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I see that ocean is full of plastic and that causes plastic to be in seafood.

So my question is:

If intentionally or non-intentionally plastic is introduced into soil, could that lead to plastic travelling from the roots into the tree or plant and hence in vegetables/ fruit of the plant/tree?

I guess Rubber mulch will end up in garden plants and then to the insects.

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  • sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935120305703
    – mina
    Dec 25, 2022 at 17:51
  • Rubber mulch is, IMO, an environmental nightmare that can actually be toxic to plants. See here: s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/rubber-mulch.pdf Rubber mulch DOES break down and can leach nasty chemicals into your soil. Newer research shows its flammability, however, is really only a factor if you live in wildfire-prone areas, Ground tires (which is what rubber mulch is) can give you scratches and puncture wounds when working with it, and if you plant within rubber mulch you wind up burying it, which encourages it to break down and makes your getting injuries more likely.
    – Jurp
    Jan 5 at 12:10
  • My opinion is that it can't as the bits of plastic that are called micro-plastics are not fine enough.
    – Rohit Gupta
    Jan 28 at 1:55

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The short answer is Yes and is backed by scientific studies:

This link from 2020 contains a link to one of the two studies it cites that have found microplastic contamination (link is here). As I would've expected, a root vegetable (carrots) is the most affected vegetable.

Now, a person could say "Jurp, that article you cited is from a website that is dedicated to getting rid of plastics." And they'd be correct. This link, however, is from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is also from 2020. It shows definite microplastic contamination in fruits and vegetables.

Going further down the links chain, the post I linked to above was cited by another paper at NIH (link here) that concentrates on toxic effects of the plastic in our food supply.

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