Plastic. THE scourge of the allotment.

I've had a new (half) allotment for two months now. Just starting to put things in.

I have had a decent sized garden before, rotavator, grown veg & cut the grass, tended to flower beds etc, and all OK.

HOWEVER.

I have never, ever come across a domestic or agricultural piece of ground that is so heavily contaminated as this allotment plot.

It's absolutely appalling. The plot had been vacant for some years; "weed control fabric" of various sorts had been used by the previous tenant, and the furry "non woven" cloth had bald patches on it and was in pieces, the woven black do-do (thank you automoderater) had been cut, frayed, with strands and fibres escaping into the soil; there are plastic labels, plastic cable ties, fragments of "damp proof membrane", bags, netting, strimmer line, plastic covered wire and all sorts of other general detritus in the soil.

I pulled up as much cloth, which had been anchored to the ground from below and above by growing things and put it in the bin. All the other fragments of pegs, cloth, sheet, net, bags etc. I pick out and bin as I find them.

BUT it's a lost battle. Rotavating allows some fibres to be removed, since they build up on the blades and can be removed; it's the frog hopping halfway across the pond, halfway again, and again, and which will never ever reach the other side - there is no way on God's earth that all the plastic can ever be got rid of.

So it will stay there, and fragment; be degraded by the sun and turn into tiny fragments, be dug over and rub into pieces, whatever.

I feel like putting up a big sign: "CONTAMINATED LAND".

The result is of all this (pardon me) "do-do" is nanoplastics - tiny fragments or fibres of wretched plastic which will be almost forever in the soil, which will be taken up by plants, especially but not limited to root vegetables, and eaten by us, and get into our bodies, and be part of us forever.

I look around the other plots. Wretched weed control fabric is abundant. Wretched polythene sheet, turning to wretched flakes and getting mixed in with the soil. Bits of wretched polytunnel plastic, wretched plastic labels, wretched plastic nets of all sorts, fibres from old polypropylene and other wretched plastic carpets, you name it, the filthy stuff's in the soil.

BAN IT!

I have actually considered giving the plot up. I don't think I want to eat nanoplastic, and yes, while it's present in some farmland, it's nowhere near as bad a problem there, the contamination is at least an order of magnitude less. And one of the reasons for having an allotment is to grow "clean" food! GAH!

My paid work life is in environmental cleanup. I am neither a doubter nor a believer in the concern over microplastics. I watch the issue with interest, but honestly, I am not convinced one way or the other on the issue.

Having said that - nobody wants to grow their food in a garbage tip!    Many of you know I grow my vegetables on my own property, but I sympathize with anyone that has to dig multiple layers of weed barrier, carpet, twist ties, etc. out of an allotment plot.  I wish some allotment-holders would think more about the people down the road (chronologically) that might hold their allotment in the future, and treat allotment plots as a treasured resource for future generations. I will admit that on my own property, bits of zip tie, twist tie plant labels, etc. sometimes escape me; I do pick those up when I find them.

Sorry for the mess you have inherited RJY.  After picking out the really big stuff, your best bet might be to make a large hardware cloth sieve and do your best to sieve out as much as you can. After that, when you turn the soil, pick out the rubbish when you find it.  Something I do is keep a few nursery pot stations here and there near my raised beds.  These are trash collection points.  When I find bits of plastic, glass, rock, tile etc. in the garden, they accumulate in the trash collection points, and eventually end up in the weekly rubbish in my wheelie bin, destined for the landfill.

I wouldn't be in favour of an all out ban. Plastic isn't evil but only becomes harmful if mis-used.
I put porous black plastic over prepared beds to warm the soil and create a sterile seed bed before planting.
The edges don't fray if its cut & then heated (although you do get a few sharp bits you need to be careful of sometimes). I fold it up & move it when its job is done for the year. I wouldn't want to be banned from using it.
I agree that good management is the answer.
I gave up my allotment & took on a croft many years ago but the same principles apply. Officially you are meant to leave a croft in a condition that the next generation can farm it in whatever way they like. So not even putting a lot of concrete paths or raised beds in, that dictate how it would have to be used, let alone contaminating it. In practice the "croft assessors" are old men who regard it as an honorary, social distinction & don't want to rock the boat in a small community. There are people using their croft to burn refuse, including plastics and batteries, or sub-letting to a builder who dumps rubbish.

I suppose you'd have to say we should all get onto committees & take a stand for tidiness and proper use but that would be "do as I say; not as I do" as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to rock the boat either!

I wouldn't be in favour of an all out ban. Plastic isn't evil but only becomes harmful if mis-used.
I put porous black plastic over prepared beds to warm the soil and create a sterile seed bed before planting.
The edges don't fray if its cut & then heated (although you do get a few sharp bits you need to be careful of sometimes). I fold it up & move it when its job is done for the year. I wouldn't want to be banned from using it.
I agree that good management is the answer.
I gave up my allotment & took on a croft many years ago but the same principles apply. Officially you are meant to leave a croft in a condition that the next generation can farm it in whatever way they like. So not even putting a lot of concrete paths or raised beds in, that dictate how it would have to be used, let alone contaminating it. In practice the "croft assessors" are old men who regard it as an honorary, social distinction & don't want to rock the boat in a small community. There are people using their croft to burn refuse, including plastics and batteries, or sub-letting to a builder who dumps rubbish.

I suppose you'd have to say we should all get onto committees & take a stand for tidiness and proper use but that would be "do as I say; not as I do" as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to rock the boat either!

What an interesting post C&W, I thought you owned your Croft or maybe rented it from an owner, I’d never realised(or really thought about those points tbh)