<
https://theconversation.com/australians-are-washing-microplastics-down-the-drain-and-its-ending-up-on-our-farms-223079>
"Australian wastewater treatment plants produce thousands of tonnes of treated
sewage sludge every year. This nutrient-rich material is then dried to make
“biosolids”, which are used to fertilise agricultural soil.
Unfortunately every kilogram of biosolids also contains thousands of tiny
pieces of plastic. These pieces are so small they can only be seen under a
microscope, so they’re called microplastics.
In our new research, we sampled biosolids from three states and calculated the
average contribution of microplastics per person: 3g in New South Wales and
4.5g in Queensland. But the average in South Australia was 11.5g – that’s about
the same amount of plastic as a plastic bag.
Roughly 80% of this microplastic comes from washing clothes. We need to protect
agricultural soil from contamination by making simple changes at home,
mandating filters on washing machines and introducing more effective wastewater
treatment."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
