A review of agricultural plastic waste generation and consolidation in Europe is presented. A detailed geographical mapping of the agricultural plastic use and waste generation in Europe was conducted focusing on areas of high concentration of agricultural plastics. Quantitative data and analysis of the agricultural plastic waste generation by category, geographical distribution and compositional range, and physical characteristics of the agricultural plastic waste per use and the temporal distribution of the waste generation are presented. Data were collected and cross-checked from a variety of sources, including European, national and regional services and organizations, local agronomists, retailers and farmers, importers and converters. Missing data were estimated indirectly based on the recorded cultivated areas and the characteristics of the agricultural plastics commonly used in the particular regions. The temporal distribution, the composition and physical characteristics of the agricultural plastic waste streams were mapped by category and by application. This study represents the first systematic effort to map and analyse agricultural plastic waste generation and consolidation in Europe.
The critical review of norms and standards and\ud
corresponding tests to determine the compostability of\ud
biodegradable plastics, possibly applicable also to biodegradable\ud
agricultural plastics, shows that many norms\ud
concerning testing and labelling of compostable plastics\ud
have been established at the international level. Some of\ud
them are about plastic materials, some others are about\ud
products like packaging. The media and conditions of\ud
testing cover mainly the conditions designed for industrial\ud
composting facilities, and only a few concern home composting\ud
conditions. Considering that the end of life management\ud
of biodegradable agricultural plastic products will\ud
be done at the farm to reduce the management of the waste\ud
and also its cost, only a few of these norms are considered\ud
to be suitable for adaptation to cover also biodegradable\ud
agricultural plastic products. The biodegradability validation\ud
criteria under composting conditions, such as the\ud
threshold percentage of biodegradation and disintegration,\ud
the time and temperature, and the ecotoxicity, are presented for the main norms and standard testing methods. Based on\ud
these different norms and their content, a list of specs and\ud
technical requirements that could be adapted to meet farm\ud
composting conditions for agricultural compostable plastics\ud
is proposed. These requirements may be used as criteria\ud
for the establishment of a new integrative norm for\ud
agricultural compostable plastics
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