Growers of crops like strawberries, raspberries, pumpkins, tomatoes, and melons depend on plastic mulch to enhance productivity. But that mulch is rarely recycled, and the soil-biodegradable version isn’t allowed in domestic organic production. Consequently, every year an estimated 2.5 million tons of plastic mulch is dumped into landfills, tilled into the soil, or burned, leading to global terrestrial and aquatic pollution. And that number is rising as more growers worldwide adopt plastic mulch without viable, sustainable end-of-life options for waste management.
Washington State University is leading a new project that aims to advance soil-biodegradable mulches and develop innovative methods for recycling the plastic. The projects is funded by an $8 million, four-year Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The program will focus on strawberries as a model crop because it’s a popular crop grown throughout the country in different weather situations and soil systems. Scientists, extension specialists, and growers in California, Florida, Nebraska, and Washington will all participate. Companies such as Driscoll’s and Natureripe are also collaborating on the project.
Plastic mulch is long black plastic strips laid down in fields to suppress weed growth, optimize soil temperatures, reduce water loss, and produce higher yields of clean fruits and vegetables free of soil debris. Its usage leads to significantly reduced herbicide application, fewer crops lost to rot from soil contact, a jump start on the growing season, yield enhancements, and improved profitability.