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Potential Benefits and Risks for Soil Health Derived From the Use of Organic Amendments in Agriculture
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This review examines the benefits and risks of using organic amendments like compost, manure, and sewage sludge in agriculture. Researchers highlight that while these amendments improve soil health and crop productivity, they can also introduce pollutants including heavy metals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and microplastics into agricultural soils. The study identifies sewage sludge as a particularly significant source of microplastic contamination in farmland and calls for strategies to mitigate these risks.
The use of organic amendments in agriculture is a common practice due to their potential to increase crop productivity and enhance soil health. Indeed, organic amendments of different origin and composition (e.g., animal slurry, manure, compost, sewage sludge, etc.) can supply valuable nutrients to the soil, as well as increase its organic matter content, with concomitant benefits for soil health. However, the application of organic amendments to agricultural soil entails a variety of risks for environmental and human health. Organic amendments often contain a range of pollutants, including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, potential human pathogens, and emerging pollutants. Regarding emerging pollutants, the presence of antibiotic residues, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and antibiotic-resistance genes in agricultural amendments is currently a matter of much concern, due to the concomitant risks for human health. Similarly, currently, the introduction of microplastics to agricultural soil, via the application of organic amendments (mainly, sewage sludge), is a topic of much relevance, owing to its magnitude and potential adverse effects for environmental health. There is, currently, much interest in the development of efficient strategies to mitigate the risks associated to the application of organic amendments to agricultural soil, while benefiting from their numerous advantages.
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This review examined the dual impact of organic amendments on agricultural soils, discussing how compost and sludge applications simultaneously boost fertility and introduce microplastics and chemical contaminants, requiring careful risk-benefit assessment.
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This review examines how microplastics and organic matter interact in soil, finding that common soil additions like compost and sewage sludge are significant sources of microplastic contamination. The interplay between these substances can disrupt nutrient cycling, soil biology, and carbon storage, which ultimately affects the quality of food grown in contaminated soil.
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This review examines whether recycled nutrients from waste streams, such as sewage sludge and compost, introduce harmful contaminants including microplastics into organic farmland. While levels of heavy metals and many pollutants have decreased in European waste streams, microplastic contamination in agricultural soil remains widespread and poorly understood. The review highlights that spreading waste-derived fertilizers on farmland is a significant pathway for microplastics to enter the food production system.
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