MINAGRIS team participates in French documentary on plastic contamination: Le Monde de Jamy
Members of the MINAGRIS team recently took part in filming for an upcoming documentary about plastic contamination, which will be shown on ‘Le Monde de Jamy’ in France.
We covered several topics in our interviews, with three of our researchers from Wageningen University and Research taking part. Firstly, Dr Nicolas Beriot explained how plastic contamination is monitored in agricultural fields; next, Ms Rozita Soltani Tehrani spoke about how plastics are transported across soil profiles; and finally, Dr Maarten van der Zee showed how biodegradation is assessed and clarified alongside comparing the differences between bio-based and bio-degradable plastics.
The documentary will air towards the end of 2024/in early 2025. Stay tuned!
International Compost Awareness Week 2024
MINAGRIS are celebrating International Compost Awareness Week 2024 as we recognise how beneficial compost can be for sustainable food production. However, many of the farmers we've spoken with avoid applying municipal compost despite its substantial benefits for increasing soil organic matter levels, sequestering carbon, and generally supporting healthy soils. These farmers have stopped applying compost because of high levels of plastic debris, which is entering municipal compost when we leave plastic in our food/green waste. Many of these plastics are likely 'compostable' and 'biodegradable' food waste bags, however, these can take many years to break down depending on their properties. While composting facilities are generally able to remove much of the plastic that ends up in compost, they are often unable to get rid of everything - particularly when these plastics have broken down into micro- and nano-plastics, invisible to the human eye.
Be a compost champion: double check your food and green waste before putting it in your bins!
