AGRICULTURAL FILM | MATERIALS
cases. For greenhouse film, pesticide is sprayed from 3-5m away, the film is typically 120-200 microns thick, and can overheat from contact with the steel frame. For mulch film, the film in thinner (usually 12-25 microns), is usually exposed to iron and copper substances at the same time, and is typically exposed directly to pesticides. This all makes the mulch film more likely to degrade due to pesticides. There are many reasons behind mulch film
PBAT mulch films. Microscopic analysis showed that decomposition occurred on the surface after three months.
Mulch analysis Francis Rodrigues, head of technical services at Plastiblends India – a masterbatch supplier – said that many greenhouse and mulch films are plagued by a typical problem: high basicity HALS stabilisers being destroyed by pesticides. He pointed out key differences between the two
failure, he said – including the choice of UV stabiliser, film thickness, contaminants (such as iron) and the amount of pesticide used. He went through a number of case studies – in which mulch films had been studied by various analytical techniques. In one, white/black mulch film – 20-22 microns thick – failed within 45 days, despite having a claimed UV stabiliser loading of around 0.3%. “The actual UV stabilisation was less than 0.075%,” he told delegates.
One test carried out was an amine reactivity test
– which revealed the true level of the UV stabiliser. In addition, HPLC analysis detected no HALS UV stabiliser in the failed film. “Was it a very low dosage – or had it been completely deactivated?” Rodrigues said.
Left: Minagris is a pan-European research project that assesses the effects of micro- and
nano-plastics in the soil
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HALL 10, BOOTH R39
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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