Microplastic pollution which affects three quarters of French soils is caused by “packaging”indicates Roland Marion, circular economy director of the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), guest of franceinfo, Thursday December 26. In a study published Thursday, Ademe highlighted for the first time the importance of this pollution.
franceinfo: Thirty-three samples were taken from fields, vineyards, orchards and forests in France. Does this mean that plastic is found almost everywhere?
Roland Marion : Just about everywhere. In 75% of the samples that were analyzed, microplastics were found. So 33 samples is not very large in terms of sample volume, but it is still 75% of these samples which show microplastics. This means that we find it in our agricultural soils in large quantities and we also find it in smaller quantities in forests, for example in meadows.
Fifteen small particles per kilo of soil, that's what a large clod of earth represents. Do we know the origin of this plastic which is reduced over time into small flakes?
We mainly find polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate. And behind these somewhat scholarly words lies in fact everything that is packaging. And behind these somewhat scholarly words, we actually find plastics which essentially come from packaging: packaging which fragments in the ground to go from 1 centimeter to 5 millimeters then to 2 millimeters.
Is agricultural land the most contaminated by these microplastics?
In our sampling, yes, because the soils which were analyzed are soils which have been subject to organic fertilizers, therefore which come from selective collection channels for bio-waste in particular, which are intended to return to the fields. These are the lands in which, in our analysis, we find the most microplastics.
We talked about the origin of these plastics. What is their background ?
We have to be careful not to put just anything with our bio-waste, particularly if we put plastic in the middle of the bio-waste because we consider that it is easier to do.
So you have to sort carefully. But then, once plastics are mixed with other materials, for example, how do they move? By water, by air?
They remain in the organic substrate and decompose into smaller and smaller fractions. There, we are talking about micro, but we also have nano plastics. As they decompose, they become smaller and smaller.
“When you sort, you have to be careful to sort correctly to send the right material to the right place.”
Roland Marionat franceinfo
Who has the key, according to you, between public authorities and industrialists? ?
A little bit of everyone. First the consumer. He must be careful with his sorting gesture. He must understand that the material he is going to sort is the material which is intended to have a second life. And so, as such, he must do things in the most efficient way possible. And then behind, there are industrialists, those who use plastic, but many of whom can do without it, and waste management industrialists who can improve their treatment process to separate ever more plastic from the organic fraction. which will return to the ground. So it's a somewhat collective question and one that can also affect regulations.
In the hypotheses of this plastic contamination of agricultural soils, there are the residues from plastic mulch, these large tarpaulins which are spread over the fields to prevent weeds from growing in particular. Can we improve things?
These agricultural films can be recycled well. But for them to be recycled properly, they must be collected properly. When we remove them from the ground, we must not leave pieces of plastic which will become microplastics.
Can't we imagine, for example, biodegradable materials, biodegradable tarpaulins?
Yes, of course. The equation is: a plastic which comes from biomass and which can become biomass again, this is a question which has a future, but which we have not yet completely mastered today. We do not yet have plastics from biomass that are 100% biodegradable.
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