According to a September 2, 2020 report published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1268 researchers with Chongqing University, China and INRAE, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, France “… Microplastics are recognized as an emerging contaminant worldwide … less is known about whether and how microplastics can affect different taxa within a soil community … we found that microplastic addition significantly affected the composition and abundance of microarthropod and nematode communities. Contrary to soil fauna, we found only small effects of microplastics on the biomass and structure of soil microbial communities. Nevertheless, structural equation modelling revealed that the effects of microplastics strongly cascade through the soil food webs, leading to the modification of microbial functioning with further potential consequences on soil carbon and nutrient cycling. Our results highlight that taking into account the effects of microplastics at different trophic levels is important to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the ecological impacts of microplastic pollution on soil functioning …” #PlasticWaste @MicroPlastic
Animal Digestible Food Packaging Initiative
Our reason-for-being/goal/purpose/objective/intent is to convince/inspire/persuade/encourage the food processing industry to establish and fund a public private partnership for the discovery of new food packaging materials that would be digestible by animals (farm animals as well as ubiquitous microbes).
