Microplastics from plastics used in agriculture

To reduce the spread of microplastics in the environment, it is important to identify the sources of microplastics and to qualify and quantify the processes involved in the spread of microplastics from these sources into the environment.

Single-use plastics

Sources of microplastics in the environment include tyre dust, clothing fibres, coatings and the microplastics from so-called 'single-use plastics'. Relatively little research has been done on the latter category of microplastics. Single-use plastics include various types of plastics, such as plastic bags, packaging material and plastics used in agriculture. The amount of microplastics entering the environment through these applications of macroplastics is still relatively unknown.

In agriculture, plastics are widely used, for example as packaging material, for mulching and irrigation and as so called ‘geo mats’. These plastic can be ‘single-use’ or reusable.

The aim of the current MSc project is to identify which agricultural plastics enter the environment as microplastics and how many of these microplastics will eventually end up in the aquatic environment (rivers, lakes, etc).

This would involve the following activities:

• Make an inventory of the different plastics used in agriculture, both single-use plastics and reusable plastics.
• Make an assumption of the amount of agricultural plastics that ends up in the environment.
• Identify the main processes that are responsible for the formation of microplastics from the various single-use and reusable plastics in the environment
• Identify the main processes that are responsible for the transport of microplastics from agricultural plastics to the aquatic environment
• Present the various microplastic flows into the (aquatic) environment due to plastics used in agriculture in a conceptual model (quantitative).

Project form: literature review, assessment, optional: contact with farmers/farmers organisation

Literature

• Boucher, J., & Friot, Damien. (2017). Primary microplastics in the oceans | IUCN.
• Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Science Advances, 3(7), 25–29.
• Huang, Y et.al., (2020). Agricultural plastic mulching as a source of microplastics in the
  terrestrial environment, Environmental Pollution 260, 114096.
• Mitrano, D. M., & Wohlleben, W. (2020). Microplastic regulation should be more precise to incentivize both innovation and environmental safety. Nature Communications, 11(1), 1–12.
• Ryberg, M. W., Hauschild, M. Z., Wang, F., Averous-Monnery, S., & Laurent, A. (2019). Global environmental losses of plastics across their value chains. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 151(August), 104459.
• Sundt, P., Schulze, P.-E., & Syversen, F. (2014). Sources of Microplastics-Pollution to the Marine Environment.

Contact: Jikke van Wijnen en Sya Hoeke (PhD).