Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute - Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Bundesallee 47, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany.
Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) - Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Crop and Soil Science, Bundesallee 58, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Oct 15;947:174311. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174311. Epub 2024 Jul 4.
Agricultural soils have been identified as potential reservoirs for plastic pollution, with adverse effects on soil properties. Primary sources of plastic input in agricultural landscapes are associated with the application of sewage sludge or compost. Understanding the sources and anticipated plastic content is crucial in mitigating plastic pollution in agricultural fields. This study presents one of the first investigations into the plastic content and other impurities, e.g. glass, of seven organic fertilizers (biowaste compost, digested pig slurry, sewage sludge compost, dry chicken manure, green waste compost, sewage sludge, and a mixed digestate comprising pig slurry, chicken manure, and 74 % renewable raw materials). Potentially visible foreign substances were assessed on the surface of each fertilizer pile. No impurities could be detected in digested pig slurry, chicken manure, and mixed digestate. For the remaining fertilizers, visible potential foreign substances were collected, cleaned, visually described, weighed, photographed, size measured, and chemically characterized using ATR-FTIR. The quantification revealed that plastic particles are the most abundant and are contained in all other fertilizers, in contrast to glass and metal. An increasing trend in plastic particle number per m: green waste < biowaste < sewage sludge compost < sewage sludge, which is about 4 times greater in sewage sludge than in green waste compost, could be observed. However, sewage sludge compost has the largest plastic mass and surface area per square meter. This illustrates that sewage sludge compost application can be a significant entry pathway for visual plastics into agricultural soils.
农业土壤已被确定为塑料污染的潜在储存库，对土壤特性有不利影响。农业景观中塑料输入的主要来源与污水污泥或堆肥的应用有关。了解来源和预期的塑料含量对于减轻农业领域的塑料污染至关重要。本研究首次调查了七种有机肥料（生物废物堆肥、消化猪粪、污水污泥堆肥、干鸡粪、绿色废物堆肥、污水污泥和包含猪粪、鸡粪和 74%可再生原料的混合消化物）中的塑料含量和其他杂质，例如玻璃。在每个肥料堆的表面评估了潜在可见的外来物质。在消化猪粪、鸡粪和混合消化物中未检测到杂质。对于其余的肥料，收集了可见的潜在外来物质，进行了清洁、视觉描述、称重、拍照、尺寸测量，并使用 ATR-FTIR 进行了化学表征。定量结果表明，塑料颗粒是最丰富的，存在于所有其他肥料中，而不是玻璃和金属。可以观察到，每立方米的塑料颗粒数量呈递增趋势：绿色废物<生物废物<污水污泥堆肥<污水污泥，污水污泥中的塑料颗粒数量比绿色废物堆肥中的多 4 倍。然而，污水污泥堆肥的每平方米塑料质量和表面积最大。这表明，污水污泥堆肥的应用可能是塑料进入农业土壤的一个重要途径。
