If humanity has an epitaph, it can read something like this: “knackered of things we missed.” It is true that many existing threats are widely known and widely discussed. But some of the greatest risks we face will appear on almost no radar.
How often do you think about this one: spreading a sewage sludge? I would like to guess that few will include it at their leading danger of civilization. Despite the best effort of a handful of us, it runs, not most people know. Surprisingly, the new research suggests that this will help call us time.
In principle, we must restore human waste to the field, as it is rich in nutrition. But thanks to the years of regulatory failure, this waste in many countries has now been infected with a wide range of poisons. Some come from runoff to sewers: from roads, building sites, home and commercial areas. But what we have discovered today is that a good volume of contaminants has been introduced intentionally.
In some sewage farms, you can witness lorries tankers that line up to offload liquid waste. In exchange for the water company fee, they can pour this effluent into “head of works” (the top of the sewage processing chain). Whistleblowers from the Environment Agency report that these loads are barely tested. The test that occurs is often for chemicals that can damage the sewage equipment, rather than poisonous people and ecosystems. Fees appear to create an incentive for water companies to become a blind eye.
Many of these tanks deliver leaches from landfill sites, which contain a dense cocktail of pollutants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, or “forever chemical”), other ongoing organic compounds, pharmacist and thick mud microplastics. Some tanks come from, well, who knows where? Lack of adequate test looks like an open invitation to organized crime, which, thanks to a total failure of implementation, has now has been able to cure the most dangerous UK waste disposal market. Together, the whistleblowers estimated, in England about 1m tons a year of liquid effluent was thrown under this system in sewage works.
Where are these poisons going? Some of these, especially soluble compounds, are washed by sewage and our rivers and seas. Some are confined to mud. Where does the mud go? Almost 87% of it is sold or given to farmers and spread their land as fertilizer.
What is the content of this fertilizer? Good question. It is tested (if at all) only for fluoride, heavy metal and bacteria. No tests are conducted for most potential contaminated. From itself, restrained research, we know that it is likely to contain poisons such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, furans, benzo (a) pyrene, polychlorinated biphenyls and phthalates, many of which are bio-accused on the ground. A study published this month by the James Hutton Institute was found that after a four -year sewage sludge spread, microplastic levels in the tested fields increased by up to 1,450%. It was also discovered that there was no small reduction in the soil of microplastics that was thrown 22 years ago: Once they arrived, they did not leave.
An end of last year’s end year report was found forever chemicals in sewage sewage sold to farmers at levels up to 135 times higher than those considered safe by scientists. Almost all of the mud samples it takes has concentration above the risk threshold. For these reasons, Switzerland and the Netherlands banned the spread of mud.
The new research I mentioned initially shows how microplastics absorbed by plants can severely prevent fotosynthesis, and therefore produce the yield. All the major sources of microplastics in the fields of the farm are derived from stunning neglect. In some places, microplastic trailers are intentionally spreading farmers to make the soil more fruit. Some are introduced into the soil in the form of pelleted fertilizers, coated with polyurethane, polystyrene, PVC, polyacrylonitrile or other synthetic polymers. Some can now come from oxo-degradable plastic sheeting. Oxo-degradable polymers are ordinary plastic mixed with compounds that will ensure they will be destroyed in microplastics after a while, allowing farmers to plow them when they do their job. Such plastic was banned in the EU, but would remain legal in the UK. Good old Brexit, eh?
But the main source of microplastics in the fields is that the sludge sludge is likely to spread. What is the combined effect on microplastics crops and the many other toxic compounds in the contaminated sludge sludge? Again, no one knows.
At any point in the chain is a sufficient regular test conducted: not in the contents of the tanks before they appear on the sewers; not in the mud sent to the fields; not in fields receiving repeated applications; Not in the crops, meat and milk that come from those fields. But with one thing we can be sure: like the chemicals themselves, the effects will accumulate over time.
If comprehensive farm test is ever conducted, we will find that large areas are too toxic for safe food production. Even the government’s own research warns that the combined -impact of these pollutants can provide the soil “no longer … suitable for supporting yield growth”. We have to deal with this issue as the global food system looks dangerous.
The legal campaign fighting the dirty, which three of us set up, sought the Environment Agency obliged to set a date for proper sewage sludge regulation spreading the farm. We lost our case, partly on the grounds that the environmental agency had no duty to act without the direction of the government, but no direction was given. The judge also concluded that the contaminated spread of mud could not be considered “something needed urgent”, as the environmental agency did not treat it. They may make sense to the law, but these basics look at me like circular reasoning.
We have discovered from court papers that have repeatedly pressed the agency for a “ministerial steer”, but one does not receive, and better regulation is prevented by resistance from water companies and waste industry. Life is just full of surprises.
The case has revealed a massive law loophole, which is still failed by the government. I was told that officers in the Department for the environment, food and rural activities flowed the result: three cheers for mass contamination!
Maybe another epitaph will read, “some of us tried, but no one would listen to power.” A shorter version is, “RIP FFS.”
