Commercial Composting Irreversibly Pollutes Our Lands With Toxic Microplastics
Even Boulder’s Eco-Cycle understands and is concerned about the profound environmental risk of spreading commercial compost derived from post-consumer waste streams onto agricultural lands and open space. Scientists the world over share the emerging concern and are recording evidence of unprecedented toxic bioaccumulation of microplastics in terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Despite these concerns, Boulder County is pursuing development of an industrial-scale composting facility that DOES NOT have the capacity to remove microplastic particles from their finished products before they are reintroduced into the local ecosystem. The unintended consequence risk of the County’s feel-good “Zero Waste” initiative that will see Open Space paved, water quality threatened and soil irreparably polluted with microplastic toxins are simply too great to be ignored.
Unlike backyard-scale composting, industrial-scale composting that grinds food and waste scraps collected from homes and restaurants is highly contaminated with plastics (straws, drink lids, microplastic-coated food containers, etc.) that are irretrievably commingled into the finished compost.