Assessing the plastic contamination in agricultural soils: a protocol from nano to macro implemented in 220 fields across Europe

Plastic use in agriculture has tremendously increased in the past decades resulting in plastic contamination in soils. Several studies intended to quantify the level on the plastic contamination is soil, facing the limitation in size, plastic density and polymer types. For the project MINAGRIS, a monitoring plan is implemented in 11 Case Study Sites (CSS) across Europe, combining four different protocols to quantify nanoplastics, microplastics, mesoplastics and macroplastics contamination in soil. The sampling range to 0.1 m3 of soil searched for macroplastics, 500g soil for mesoplastics, 5g soil for microplastics and nanoplastics. Macroplastics and mesoplastic will be quantified by wheight, area, and single-point ATR-FTIR. Microplastics will be quantified with Vibrational spectroscopy imaging with MCT FTIR (LUMOS II) and FPA FTIR (Cary 620 FTIR). The identification method for nanoplastic is still under development. We will present how combining several sampling strategies and analysis protocol we can assess a wide size distribution of plastic debris in soil.