabica coffee, a plastic of plastic bags known locally as Buveera is dragging beyond the city.
It is a problem that has long covered the landscape in Kampala, the capital, where Buveera intertwine in the fabric of daily life. They appear in layers of excavated land roads and river obstruction. But now, they can also be found in remote areas of farmland. Some of the rubble include the thick plastic bags used to plant coffee seeds in the nurseries.
Some farmers complain, said Wilson Watira, head of a cultural board for the town of Bamasaba. “They are worried, those farmers who know the effects of Buveera on Earth,” he said.
Throughout the world, plastics find their way to agricultural fields. Climate change makes agricultural plastic, either a necessity for many crops, even more inevitable for some farmers. Meanwhile, research continues to show that microplastics that alter ecosystems and end in human bodies. Scientists, farmers and consumers care about how that affects human health, and many seek solutions. But industry experts say it is difficult to know where plastic ends or get rid of it completely, even with the best reuse intentions and recycling programs.
According to 2021 PLASTIC REPORT IN AGRICULTURE By the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Agriculture, soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics. Some studies have estimated that soils are more contaminated by microplastics than oceans.
“These things are being launched on such a large and huge scale that it will require great engineering solutions,” said Sarah Zack, a pollutant specialist from the great Lakes of Illinois-Indiana who communicates on microplastics to the public.
Plastic microparticles that come from items such as clothing, medicines and beauty products sometimes appear in fertilizers made of solid by -treatment by -treatment by -treatment, called Biosolidos – which It can also be smelly and toxic to nearby residents depending on the treatment process used. Some seeds are covered with plastic polymers designed to strategically disintegrate at the proper time of the season, used in containers to hold pesticides or stretch on the fields to block moisture.
But the agricultural industry itself represents a little more than 3% of all plastics used worldwide. About 40% of all plastics are used in packaging, including single -use plastic foods and beverage containers.
The microplastics, which defines the national and national atmospheric administration of more than five millimeters long, are the largest with approximately the size of a pencil draft. Some are much smaller.
Studies have already shown that plants can absorb microplastics on land or plankton in the ocean and subsequently eaten by animals or humans. Scientists are still studying the long -term effects of plastic that has been found in human organs. Early findings suggest possible links with a series of health conditions, including heart disease and some types of cancer.
Despite the “significant research gaps”, the evidence related to the land food chain “is certainly increasing the alarm,” said Lev Neretin, the environment leads in the FAO, which is currently working in another technical report that looks deeper in the problem of microplastic pollution in soils and crops.
A study of this month in the minutes of the National Academy of Sciences found that microplastic pollution can even affect the ability of plants to photosynthesize, the process of converting sunlight into energy. That does not “justify excessive concern,” but “underlines the food security risks that require scientific care,” said Fei Dang, one of the study authors.
The use of plastics has quadrupled in the last 30 years. The plastic is ubiquitous. And most of the world’s plastic is destined to landfills, contaminates the environment or burns. Less than 10% of plastics are recycled.
At the same time, some farmers depend more on plastics to take refuge crops of extreme weather effects. They are using canvases, ring houses and other technology to try to control the conditions of their crops. And depend more on chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers to cushion the unreliable climate and the most widespread pest problems.
“Through global warming, we have less and less cultivable land to make crops. But we need more crops. Therefore, the demand for agricultural chemicals is increasing,” said Ole Rosgaard, president and CEO of Greif, a company that makes the packaging use for industrial agricultural products such as pesticides and other chemical products.
The extreme climate, fed by climate change, also contributes to the decomposition and transport of agricultural plastics. Hitting the sun can wear out in the materials over time. And the most frequent and intense rain events in some areas could conduct more plastic particles found in fields and, finally, Waterways, said Maryam Salehi, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri.
This past winter, leaders from all over the world gathered in South Korea to produce the First legally binding global treated on the pollution of plastics. They did not reach an agreementBut negotiations are scheduled to resume in August.
Neretin said FAO produced a Code of Provisional Voluntary Conduct On the sustainable management of plastics in agriculture. But without a formal treaty, most countries do not have a strong incentive to follow it.
“The mood is certainly not cheerful, that is safe,” he said, adding that global cooperation “takes time, but the problem does not disappear.”
Without political will, much of responsibility falls to companies.
Rosgaard, from Greif, said his company has worked to make their products recyclable, and that farmers have incentives to return them because they can receive a payment in return. But he added that it is sometimes difficult to prevent people from simply burning plastic or letting end in fields or river roads.
“We just don’t know where they end all the time,” he said.
Some want to stop the flow of plastic and microplastic waste in ecosystems. Boluwatife Olubusoye, Ph.D. The candidate of the University of Mississippi is trying to see if Biochar, remains of organic matter and burned plant waste in controlled conditions, can filter microplastics ranging from the fields of the farm to the river roads. His first experiments have proven promising.
He said he was motivated by the feeling that “there was never any timely solution in terms of plastic waste” that ended in the fields first, especially in developing countries.
Even for farmers who care about plastics in the soils, it can be a challenge for them to do something about it. In Uganda, the owners of nursery beds cannot afford the appropriate seedlings, so they turn to plastic bags made at low cost to germinate seeds, Jacob Ogola said, an independent agronomist there.
Farmers most affected by climate change are less capable of reducing the presence of cheap plastic waste in soils. That frustrates innocent Piloya, an agroecology businesswoman who cultivates coffee in the rural area of Uganda with her company Ribbo Coffee.
“It’s like small farmers struggling against plastic manufacturers,” he said.
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Walling reported from Chicago.
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