Plastic Pollution in Soils: Governance Approaches to Foster Soil Health and Closed Nutrient Cycles

Jessica Stubenrauch,Felix Ekardt

doi:10.3390/environments7050038

Abstract

Plastic pollution in soils pose a major threat to soil health and soil fertility that are directly linked to food security and human health. In contrast to marine plastic pollution, this ubiquitous problem is thus far scientifically poorly understood and policy approaches that tackle plastic pollution in soils comprehensively do not exist. In this article, we apply a qualitative governance analysis to assess the effectiveness of existing policy instruments to avoid harmful plastic pollution in (agricultural) soils against the background of international environmental agreements. In particular, environmental and fertiliser legislation relevant to soil protection in the European Union and in Germany are assessed. Regulatory weaknesses and gaps of the respective legislation are identified, and proposals for enhanced command-and-control provisions developed. However, the legal analysis furthermore shows that plastic pollution ecologically is also a problem of quantity, which is difficult to solve exclusively through command-and-control legislation. Instead, comprehensive quantity-control instruments to phase out fossil fuels (worldwide and in all sectors) as required by climate protection law can be effective approaches to tackle plastic pollution in environmental media like agricultural soils as well.

Highlights

Plastic pollution in soils pose a major threat to soil health and soil fertility that are directly linked to food security and human health
We have seen in this contribution: Legal initiatives that are able to address the ubiquitous plastic pollution in soils comprehensively do not exist far
Using the example of Germany and the European Union, it could be shown that the command-and-control legislation aiming at the protection of agricultural soils does not include sufficient mechanisms to protect the soils from the serious threat of plastic particles

Summary

Introduction

Plastic pollution in soils pose a major threat to soil health and soil fertility that are directly linked to food security and human health. We apply a qualitative governance analysis to assess the effectiveness of existing policy instruments to avoid harmful plastic pollution in (agricultural) soils against the background of international environmental agreements. Comprehensive quantity-control instruments to phase out fossil fuels (worldwide and in all sectors) as required by climate protection law can be effective approaches to tackle plastic pollution in environmental media like agricultural soils as well. Soils are a crucial interface in the environment It is, likely that pollutants such as micro- and nano-plastic particles that are introduced into the soil can accumulate or be discharged from the soil through, e.g., erosive processes or deep displacement, and be transferred to other environmental compartments like the oceans. Harmful effects of microplastics on the soil structure and subsequently on the soil water balance, soil chemistry, soil life, and soil microbiology as well as on root and tissue characteristics of plants are scientifically presumed [8,14,15]

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Discussion

Conclusion