German researchers show how biodegradable plastics could be problematic for soil

In Germany, in two recent studies, soil ecologists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) have shown which microbial community is responsible for degradation, what role the climate plays in this process, and why biodegradable plastics could still be problematic.

Plastic that ends up in soils, oceans, or inland waters can harm the organisms living there and lead to serious and long-term disruptions in the ecosystems. The development and increased use of biodegradable plastics is therefore the focus of a more ecological economy. “But despite the positive image of biodegradable plastics, we still know very little about how they act in the soil or how they are degraded”, says Prof. François Buscot, soil ecologist at the UFZ.

In order to shed more light on this, Buscot’s research team investigated the following questions in a recent study published in Environmental Science and Technology: How quickly does biodegradable plastic degrade? Which micro-organisms are involved? How do they interact? Which conditions promote the degradation process? And which inhibit it? “We also wanted to know how the changing temperatures and precipitation levels resulting from climate change affect the degradability of the plastics”, explains Dr Witoon Purahong, also a soil ecologist at the UFZ and lead author of the study.