Alarming garden discovery prompts warning to Aussies: 'Not safe'

Aussie gardeners looking to get their hands dirty and grow their own vegetables have been issued a warning about the quality of potting mix after a man hoping to do just that made a grim discovery.

The green-thumbed dad told Yahoo News Australia he had just built the garden for his fiancé as a birthday present when he began unloading soil bought from a supplier to kickstart his backyard veggie patch dreams when he noticed "a lot" of plastic and glass throughout the premium mix he had bought.

"The entire point of the garden was to grow organic vegetables to feed my family," he told Yahoo.

Phoning the supplier he was informed that the material used in the soil is recycled, and it is "all certified and it's safe". He continued to unload the soil but as it dried out, he began noticing "more and more" pieces of plastic. "I don’t think it’s safe to be growing vegetables with so much plastic in the soil," he said.

"I ended up removing all the soil from the garden and spreading it through the yard. Placing the soil was supposed to be the easy part of the project."

It's not the first instance of plastic being found in potting mix, with Victorian man Ryan, who runs the Culinary Garden, telling Yahoo it was the catalyst for him starting his educational YouTube channel.

"One of the big turning points that led me to create my channel was when I got a big load of veggie soil mix delivered, and it was full of shredded plastic pieces," he told Yahoo News Australia.

FOGO green bin mistake contributing to soil problem

Ryan advises that for those looking to buy large amounts of soil, it's important to inspect the soil in person. "When buying bulk soil try to go to the supplier to inspect the soil mix first," he said.

"There are two main garden/landscape suppliers in my area, one sells soil full of plastic, and the other sells premium soil mix that I've never found a single shred of plastic in."

He adds that to prevent this issue in the future, all Aussies should avoid putting anything plastic in our green waste bins. "Most of your green waste ends up at processing facilities that turn that material into mulch, compost, and potting mixes that end up back in Aussie gardens," he explained.

Residential food and green waste is often sent by councils to organics facilities that turn it into high-quality compost. If plastic isn't filtered out, it will end up in the compost.

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Plastics are found everywhere in the world

Microplastics entering our food systems is one of the biggest problems impacting humans. Dr Michelle Blewitt of the Australian Microplastic Assessment Project (AUSMAP), previously told Yahoo that they are found all over the world, not only in our food but also in our bodies.

"They've now found plastics in just about everything from salt, to honey, to vegetables — it's even being taken up by the roots," she said.

"It's being found in men's testicles, so they think it could lead to a decline in fertility. It's been found in brain tissue. It's been found in arteries, clogged arteries of heart patients."

Plastic is not only a major polluter, but it's also found to have “alarming links” to adverse health impacts, including lesions, cervical cancer, and other diseases, researchers suggest.

Ryan echoes the need for Aussies to put plastics at the forefront of their minds.

"Try to reduce single-use plastics, buy produce from local grocers instead of the big supermarkets that wrap individual veggies in plastic, or learn to grow some of your own food," he suggests, adding that lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow that "will save you money and reduce your plastic footprint'.

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