Letting plastic-free mulch rot in the field beats landfilling it
Dada OI, Wang J, Habarakada Liyanage TU, Dahal K, Liu H
Mulching
If you use biodegradable mulch or landscape fabric in your garden beds, leaving it in place to break down rather than hauling it off actually reduces its overall environmental footprint the most.
Scientists compared what happens to different plastic mulch films used to cover strawberry fields once the growing season ends: some get thrown in a landfill, some get composted, some go through a biogas digester, and some are simply left in the soil to biodegrade. Letting biodegradable films break down right in the soil turned out to be the best option overall, beating landfilling regular plastic mulch by up to 18%. The films made mostly from a fossil-fuel-based plastic component were the biggest source of environmental impact, so switching to films with less of that ingredient would help even more.
Key Findings
Biodegradable mulch films cut cradle-to-grave environmental impacts by 7.5-9.02% versus landfilled polyethylene mulch (per functional unit), rising to 12.32-18.21% on an equal areal-weight basis.
Soil biodegradation was the best end-of-life option because it avoided waste collection/disposal and credited the film's biomass as a soil amendment; anaerobic digestion (especially for the starch-blend film) performed nearly as well via biogas energy recovery.
The fossil-derived plastic component (PBAT) drove most manufacturing impacts, contributing over 90% of impacts in one film blend and 68-96% in the other, including about 93% of global warming potential in both.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Biodegradable mulch films that farmers leave in the soil to break down naturally are better for the environment than traditional plastic mulch sent to landfills, cutting overall environmental impact by up to 18%.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Life cycle assessment of biodegradable mulch films in strawberry production under alternative end-of-life scenarios.
Biodegradable mulch films (BDMs) can reduce agricultural plastic waste, but their environmental benefits depend on film composition, material properties, and end-of-life (EoL) management. This stud...
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