"The invisible pollution may linger for centuries."
"When someone asks farmer Naiku Gaikwad about soil pollution in his village, he points to an abandoned 40-foot well filled with plastic.
“After harvesting their crops, farmers here toss hundreds of kilograms of plastic mulch into this well,” said the 69-year-old farmer from Jambhali village in Maharashtra, India.
Farmers started using plastic mulch in this village two decades ago because it provided short-term benefits like earlier harvests, increased water-use efficiency, higher yields, and reduced labor costs.
The mulch is a thin, flexible sheet, usually black- or silver-colored, that farmers spread over the soil like a blanket to suppress weeds, retain moisture, and regulate soil temperature."
Sanket Jain reports for Yale Climate News June 4, 2025.
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