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Plastic in Agricultural Production: Impacts, Lifecycles and LONg-term Sustainability

Project description

DE EN ES FR IT PL

Life cycle and impacts of agricultural plastics

The EU-funded PAPILLONS project will investigate the sustainability of agricultural plastics (AP) in relation to releases and impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNP) in European soils. The initiative will promote knowledge on sources, behaviour and impacts through cross-disciplinary research, bringing together experts from chemistry, materials engineering, agronomy, soil ecology, toxicology and social sciences. PAPILLONS will transform the knowledge generated into guidance for policy-makers, the agricultural sector and world-class industries to promote sustainable farm production systems. Researchers will deliver the first digital European atlas of AP use, management and waste production to estimate sources of MNP in agricultural soils and integrate studies at laboratory, mesocosm and field scales in different parts of Europe.

Objective

PAPILLONS will elucidate ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of agricultural plastics (APs) in relation to releases and impacts of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) in European soils. We will advance knowledge on sources, behaviour and impacts through cross-disciplinary research, bringing together scientists from chemistry, materials engineering, agronomy, soil ecology, toxicology and social sciences. We will transform the scientific knowledge generated into guidance on specific solutions by applying a Multi-actor approach, involving actors in the agricultural and policy sector and world-leading industries. This will enable co-creation of knowledge and provide the scientific background to enable policy, agricultural and industrial innovation towards sustainable farm production systems.
We will deliver the first digital European atlas of AP use, management and waste production to estimate sources of MNP to agricultural soils. We will run integrative studies at laboratory, mesocosm and field scales in different parts of Europe to address: occurrence of AP-derived MNPs; MNP behaviour and transport in soil; uptake by biota and crops; long-term impacts on soil properties, fertility and ecological services; effects on biological and functional diversity across multiple scales; effects on plant production and quality; and socioeconomic impacts of AP-based practices. We will focus on multigenerational effect studies for relevant traditional and biodegradable polymers, at realistic and future high-exposure scenarios.
PAPILLONS partners pioneered soil MNP research, host the majority of European analytical capacity for assessing soil contamination and will provide validated, high-throughput analysis for MNPs in soil. Using innovative applications of state-of-the-art analytical chemistry, we will advance analysis down to the nanoscale range and develop novel radiolabelled nanoplastics for accurately tracking behaviour and transport in soil and uptake by biota and crops.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

NORSK INSTITUTT FOR VANNFORSKNING
Net EU contribution
€ 858 631,00
Address
OKERNVEIEN 94
0579 Oslo
Norway

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Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 918 631,25

Participants (20)

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Last update: 17 March 2025

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European Union, 2025