Those materials which cannot be broken down or decomposed into the soil by natural agents are labeled as non-biodegradable. These substances consist of plastic materials, metal scraps, aluminum cans and bottles, hazardous chemicals etc.
Published in Chapter:
Detrimental Impact of Plastic Outcome on Agriculture: Biggest Threat to Environment
Shivom Singh (ITM University Gwalior, India), Prachi Dixit (ITM University Gwalior, India), Kajal S. Rathore (Government KRG Autonomous College, India), and Neha Sharma (Amity University Madhya Pradesh, India)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9452-9.ch007
Abstract
Generally, plastic is made up of non-biodegradable chemicals i.e. polyolefin, polyester, and polyurethanes. This is hardly surprising since the use of polythene bags has infiltrated all sectors of economy, agriculture, consumer goods, and especially in packaging, where polythene is increasingly replacing jute, paper, wood, and glass. Polythene bags can release harmful chemicals into the surrounding agricultural soil, which can then seep into ground water or other surrounding water sources. This can cause serious harm to the species that drink this water. Unlike natural organic material they do not disintegrate with time but keep accumulating in the environment. So it is very difficult to dispose of the polythene bags. If the polythene bags burned in agriculture land, they release harmful chemicals like Cd, Pb, CO, NOX and SO2, which causes many diseases in animals as well as in human beings. The accumulation of polythene bags also makes agricultural soil sterile/barren as it stops the gaseous exchange. In normal agricultural land, the concentration of oxygen is 3 ppm. Where polythene is present, the concentration of oxygen in soil decreases to 0.001 ppm. In addition, the polythene pollution can adversely affect agricultural lands, waterways, and oceans.