Microplastics in AgrochemicalsBack
1 What are microplastics?
They are solid plastic particles composed of polymeric mixtures and functional additives, having dimensions inferior to 5 mm. Microplastics are intentionally added to several products, including cosmetics, detergents, pesticides, and fertilizers, to provide specific properties.
ECHA (European Chemical Agency) estimated that in the EU, the annual consumption of microplastics is around 145.000 tons.
2 Why are microplastics dangerous?
Microplastic enter the environment and cannot be biodegraded; they have been found in terrestrial and aquatic environments, as well as in food and potable water.
This clearly created big concerns in respect to their harmful effect on humans and animal health as well as the environment's preservation.
The arctic is pervasively polluted by microplastic: most of the samples were taken from 3-8 meters below the surface, where much marine life feeds.
3 Microplastics and agrochemistry
ECHAreleased a restriction proposal on microplastics for agricultural purposes: these restrictions involve any type of polymeric material used in agriculture and Polymers are
widely used in the agricultural field because they increase the efficiency of pesticides and herbicides, improve correct release in the soil of micronutrients and fertilizers, and are primarily used for seed coating procedures.
Microplastics are considered persistent pollutants, impacting the quality of soils and entering the food chain of soil fauna.
4 Is there a non-polluting solution?
Polymers with solubility greater than2 g/L suffer no restrictions because they do not release microplastics: our range of polymers for the agro market is out of concern.
In fact, OPARYL DT SERIES are naphthalene sulfonates condensed polymers fully soluble in water over2 g/L of concentration. They are Effective dispersing agents for crop-protection formulations and Anti-caking agents for granule fertilizers.