According to the abstract of an October 1, 2020 article published in Science of The Total Environment by researchers with Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands; Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Spain; and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Mexico “… One of the main sources of plastic pollution in agricultural fields is the plastic mulch used by farmers to improve crop production … After harvest, sheep are released into the fields to graze on the vegetable residues … The data show that plastic particles were present in the soil and that livestock ingested them … the sheep can become a source of microplastic contamination as they graze on other farms or grasslands … Further studies should focus on: assessing how much of the plastic found in faeces comes directly from plastic mulching, estimating the plastic degradation in the guts of sheep and understanding the potential effects of these plastic residues on the health of livestock …” - The web link to the abstract is included in the post on the home page of Plastic Food Packaging Waste News at https://pfpw.news/2020/11/27/microplastics-sheep-consumption-of-plastic-mulch-studied/ #MicroPlastics #PlasticWaste #SingleUsePlastic
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).
