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It is time to name and frame the plastic particle footprint of the agri-food sector's practices and innovations
Summary
This paper proposes accounting for a 'plastic particle footprint' in the agri-food sector alongside the carbon footprint, arguing that plastic use will grow further due to population increases, resource limitations, and climate change. The authors demonstrate that transparent accounting of long-term microplastic contamination could guide decisions favoring innovations that minimize irreversible soil, water, and food plastic pollution.
While plastics offer short-term benefits to the agri-food sector by increasing productivity and food safety, they are endangering these gains in the long-term. Soil, water, and food are becoming increasingly contaminated, with persistent interactive micro- and nano-plastics disturbing the functioning of the ecosystem and affecting human health. Plastic use is likely to grow further because of population increases, resource limitations, agrochemical regulations, climate change, and transitional technologies. Up to now, efforts to mitigate plastic pollution have been mainly focused on reducing the carbon footprint and managing plastic waste. This paper demonstrates that accounting for the long-term plastic particle footprint would pave the way for transparent reviews of strategies in the agri-food sector. This would enable decisions in favor of innovations that deserve to increase our plastic particulate footprint, to be accompanied by cross-sector trade-offs, putting an end to irreversible pollution that is not justified by significant improvements in human wellbeing.