Cultivating Plastic Part 3: Agriplastic waste mismanagement and criminality

British farms produce 135,500 tonnes of soil-contaminated agricultural plastic waste each year – roughly equivalent in weight to 900 adult blue whales.

But according to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, it is estimated that only 20-30 per cent is reprocessed into new products while the rest is disposed of, including illegal burning, burying, dumping or export (which often entails illegal plastic waste exports ultimately being burnt or dumped abroad).