 So I suggest we wait a couple of minutes before the opening. I see that participants are joining. The numbers are increasing exponentially. Okay, let me start. First of all, warm welcome to all participants joining us, I think from all parts of the world. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all of you. And it's really a pleasure to open this webinar jointly organized by FAU and UNEP to discuss sustainability of agricultural plastics use. Today, we will be speaking about benefits, about the trade-offs, but also about negative impacts of agricultural plastics on soil health. As many of us know, when plastic resins and plastic films have been introduced in 1960s, plastic literally has become an integral part of agricultural production, to the point that quite often you can hear the term plastic culture, which is specifically applied to plastics use in the agri-food sector. I'm very pleased to say that today we released Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a release a new report, Assessment of Agricultural Plastics and their Sustainability, a call for action. I'm gonna ask my colleagues to put link to the report in the chat. And I think as we are speaking today, you will have an opportunity to download the report and ask maybe even more targeted questions. In the report, we estimate that 2019 agricultural value chains used 12.5 million tons of plastic. And this has to be complimented by 37.3 million tons of plastics used in packaging, in food packaging, which is in many of you know. So literally one third of this amount of food packaging amount is used in agricultural production. Out of it, the majority of 10 million tons annually is used by crop production and livestock sector. 2.1 million tons are being used in fisheries and aquaculture. And 0.2 million tons are used in the forest sector. Plastics in agriculture has many benefits. And I think we'll hear about this today, which supported increased yields. But also these benefits came at costs, which we can see that in this report quite significant. And again, our panelists will be speaking about those impacts of plastic pollution specifically in soils and other environment. To dive into these issues, we have today with us, Eduardo Mansur, who is the director of the Office of Climate Change by Diversity and Environment at FAO. And Letitia Carvalo, who is the head of Marine and Freshwater Branch in the Systems Division of UNEP. They will be followed up by Richard Thomson, who is one of the lead officers of the report, who will present a FAO report. And Christina Tegesson from UNEP, who will present a working paper produced by UNEP, Plastics in Agriculture, Sources and Impacts. Then this remarks will be followed by the panel discussion moderated jointly by FAO and UNEP colleagues. And also we are very pleased to have with us, Sharifa Boyang, who is representing the Farmers Association. Please feel free to drop any questions you will have in the chat. We will try to answer as quickly as we can during the discussion today. Also, please prepare your questions for panel discussion. I would very much appreciate if you also could use chat to introduce yourself from where you come from. We would like to see really the diversity of participants today. And with that, without further ado, I leave the floor for Eduardo Mansoor, Director of Office of Climate Change by the Western Environment at FAO. The floor is yours, Eduardo. Thank you very much, Lev, dear colleagues. A special thank you for my fellow citizen, Leticia, from UNEP that is joining us today here and the other colleagues from UNEP. This is a joint event put together by FAO and UNEP to welcome you. And we are extremely happy to see the number of participants here at 350 plus colleagues from all over the world, from East and West. So good evening, good afternoon, and good morning, depending on where you are at the work. This dialogue has been put together by FAO and UNEP under the celebration of the World Soil Day, which, as you know, is a UN observance on 5 December. So it's still in the spirit of the World Soil Day. I'm Eduardo Mansoor, I'm the Director of the Office of Climate Change by the Western Environment here at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. I'm talking to you from Rome in Italy. And we are very excited with the launch today of this report, Assessment of Agriculture of Plastics and their Sustainability. We know that there is much visibility in the world about the impact of plastics in oceans and not as much, and not much is known also about plastics impact on land. Hence, the focus of the report that's been launched today and of this technical webinar is on the impact of plastics on soils and in the agri-food systems. From the point of view of the agricultural use of the food systems use, we are calling the event, if you see in the banner and in the background of the colleagues, it says agricultural plastics, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because there are these three realities there. On the good, we know that plastic is unadaptable, low-cost material. It's frequently used in agriculture. It's only present in agriculture and food systems. It helps agriculture productivity. Mouch films, for instance, are used when cover soil for reducing weed growth, reducing the need for pesticides, the need for irrigation. In Europe, where we live here, you always see plastic, for instance, at this time of the year, wrapping the hay to conserve the feed for animals. Plastic is widely used in greenhouse nets to protect, to boost plant growth, to extend crop seasons, to increase yield. Even plastic tree gardens, you see in tree nurseries, protecting the seedlings against damage of animals. In food systems, plastics products are everywhere because they reduce food loss and waste. They help maintain the nutritional quality, conserve the elements, so throughout the value chain. But let's look at what happens if we don't manage, if we don't look at it carefully. For instance, this year, the World Soil Day theme is on how soil salinization boosts soil productivity. And this campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy ecosystem by addressing growing challenges in soil management, including soil salinization, soil solidification. And farmers impacted by soil salinization have been turned into the use of plastic mulch and drip irrigation to reduce impacts. The problem, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, is not there. The problem is when it comes bad or it comes the ugly parts of the plastic used in agriculture and food systems. Single-use plastic is bad anywhere and it's not different in the agriculture sectors because it can become a serious pollutant. Also, the polymers and the additives blended into plastics, they make their sorting, their recycling more difficult. And when losing the environment, plastics can cause harm in several ways. And the disintegration of plastics in micro and nanoparticles, because you know of the durability of plastic in the environment, they can further affect the environment. They affect animal health and they may affect human life. The demand for agriculture plastics is increasing. I think Levin, in the beginning, explained to us the figures. They are impressive. They will continue to grow. So there is an urgent need for us to better monitor the quantities of plastic products that are used and that are leaked into the environment from agriculture and promote the circularity that is needed to reduce plastic waste, to reduce the pollution caused by plastic from agriculture and to promote prevention of course, and recycling. Here at the report, you are gonna read about the six arcs approach. The refuse, redesign, reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. By the end of the seminar, everyone should remember these six arcs. The topic will also be discussed not only here, this is a launching of the publication, but we are going to bring it next July to the committee of agriculture, the FAO POAC, where our FAO member countries will look into the theme and will provide guidance to us on how to accelerate action. We have to increase our attention on this aspect, and this is also possible here where we work at the FAO because the strategic framework that we just designed for the period 2022, 2031 has a special program. We call it a priority program on bioeconomy for sustainable food and agriculture. We give particular emphasis in one of the sustainable development goal in debt by priority program. The sustainable development goal 12, indicator 12.4, responsible consumption and production including waste disposal. So the FAO report that we are presenting today is followed also by colleagues from UNEP. We will discuss a new working paper on this topic. And it's so nice to have the UNEP colleagues here. It's a good example of a UN to UN collaboration. And I hope that we motivate with this collaboration here that all of us engage and work together on this because it's too big an issue. No one can do it alone. Increasing collaboration in action on these complex areas is crucial if we want to guarantee sustainability for the agriculture and food system. So the two publications, they partially fill the knowledge gap that exists in this area. They provide good ideas for action towards better management of plastics and in agriculture before and after they reach their end of life. That in agriculture plastics pollution will be an important step also in the UN decayed on ecosystem restoration 2021-2030 which has been launched by the UN General Assembly and is co-led, this decade is co-lead, co-led by FAO and the UN Environment Program, the UNEP. So as a specialized agents in FAO who leads the international efforts for food security and nutrition. And we will continue playing our role to address agriculture plastics in a holistic way within this context of food security, nutrition, food safety, biodiversity, conservation and sustainable agriculture. We are looking very much forward to strengthen our collaboration with all of you to tackle plastic management and the risks of plastics and micro plastics pollution in a comprehensive manner. So don't hesitate to contact us to bring over your ideas, to join efforts to mobilize the resource together for us to advance on this important work towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. There will be no sustainable agriculture and food systems if we don't address the issue of agro plastics. Thank you very much. I return to you Lev and it's a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you very much, Eduardo, for so engaging, welcoming remarks and covering so much ground in the short period of time. It's really my pleasure to give the floor now to Leticia Carvalho. And again, I remind the head of the Marine and Freshwater Branch in the Ecosystems Division of the United Nations Environment Program. Leticia, the floor is yours. Thank you very much Lev and thank you, Eduardo. Greetings from Nairobi and on behalf of UNAP, I'm really happy. It's a great pleasure to be here in this timely discussion about agricultural plastics and also as part of the celebration of the World Soil Day. Indeed, I'm speaking from Nairobi, UNAP, the sister Asians of FAO and also I'm a fellow Brazilian citizen as Eduardo. And I'm also quite engaged in my branch, Marine and Freshwater Branch as well quite engaged in the marine litter and plastic pollution discussions along the life cycle and circular economy. So as already mentioned by Eduardo, plastics have become an increasingly ubiquitous material. We can find it in everywhere in our agri-food chain is not an exception. You can see there plastics are there from greenhouses, moch films and irrigation tubes also to seed coatings and pallets for the controlled release of fertilizers and also into packaging that delivers food from farm to table. So while agricultural plastics can provide this very important short-term benefits such as moisture and temperature control, improve the deficiency of agrochemical and fertilizer use, there are also significant concerns regarding the potential long-term the potential long-term effects on soil and ecosystem health and ultimately on human health because a part of this microplastics can also actually affect human body and human health as well. In addition to the plastics that are used for specific purposes in agriculture, plastics can also find their way into agricultural lands incidentally through various pathways. And for example, microplastics can become highly concentrated in wastewater sludge and biosolids and which are in turn are applied to agricultural fields. So improving wastewater management to find suitable solutions to this problem is imperative. And as we continue to foster safe reuse of wastewater. So as a result of these various sources agricultural soils have become significant sinks for microplastics and the problem doesn't stop there. The flow of plastics from agricultural soils to other ecosystems is also a matter of concern. And if you take a look into the wind surface, runoff and erosion all of this processes can transport micro and microplastics from agricultural fields to waterways and finally to the ocean. And adversely impact marine ecosystems, economies and communities. So then the source to sea approach for agricultural plastics is also extremely relevant. And this comprehensive report that I'm super happy and proud to be here for the launch today. FAO is launching today in the working paper developed jointly by UNAP and Grida and I'll shed an important light on the issue that has not received enough attention yet. And they highlight the needs to fill knowledge gaps around agricultural plastics and provide recommendations for improved management including through reduction and the development and use of alternative materials and systems where possible as well as adequate disposal. So this working paper from UNAP and Grida and I'll focus primarily on the sources and the impacts of plastics and in the agricultural soil. But also we are looking to develop for the joint papers as can as Eduardo mentioned joint papers that can also express the way the UN system is joined hands in order to address source to sea agricultural plastic pollution. And finally, let me just to share with you as we are looking ahead waiting for UNAP 5.2 to take place early next year. Hopefully if COVID and the pandemic allows us to move according to the plan. And we are as well witnessing very closely growing momentum driven by member states, international community, industry, all stakeholders in the pursuit of a global agreement on marine and plastic pollution. And UNAP has been providing support to various recent country driven initiatives and activities including the ministerial conference on this topic that happened and it was organized by Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, Vietnam in last September in Geneva. And there it was a great opportunity also to verify and testimony the momentum for and the great push for the establishment of an international government negotiating committee to develop a global agreement on this urgent topic at UNAP 5.2. In the meanwhile, while we are looking, working together in supporting governments in this journey, I think as Eduardo mentioned, UNAP and FAO are collaborating closely on fostering healthy ecosystems through the UN Decade on Oceans ecosystem restoration. And let me don't forget to mention the UN Decade on Ocean Sustainable Development as well. And these two decades actually representing a lot of great opportunity for the international community to join hands. As the working paper discusses, efforts to maintain healthy agriculture ecosystem should include innovative and in some cases traditional solutions that can reduce the need for plastic materials in agriculture. We are looking for a nature positive food production systems that can recognize the biodiversity underpins the delivery of all ecosystem services on which humanity depends. And we will look to have this conversation with you today in a very informative and enriching presentations and discussions. I really thank you. And as Eduardo mentioned, don't hesitate to reach out to keep connected and to find opportunities to work together. So that's what we are looking for. Back to you, Lav. Thank you very much. Wonderful again. Wonderful words. And I think it's a fantastic segue. I also wanted to mention that as all of us understand it still remains to be an emerging area not only of research but also of practice and the policy. So I really encourage all our participants please share relevant links to the topic. Please express your interest because we will be looking for collaborations. We will be increasing it. I mean, from both sides from both organizations. So please feel free to share it not only for us but for all participants. But now just to test the temperature a little bit within the audience but also get some good get some interesting answers from you. We would like to invite you to take part in the poll. And I think I'm again asking my colleagues to put questions on the screen. This poll includes only a single choice. And I think all of you can see again, thank you. You're very active. I think it's again the technology allows us to to see this in online. So let me see. I'm there are 379 participants today. So let's wait a little bit. Fantastic numbers are still increasing. But I think I will really see the tendency. Maybe I have important to say that to avoid bias the panelists and the host cannot vote. It's the vote from the audience only. Indeed. Indeed. OK, thank you very much. I think the the the the tendencies I don't think will be changed over time but really appreciate your contribution. So it's absolutely clear that I think there are two leading causes of why all of us are interested in this topic and why it's so relevant from the policy management and other perspectives. And I think why we are again, very pleased to launch this study on the World Soil Day. So definitely soil health and impacts of plastics on soil by diversity and also issues related to the impact because of plastics on public health the leading causes and for this reason. But this is again the this is also the reasons that compromised soil health which is an integrated characteristic if you wish. I think we'll ultimately have negative impacts on on all our activities which are associated with soil use. So the cascading effects on crop yield and production and so on and so forth. Thank you very much. I think again without now long ado I am very pleased to welcome Richard Thomson. As I mentioned, one of the lead authors of FAO report to present major findings. Both assessment of agricultural plastics and their sustainability a call for action. Thank you, Lev. Let me share my screen. Good evening, everyone. This is FAO's first global assessment of plastics used in agriculture. As Lev said, I'm one of the authors along with Jane Gilbert who will join us for the panel discussion later and Mark O'Reachie. The report presents the results of a study, excuse me, investing agricultural plastic products used globally in a range of different value chains crop production, livestock, aquaculture and fisheries and forestry. It assesses the types and quantities of plastic products and their benefits and trade-offs. It's based on data derived from peer-reviewed scientific papers, governmental and non-governmental organizations reports as well as from industry experts. Its recommendations were verified during extensive consultation with FAO and external experts, many of whom are participating in this webinar. We thank you all for your valuable contributions. We hope it will provide an impetus for discussion about agricultural plastics, their benefits and trade-offs and ultimately stimulate action to reduce their potential for harm and improve their circularity. So what does it say? So these are the numbers you've heard from Lev and Eduardo. So we estimate that every year, 12.5 million tons of plastic products are used in crop production, livestock production, forestry and fisheries. That's equivalent to 3.5% of the global plastic production. Add to this, close to 37 million tons are used in food packaging. We couldn't find reliable data to estimate plastics used in storage, processing and distribution. So the primary focus of the report is therefore on plastics used in agricultural production. The crop production, livestock sectors of the largest users accounting for just over 10 million tons per year. Incidentally, this is almost the same as the annual quantity of plastic marine litter originating from land-based sources, some 11 million tons. Followed by fisheries and aquaculture at 2.1 million tons and forestry at 0.2 million tons. Now these are also indicative of the annual quantities that become waste or leak to the environment. So what are agricultural plastics? What are we talking about? Well, here are some examples. We have polymer-coated control release fertilizers, fertilizer sacks, fertilizer big bags, seedling plug trays, mulching film, which I'm sure you'll hear a lot about throughout today. Greenhouse films, shade and protective nets, drip irrigation, irrigation pipes, plant supports and ties, pesticide containers, reusable harvesting crates, hermetically sealable sacks for harvest storage, baled nets and twines, silage tubes, film rack for silage bales, covers for bunkers, livestock's ear tags, tree guards, tree labels and ties, fishing nets, boat gear and shellfish traps. And here we have reusable repurposed drums for icing fish and insulated boxes for keeping fish. The quality and availability of data on the types of products used in each region are highly variable. This graph shows our estimates of their global usage in 2018. Films are the largest category used in greenhouse mulching and silage. Industry has projected that their use will increase by 50% within the decade. Benefits and trade-offs, why are they used? You heard, mulching films and drip irrigation have increased cop yields, they've reduced water demand, they've suppressed weed and mold growth on fruit, reducing the use of agrochemicals. Coated fertilizers provide constant delivery of nutrients to the root zone, improving efficiency of uptake, avoiding emissions to atmosphere and runoff to surface waters. Greenhouses and tunnels extend growing seasons, improve yields and quality and give farmers access to new markets. Bagging bananas protects the fruit from weather and insect damage and hermetically sealed sacks reduce food loss during storage. And plastic is ubiquitous in fishing gear through its durability, lightness and effectiveness in catching fish. So what are the trade-offs? The trade-offs in the fishery sector have been well-documented. For example, with ghost gear, continuing to kill fish. An ever-growing body of evidence shows that poor design, selection, usage and end-of-life management leads to adverse impacts of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Often users don't have the capacity for selection, application, management and retrieval of plastics. Most farmers and fishers lack access to sound environmental end-of-life management, resulting in plastic waste often left contaminating soils, coasts and the sea or being dumped and burnt. Only a small fraction is recycled. The introduction of biodegradable plastic films brings additional complexity and challenge because of the variability in degradation depending on local conditions. Evidence from China has shown that accumulation of plastics above 240 kilograms per hectare in surface soils can decrease crop yields by 25%. Our simulation with best practical retrieved rates between 90 and 98% showed that the continuous use of mulching, this level of contamination could be reached between 14 and 70 years. Plastic production also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and thus contributes to climate change. This diagram shows the potential pathways for degraded agricultural practices, plastics to other media and their impacts. Microplastics contamination soil come from degradation during use of agricultural plastics and their inappropriate disposal on farms and the use of soil amendments containing microplastics such as biosolids as the teacher mentioned. Agricultural soils are thought to receive greater quantities of microplastics than oceans. Furthermore, they absorb and concentrate persistent organic pollutants and as such likely present as yet unquantified risk to human health. Microplastics from terrestrial agriculture have been showed to migrate to aquatic agriculture systems. This is now a major topic research with an explosion of publications especially related to contamination of food. There is evidence that nanoplastics may cross cell membranes where there is potential to accumulate and impair cellular physiology and evoke inflammatory responses. Macro and microplastics are thought to present specific risk to animal health through ingestion and biomagnification as shown in some studies. So we selected products for evaluation. We did this by means of an assessment tool. It's used source, the extent and frequency of their use, pathway, the likelihood of plastics entering the environment through damaged degradation littering, receptor, the extent of its contact with terrestrial and aquatic environments and consequence its potential to harm plants, animals and humans. This produced this ranking of the priority products and those from the top were polymer coated fertilizers, mulching films, pesticide containers, silage films and nets, expanded polystyrene fish boxes, irrigation tape, fishing gear and aquaculture cages and pesticide imprinted bags for banana fruit protection. These were further investigated and potential alternatives identified. As the report is about plastic products, we did not assess the biosolid soil amendments that are contaminated with microplastics. These have been addressed in the Global Assessment of Soil Pollution published earlier this year and in UNET's working paper. The study reviewed these priority products in detail, identifying their benefits and trade-offs and the issues that they caused. Strong side of specific evidence shows that plastic products in agriculture can be both beneficial and also detrimental to food security and food safety. However, there is no silver bullet solution to this complex material problem. Many of them lie in systemic application of the six R's approach, which you can see in this diagram. Refuse, redesign, reduce, reuse, recycle and recover the principles of circularity. An option should be assessed for each particular application and in specific local contexts using lifecycle approaches. Some examples of the potential alternatives that we identified include alternative products and practices that avoid plastics use altogether. For example, cover crops and biomass to replace mulching films. Renewable and durable products such as glass and durable plastic covers for greenhouses allow to reduce plastic use. Biodigradable polymers are promising materials for plant support, mulching films. Mandatory extended producer responsibility for the collection and recycling of all non-biodigradable plastics and incentive mechanisms to encourage sustainable practices. In summary, the initial analysis of the management responses suggests that there's no single international government framework that addresses plastics using agriculture holistically and allows to balance its environmental and social economic benefits and trade-offs. So as we've heard from Letitia, there are plans for a new international agreement to be discussed at UNEA next year. This is encouraging news. However, the extent to which agricultural plastics will be addressed and the speed of its negotiation are not certain. Soft law instruments such as in international voluntary guidelines have proven very effective in assisting countries to adopt national legislation covering specific agricultural activities. Good examples of the code of conduct on responsible fisheries and international code of conduct on pesticide management. Because they don't impose obligations on signatory, soft law instruments such as voluntary guidelines can be established more rapidly. They can have a wider scope than international binding agreements. They can also cover obligations of key stakeholder groups, whereas international agreements are limited to obligations of national governments. It's the author's recommendation to adopt a two-pronged approach. While negotiations on binding international agreements proceed, a new holistic voluntary code of conduct, specifically on agricultural plastics, could be established. We think this would be the most effective way to support changes on the ground. This has been proposed for consideration at FAO's Committee for Agriculture next July. We also recommend mainstreaming the issues of agricultural plastics throughout all FAO's instruments and guidance related to good agricultural practice, food security, food safety and nutrition. The new codes could set roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders, including governments, regional bodies, private sectors, sector and users. It could address a number of important aspects, including life cycle thinking and policymaking, regional collaboration approaches for harmonization of practices and products, product and process standards, target setting, licensing and registration of products and processes, and finally, mandatory extended producer responsibility. It could provide a basis for governments to adopt legal policy and management frameworks to address agricultural plastics holistically within the context of food security, nutrition, food safety and sustainable agriculture. The study identified a number of knowledge gaps and areas for further research, the most important of which are the global flows and fates of agricultural plastics, life cycle assessments for fossil-based and bio-based agricultural plastics and their alternatives, pathways and impacts for micro, macro, nanoplastics on aggro ecosystems, food safety and human health, and the behavior and rate of degradation of biodegradable products. And lastly, the impacts of agricultural plastic pollution on microbiomes, soil, water quality and long-term soil productivity. While there are gaps in data, we shouldn't use these as an excuse not to act. So I'd like to share with you a quote from Deputy General Maria Helena Samedo in her forward. This report serves as a loud call to coordinated and decisive action to facilitate good management practice and conserve the disastrous use of plastics across the agricultural sectors. Thank you. Richard, thank you very much for this very comprehensive, excellent presentation. And I would like to acknowledge your contribution but also contribution of two other lead authors of the report. Jane Gilbert, who will take part in the panel later today but also Marco Ricci. It's been extensive research but also the extensive consultations with various stakeholders which led to the production of this first assessment of the first global assessment of agricultural plastics. Thank you very much. Now I would like to give the floor to Christina Tigerson who is the senior expert on waste and marine litter program in Greed Arendelle. And Christina will present the working paper of plastics and agriculture, sources and impacts. The floor is yours, Christina. Thank you. Thank you very much, Lev. So I think my presentation is almost there. I can put the presentation mode. Thank you. So Lev already introduced myself. I'm an expert, I work for Greed Arendelle and I'm gonna present a joint paper between Greed Arendelle and UNEP. I have co-authors and contributors, most of them are here. It's Mahesh, it is Carla, you will hear later in the panel and my dear colleague in Sydney, Professor Lynn Baker. So please start with the next slide. Can you go to the next slide please? So here's the front page, the cover page. We call it working paper, plastic and agriculture, sources and impact. It's the first in a series of working paper and the idea is to increase knowledge. We want to invite to discussion and action among the relevant stakeholders. And we also, with the joint purpose of reducing plastic and contamination of soil. So please next one. I had limited time, so I'm gonna try to show three important points about plastic and soil and also points that we can look at on future working papers. Next one please. The first thing we know is that plastic accumulates in soil and it has been mapped around the world but unfortunately not so extensively. So we see in the top corner here, we see the world. We have some in North and South America, the Middle East and Australia, some in Europe, you see on the left and right side and also a lot in South China and China. The problem with these ones is we don't always match and map the same way. So it's very important that we actually dig into this and find the standard way to map our microplastic in the soil. So we can have a baseline and we can see the future initiatives is gonna change things. So next one please. The second point is this plastic impact soil. We know that and it's both in the structure and in the biology. The picture here was very fascinating. I think it's in soil aggregate that intact with microplastic fibres. And what happens is that this concentrate in the soil it can influence the carbon and the nitrogen cycle and it can also affect microbial and hunger abundance. So it is something that we should look into. And the next point I would raise with the next slide is the fact that plastic can be exported to other ecosystems. On the top, we see the sources that Richard already mentioned in his presentation. Below we see the way that microplastic can move through the system, through the ecosystems. One of them all the way to the right is through the biota. Biota can pull plastic particles down into the soil. We have runoff events in heavy rainfalls when the soil is not covered. And we also have wind transport. This is just some of them. There are of course more. Next slide please. So let's look at two sources of plastic in soil. Of course there are more than two. Let's look at these ones. Next slide please. We have the Maltz film that for multiple purposes. Here it's in Norway. It's early potatoes. It's very cold in April. It can be the cover of the soil and the potatoes and heat the soil which help the plants to grow. Next one please. The second one I want to highlight is the sewage slot and the biosolids. It's fantastic for nutrients and we cannot let this chance miss. We can't miss out on the chance of using these nutrients. And we see here around the world that it is being used very much in different countries. Basically in the US and Europe and Australia are the major users of biosolids and sewage slots in agriculture. Now if we go to the next slide, there's always a bot to import to good stuff. And that is that we get all of these microplastics and fibres from the clothes we wash from other things that happens before the sewage, the waste water and sewage lot are treated. So we need to find a way to get rid of these microplastics. And that is a challenge that we have to take off. So next slide please. So what to do with these? Well, we talked about reuse and recycling. It often ends up in downcycling and the problem is the contamination. Here are some numbers from Europe where they found out that mulching often increase its weight by 200% from being used. And next one you see is the 100% of the small tunnel. So you can see that the ones that are closest to the ground and to the plants are the ones that are mostly contaminated and they are so difficult to recycle in a good way. So if we change slides, they are the biodegradable mulch plastic as well. And we look at them and we see maybe it's there's a good alternative. But so far we do have still to ask question if when we use the label biodegradable, is it really biodegradable? And is it biodegradable sufficiently enough to actually avoid accumulation of plastic in the soil when used every year? We also have to consider the fact that we grow food all the way from the south of Australia to North Norway. And the soil temperature and the soil types are very different. And how does that work together with these biodegradable plastics? So before we decide that this is a good idea, it's very important to understand the long-term impacts of these biodegradables. So let's go to the next slide. So there's also the nature-based and nature-positive based solution where we try to use, try to do a food production without depleting nor destroying the natural resources. So the first question that comes into mind for me is like, so what plastic products can be replaced by these nature-based solutions? And what are short-term and long-term benefits both for the soil but also for the economy? And how can we upscale these good solutions that are for sure out there? So let's go to the last slide. And I think I'm within my five minutes. If I should pull out free recommendation of this report, of course, there are much more recommendations than this. It would be to develop a standardized method of detecting microplastic in soil for better understand the residence time, the transformation. It would be to develop the mechanism to removing microplastic particles and fibres from the sludge and the biosolid because we need that nutrient for fertilizer. And it would also be to accelerate research and development of cost-effective plastic alternatives including nature-based solutions. So this is the report in highlights. I encourage you to look at the report. It's not that long, but it do give a lot of information about the current standard and place of the research that's available. So that is all from me. Thank you very much for listening. Christina, thank you so much. I think it's so, I mean, complimenting this two presentations that you really allowed us to get a more deeper look on plastic pollution and soil. So thank you very much. I would like to remind our participants just for the operational efficiency. If you could post your questions to panelists and to present us your thoughts so far in the Q&A part of our webinar. And if you would like to share some information about the reports about your organization, please use chat for this, which we will analyze. And I wanna say that also this webinar is being recorded. And I think it will be available online for those of our colleagues who didn't have a chance to attend. Christina, thank you so much again. And I think now we are moving to our panel which will be moderated by Mahesh Pradhan. Mahesh is working at the United Nations Environment Program and coordinating global partnership on nutrient management as well. He is the interim coordinator for one of the Regency's programs which is called coordinating body for the East Asian Seas COPSI. So there's many responsibilities. Mahesh, the floor is yours. And I think I mute myself now. Yeah, thank you so much, Lev. And I think it was a really tremendous start with the opening statements from Eduardo, Latisha and these two presentations from Richard on the FAO report and Christina on the UNEP working paper. This issue is huge. And I think given the interest, we have nearly 400 people still on the line. It shows the interest. But now in terms of the panel and may I request the panelists to please turn on their cameras is that we have a very exciting panel ahead of us. We have a land and water officer. We have a farmer head of the National Farmers Platform. We have a marine litter expert. We have a fishery officer. And then we have a waste management professional. So I think it's quite diverse. And I think given the wealth of knowledge and experience we are in for some very good discussions. So let me quickly introduce our five panelists. First is Natalia Rodriguez-Eugino. Maybe you can wave Natalia, great. So she's based in Rome from Spain and a land and water officer at FAO. And she's a member of the Global Soil Partnership Secretariat. She's a biologist and soil scientist by training and with 13 years of experience on sustainable soil management. The last five years of which was on soil pollution in Europe and worldwide. Second is Sherrifo. Sherrifo is coming to us from the Gambia. He's the president of the National Farmers Platform in the Gambia. And he also served as minister of agriculture earlier. Next we have my colleague Carla from UNEP from the Pollution Free Ecosystems Unit in the Ecosystems Division. She worked at UNEP's North America Office in Washington, DC where she coordinated the work on ecosystems as well as on chemicals and waste since 2012. Her background, academic, is on conservation, biology, on hand sustainable development, as well as health. Next we have Esther, who is a fishery officer working for FAO in Rome, Italy. She has worked in the provision of scientific advice to support the establishment of international standards, such as those set by the Codex Alimentarius for the safety and quality of fisheries and aquaculture products over the past 10 years. During this time, she also worked to provide technical support and cooperation on projects to upgrade food safety situation of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in many areas of the world. She also has a very interesting private sector and the food industry experience. And last but not the least, all the way from Mongolia at the moment, is our colleague Jane, one of the authors of the FAO report. Jane is a waste management professional who has been involved in the organics recycling sector for over 20 years. Her expertise is on composting and on anaerobic digestion sectors, and she has extensive experience working with industry trade associations, professional bodies, and government. So with this and the five panelists, as well as Richard and Christina, I think we are on target to have a very lively discussion. As Lev reminded you for the questions, please make sure you put them on the Q&A box. That way the panelists, we get to see the questions. So let me start with Natalia. And since we are just having this in conjunction with the World Soil Day, in terms of asking you the first question about this earlier report, the Global Assessment of Soil Pollution, which was released earlier this year, what were the main findings of this report, and what is the contribution of plastics to soil pollution? Over to you, Natalia. Thank you so much, Mahesh. Indeed, a very interesting question. Well, the main findings of this collaborative report that was produced by more than 200 scientists and practitioners, and it was published jointly by the FAO Global Soil Partnership and UNEP, can be summarized in six main points. First, soil pollution poses a major threat to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is particularly relevant to the poverty, food, and health nexus, as soil pollution reduces crop yields, safety, and quality of food products and leads to reduced incomes for rural populations, hitting the most vulnerable, the hardest. Second, there are still significant gaps in knowledge and uncertainty about the extent of the affected areas and the magnitude of the impact, which is compounded with the emergence of new contaminants. There are also important knowledge gaps regarding interactions between the multiple contaminants found in soils and their combined effects on organism. Along with climate change, environmental pollution, and especially soil pollution, is one of the main global challenges facing humanity today. And it is a trans-boundary problem that requires joint-coordinated global actions. In addition, soil pollution is one of the major threats to world soils, and geopartices the provision of key ecosystem services. Soil can become a source of contaminants for other environmental compartments, including food, water, air, terrestrial, and aquatic organisms, and also humans. Ecosystem health and human health are therefore interconnected. Soil, which is the basis of terrestrial life and the provider of most of our food and water, should be at the center of the one health approach, as this cannot be effectively addressed without tackling soil pollution first. Soil and environmental pollution is also on the rise according to the information we gather for this report. And unless there is a rapid shift in production and consumption patterns and a political commitment to truly sustainable management of natural resources, we will not revert this trail. And finally, effective regulations, including the polluter-based principle, are still lacking in many countries. We analyzed all the legal frameworks from the countries worldwide, and we found out that action is frequently taken after an environmental or health problem of course instead of preventing such damage. And this is happening in developed and developing countries. Regarding your second question on the share of plastics in soil pollution, actually we don't know how much soil pollution is due to agroplastics alone. And probably we will never do, because plastics and also plasticizers are not a unique problem in themselves. But because all the other contaminants associated with plastics, such as heavy metal, persistent organic contaminants like PCBs or pesticides, or even pathogens. The fate of plastics in soil is very complex, as Christina just shared in her presentation, and are very localized. Many of the participants that we have here with us today in this event are working hard in research to bring some light to the complex processes that govern plastic fate in soils. In my opinion, we may know how many plastics are produced and traded, but getting concrete data on how many plastics end up in the soil is an air-cooling task. Agroplastics can be partially broken down by mechanical action like agricultural machinery, waste collection, and treatment plants, or by weathering, including sunlight, resulting in a wide variety of plastics of different sizes in the ecosystem. The detection science for these tiny particles in the soil matrix is still in its infancy, so the quantity could be much higher that the existing estimates that we have in our reports. And also due to their small size, microplastics and nanoplastics can be ingested by organism and penetrate cellular system, causing damage and possibly mortality, as has been seen in a small soil-dwelling organism. And our transfer or could be transferred through the food change. And we need to consider that microplastics have been found in the human placenta, and probably all living organisms have considerable amounts of micro and nanoplastics in our bodies, although the long-term effects or long-term health effects have yet to be fully elucidated. And despite the knowledge gaps we have identified, I want to make clear, send you a very clear message that we already have more than enough evidence to know that soil pollution and plastic pollution is a real problem, putting human and ecosystem health and the achievement of the whole 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda at risk. So we must take urgent action to deal with it and prevent soil pollution. This is all from my side. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much, Natalia. Let's move on to Sherifo, and given that we had the whole solar day just on the 5th of December with the theme of soil salinization. And this is an increasing problem in the Gambia. Sherifo, how are farmers using agricultural plastics to adapt and what issues are they facing over to you? Sherifo, I think you're still in mute. You probably have to unmute, please. Yes. Thank you very much. As you have rightly mentioned, soil salinization in the Gambia is a problem. Soil salinization negatively impacts plant development and induces land degradation in the Gambia. Now, as this is a case, it leads to low agricultural productivity, more since the farmers' well-being. That means if the production is not optimal, the farmers normally suffer from that. The overall economy of the farmer reduces and it will force the farmers to abandon rice-growing ecologies and move to other ecologies. Now, this excess accumulation of water soluble soils in the land, these farmers will resort to doing resort to drip irrigation that is providing boreholes or providing pumping machines that will be enabled to collect water and it is dripped into their rice fields for productivity. And they resort to tidal irrigation also. Ecologists that are on the banks of the river Gambia eventually will have to use tidal irrigation in order to get their farms being irrigated. They also resort to building dykes. These dykes are preventing soil intrusion into the ecologists. They harvest water also, what harvesting by using polythene, like they put big ditches covered with polythene, collect rainwater and these water are used for irrigation. And also they resort to introduction of soil tolerant crops so that they can adapt themselves to the situation on the ground. Actually, these are the things that farmers do and this is the remedy that they are doing towards silenacism in the Gambia. Thank you. Thank you, Sharifo. Excellent to have that view from the farmer perspective and what they're doing. Sharifo, are you done? Can I continue? Yes. Okay, perfect. Let's move on now to this issue I see in the question and answer and chat that is mentioned quite a bit about this issue on non-biodegradable plastics, extended producer, responsibility, et cetera. And I think my colleague Carla is perfect in the sense that Carla, the FAO report recommends that in cases where the use of non-biodegradable plastics is to continue, countries should establish mandatory EPR, extended producer, responsibility schemes. Can you explain how such EPR schemes work and what are the key factors for their success? Over to you, Carla. Great, thank you, Mahesh. And as many participants today surely know but others perhaps are less familiar, EPR is a policy approach in which a manufacturer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of its life cycle. So it is a way to bring producers to the table as really key actors in the development of solutions, in this case to the plastic pollution issue. The cost of collection, sorting and treatment of plastic waste tends to be much higher than what can be gained through the recycling market which is why most of these waste management systems where they exist are heavily subsidized by governments. Making producers responsible for the end of life management internalizes this cost and can reduce the financial barriers for improving post-consumer management of these products especially in developing countries. And they can also foster reuse and recycling markets that are otherwise may not be economically viable. EPR can also promote innovation and the development of new business models. It can incentivize other things better design of products to make them easier to recycle, for example. Or they can foster alternative systems including reuse schemes that can deliver the products and services that we need without relying on single use plastics. And this in turn promotes circularity by making it easier for this product to stay in the economy rather than becoming waste and as happens too often end up as pollution in the environment. And it also reduces the need for verging plastics. There are many ways in which manufacturers can ensure the adequate post-consumer management of their products and they can, for example, develop schemes that take back their products at the end of their useful life or they can pay a third party to undertake the end of life management of the products so they can enable another company or nonprofit organization to handle the post-consumer management and where governments provide or parts or all of this service, producers can also reimburse the governments for their portion of the waste management which can provide a much needed injection of funds to improve coverage and sustainability of these systems that are often very cash strapped. There are hundreds of EPR schemes already in operation around the world, applied to many types of products from electronics to mattresses to packaging of various materials. At least 41 EPR schemes exist for agricultural plastics that deal with pesticide containers and it's actually a very good thing given the high and well-known health concerns regarding these products and their packaging. A very well-known example of a successful program is the legally mandated Campolinto which is highlighted in the FAO report. It's a scheme for collecting pesticide containers in Brazil. It manages 46 million tons of plastics annually and has a 94% collection and recycling rate, both rates. The highest really of all pesticide containers entering the Brazilian market. Many other schemes started with pesticide containers and expanded to other products which actually helps them to achieve economies of scale. A good example in this case of voluntary scheme is the ADI Valor scheme in France which collects and recycles a very wide variety of agricultural plastics including a pesticide containers, mulch and other types of films, bags, twines, nets, irrigation tubes, among many others. It has been in place for almost 20 years and they recycle most of the plastic products that they collect. Mulch films are more difficult based on what Christina mentioned earlier and we can talk about later. So what are some elements of success? I mean, they can vary depending on many factors. EPR schemes are not necessarily at one size fits all things. They should be tailored to the local, national and regional context to ensure their feasibility. Although there are examples of great voluntary schemes like the one I mentioned in France, mandatory EPR schemes tend to be more successful. This ensures a level playing field where every producer shares a fair portion of the costs and avoids the problem of free riders. However, it needs to be set up in a way that doesn't disproportionately affect small and medium sized enterprises and also in a way that ensures that even small field farmers can have access to the scheme. Also having a mandated instead of a voluntary scheme helps to ensure that a critical mass is reached so that these efforts can be done at scale. They need to include transparent monitoring and reporting to assess its success and when necessary to correct course. They should take a wide range of agricultural waste and have access to reuse or recycling infrastructure with sufficient capacity. They need to bring together all the key stakeholders in the supply chain with clear roles and responsibilities and this is from producers to importers, distributors and retailers to users and finally to those who manage the end of life stages including informal collection and recycling workers. And good communication campaigns and training to farmers are also very much needed to incentivize their participation. And the systems should make it as easy and inexpensive as possible for farmers to be able to comply. So I'll leave it at this since I know I've taken my five minutes and we can continue to discuss. Great, thank you Carla. Let's move on to Esther now and this issue of food safety in terms of microplastics being present in large quantities in agricultural soils as we've just heard from Richard and Christina. Their accumulation in the food chain and the presence of plastic additives presents a major environmental challenge. So in terms of Esther, what are your thoughts for the implications for food safety? Over to you Esther. Thank you. Thank you Manish for the question. So I would start by putting things into context and clarify that there are different routes of exposure to microplastics and the human body is exposed to microplastics through ingestion of food containing microplastics through inhalation of microplastics in the air and by thermal contact of these particles that are contained in products, in testiles or in the dust. And the available information that we have suggested inhalation is the major source of microplastics exposure. Having said that, it's important to highlight that while we start to understand our exposure to microplastics and plastic additives via ingestion through the various food commodities, we have limitations to define what this implies for human health. Because this will depend on microplastics composition, microplastics size and a microplastic shape which will allow or not translocation across the guards and also culinary practices and food processing techniques such as the application of heat treatments and pressure. In addition, we know that microplastics are poorest materials and can absorb contaminants from the environments which could be dissolved. So let us say release at a later stage during cooking or in the human body. And lastly, we know that microplastics are suitable substrates to be colonized by microorganisms. So mostly due to their hydrophobicity that promotes biofilm formation. So they can also be a source of pathogenic microorganisms because of this reason. Microplastics have been found in a variety of food commodities. There are studies on salt, sugar, honey, beer, water, apples, pears, broccoli, lettuce and carrots as well as fisheries and aquaculture products which seem to be the best study source of microplastics exposure by add diets. But there have been previous exercises carried out by FAO which would safety for fisheries and aquaculture products. And well, we know that those aquatic products consume whole contribute more to the exposure of microplastics which tend to accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. Although the exposure assessment could only be carried out for additives and microplastic additives and contaminants, not for polymers because of their unknown toxicity. But the preliminary assessments suggested that the contribution of hazardous chemicals associated with microplastics in viables, for example, that are consumed whole, is very small compared to other sources. And something very similar happened with an exercise carried out by WHO on microplastics in drinking water. And the study concluded that chemicals associated with microplastics in drinking water were of low concern. And regarding agri-food products, there is very limited information but some preliminary studies suggest that the exposure to microplastics is even lower from the intake of agri-food products compared to, for example, mineral water in plastic bottles that didn't seem to be a concern. However, to get to further conclusions, analytical methods for the detection and quantification of micro-nano plastics in food, human tissues and blood should be standardized. This is very important to compare data. And after these more reliable occurrence data could be generated, which could be used for exposure assessment of dietary intake. So this is to know a bit more about the impact on food safety. Although toxicological data on micro and nano plastics needs to be generated when, where the most common polymers and plastic additives must be considered. And further data on translocation across the guts of micro and nano plastics, composed of the most common polymers should be developed for food animals and humans. So let's say that we know now much more than what we knew back in 2016 when we started working on micro-plastics in FAO, mostly on micro-plastics in the aquatic environment back then. But there are still many research gaps that need to be filled in the coming years to better understand food safety implications of micro-plastics coming from traditional plastic materials and also from their alternatives. Thanks and over to you, Maesh. Thank you. Thank you, Esther. Let's move on to our last speaker and from a solutions perspective, Jane. In terms of the, could all issues of agricultural plastics be solved by replacing all conventional polymers with biodegradable alternatives? Your thoughts? Okay, thank you, Mahesh and good evening everybody. Oh, good morning wherever you are. It's a tempting solution, isn't it? You know, it would be nice if we had a silver bullet and one where we could just replace at one problem with a solution. But it, you know, as you've seen in the report, as you will see in the report, the use of agricultural plastics and the applications to which they are put are complex and we need to consider very carefully the types of products and the types of applications to which they're going to be used. Now, as we've highlighted in the report, there will clearly be some applications where biodegradable and compostable polymers will have a use and in the chat section in the question and answer session that's been pinging up on our screens, we've rightly had some pertinent points about the use of terminology. So we need to be very, very clear about the use of terminology and about the types of polymers that are being used. There's clearly, as we've highlighted in the report, some low hanging fruit, if that's not an inappropriate pun in this context, that some very quick wins and the use of agricultural mulch films that are difficult to remove once they're down in the soil, they tend to tear, they become entrained with top soil and they will become entrained with, entrapped with them, plants that have grown through them. Soil-based solutions might well be the best, but as we've also highlighted in the report as well, one of the important things is to ensure that the products function specifically for the applications to which they are intended. So for example, with mulch films, we need to make sure that mulch films sold in, for example, Northern Europe would not necessarily be appropriate for soil films, mulch films sold and used in Southern Europe. So we need to look more closely at the specifications that these products can meet. I think it's important and we, a while ago, earlier on in the session, we did have somebody put either in the chat function on the question and answer, the important point about independent certification and there are a number of standards, internationally validated recognised standards, such as E&17033 for mulch films and there are compostability standards and having products that are specifically certified to these is going to be a really important point. But where we do need some additional information and tailoring the products to the specific applications, I think there is need for parties to come together to work on developing end-use specific specifications that overlay the independent certification to the standard. So the certification to an independent recognised standard will be important and when I say certification, this needs to be independently verified. But then there are end-use specifications tailored to very specific soil type conditions, climatic conditions and so forth and I think that's a big piece of work but one that could be very, very useful in moving forward for a certain type of product. So for example, mulch films, twines and clips, they attach plants to props and stakes and also to for tree-sattling protectors as well. So I think there's quite a bit of work that could be done and it would be interesting to see perhaps, you know, if FFA could take the lead on working with industry and agriculture sector to develop some of these over and above the independent certification. So I think the answer to that is yes, there are some products but clearly biodegradable, compostable products are not going to be suitable for everything. We don't want pondliners that are going to biodegrade in six, 12 months clearly or irrigation pipes. So it's a case of picking the right products for the right types of solutions bearing in mind the six R approach that we've developed and the risk assessment work that we carried out as part of this project. So I hope that answers that question. Thank you so much, Jane, for that. I hate to cut such an interesting sort of conversation short but I'm mindful of the time. So what I was thinking is there are many questions and to participants, we will attempt, if we cannot answer them, email you back and we will ask our panelists to pick up on whatever they feel they can sort of respond to. So you could expect some emails back on the queries if we do not cover. But what I wanted to end off is on a sort of lightning flash round to all the panelists, if from the questions and comments that they've seen in the chat and the Q&A that they have a one minute sort of closing statement that they would like to sort of say. So maybe I will start with Richard and then move on through the sequence of speakers. Richard, one minute, over to you. I was going to answer one question, which was that the largest use of field plastics in our area of California is drip irrigation tape accounting for about 60% of field plastics used. Does anyone have any ideas for the six Rs whether there are redesigned options for these Rs? Yes, if you read the report, this is one of the aspects that we covered. The recommendation is that drip irrigation tube currently is often made from a number of different polymers. These should be redesigned so it's all made from the same polymer to increase its value for recycling. Perfect, thank you, Richard. Christina, maybe any question or comment over to you? Yes, there have been a lot about biodegradable plastics and I do agree with Jane on her points as well on the biodegradable. And I know that huge amount of studies on looking at how biodegradable plastic actually is in different types of soil and climates. And I think that's a really important thing to continue looking at before we upscale that product. So that's my fault on that. Great, thanks, Christina. Natalia, over to you. Thank you very much, Mahesh. Well, I don't see any specific question to me, but indeed I can reply to some of the questions that are addressed in general regarding if we are researching the impact of plastics to soil health. Actually in FAO and I don't think in UNEP they do, we do not do research. We just collect data information done by the research community and we make it available to policymakers, land users, the civil society. And indeed many of the participants of this seminar have been posting very interesting links on the chat regarding research projects, focus specifically on that on the impact of micro and nanoclastics on soil health. For example, the Minagris project, the Papillons project and I think they are already having, they started last this year but I think they are already having interesting results. So we will share with all of you those links and also in the Global Assessment of Soil Pollution you can find some interesting publications and summary of the research that exists already regarding that, regarding the impact not only on soil health, on soil organism, but also on human health. So I invite you to read the Global Assessment of Soil Pollution Report. Thank you, Mahesh. Perfect. Sherry, over to you. Maybe from a policy sort of perspective in the Gambia, how are things changing in terms of agricultural plastics? You have to unmute, please. Thank you very much. As far as the Gambia is concerned, there is a policy in place as far as plastics are concerned. Actually, from what I am seeing here, there is a lot being done about how these plastics research are done, how plastics are used in agriculture. Now in the Gambia, the Ministry of Agriculture, under the Department of Agriculture, there was a unit created. This unit is called the Soil and Water Management Unit and this unit is responsible for managing the land use of the Gambia. And they are doing a lot of work as far as land management is concerned and they are actually trying to synthesize the farmers as for how they use their land. I am very impressed with what I have already learned from this panel discussion and the presentation here. But what I'm trying to play on is that the researchers involve farmers. I don't know whether I'm not saying they are not involved, but I am encouraging them to put them more and more on this research. Thank you very much. Thanks for that, Sherifu. Esther, over to you. Thank you very much. I don't see any questions related to my field of expertise, but I have a comment because I see that there is a lot of hope on biodegradable plastics and I would like to mention that, well, it's important that when we develop alternative materials, we also take into consideration food safety aspects because eventually these plastics or a part of them will end up in our food chain. So the use of not only polymers at our biodegradable is important. Also some of the additives and things that we add to those plastics are really, really important when it comes to food safety. So that's my comment. Thank you, Mesh. Excellent. Last but not the least, Jane, over to you. Yeah, I think that there are, as we've highlighted in the report, there are an awful lot of unknowns, but that really shouldn't stop us from acting. The imperative for us to act, to reduce pollution of soils by agricultural plastics is massive. So I'm hoping that the framework we've developed within this report will give countries, will give nations, will give regions the tools by which they can assess the priorities and start to act sooner rather than later. And I think hopefully this should be a, the report should be a tool to enable people to effectively start to tackle agricultural plastics wherever they happen to live. Thanks, Jane. And my apologies to Carla. Over to you, Carla. No problem. Well, there are a few questions on nature-based solutions. So just very quickly, I think it's important to know that in addition to the important aspect of improving management of plastics used in agriculture, we should also consider nature-based solutions that can provide the benefits that we need. For example, covered crops that can control weeds and regulate soil temperature and help retain soil moisture can function as the same thing as, for example, plastic mulch uses. So, and they can also provide a habitat beneficial for organisms, for example. So anyway, we need more in-depth economic analysis, I think, to better be able to compare the costs and benefits of agricultural plastics with those of nature-based solution, taking the full range of ecosystem services into account and analyzing the full life cycle of each product. Although the benefits of plastics may be higher in the short term, if we take the full environmental benefits into account, then maybe in some cases, nature-based farming practices may be more cost-effective in the long term. I'll keep it at that, because I know we're past the run out of time. Great, great. Thank you so much to everyone, all the panelists, for keeping to time, especially in this lightning round. But I think we've covered quite a bit in terms of the global assessment of soil pollution report. We looked at the theme of the world soil day, soil salinization and the farmer perspective in the Gambia. We talked about the extender producer responsibility schemes. Then we also highlighted this issue of food safety, very important, and then in terms of solutions, biodegradable alternatives. I think lastly, Carla talked about nature-based solutions, cost benefit. I think there's so much work to be done. But if I go to the earlier poll and the questions there in terms of health, soil health and human health, we're highlighted by all of you. And I think this is where we have to take the next steps in making this issue more mainstreamed. So with that, I would like to once again, thank all the panelists and speakers for the sharing them tremendous amounts of knowledge, expertise, and that we will try to respond to some of the questions that we were not able to answer via email, et cetera. Milka has also shared the link for the UNEP working paper. So you would also be able to access that. So with that, over to you, Lev, for the concluding session. I guess thank you very much. And for excellent moderation to all the speakers, to panelists, it was not easy to include both discussion about the evidence, but also the response and management solutions in one webinar. For sure, we have to continue. We are planning to organize also a high level event next year. So please stay tuned. Again, I don't want to summarize very rich discussion. But let me say one thing, that we have 10 years left to reach sustainable development goals. It's a very short time. And one of them is specifically related to plastic use in various sectors, including in agriculture. I think we need action at all grounds. We need partnerships. But I think above and beyond, we need the global movement. And I think agricultural plastics should play an important role and should have a particular place, the discussion table, because this is an important issue. This is an issue. It's not only environmental issue, which is obvious, but it's an issue of food security and nutrition. At the end of the day, we cannot address this result, addressing issue of agricultural plastics. Thank you so much again to all of you, especially to all our participants for staying with us. I say it's almost still close to 300 participants with us. And let's continue fighting. Let's continue combating this issue together. And we're looking forward to our next interactions on this topic. And with that, I'm pleased to close. And we will follow. Thank you. And have a nice day. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you.