"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. [2]