One of the participants is Toronto-based Launch Bioindustries, which is developing fully compostable bioplastics through fermentation by using waste streams from dairy processing, food production and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

WHY IT MATTERS: The process will create a new, higher-value use for agri-food waste streams from excess whey and lactose to other organic byproducts, while also reducing the volume of pollution from conventional plastics.

It’s part of an increasingly broader shift in the thinking around waste: turning costly liabilities into ingredients for new products and revenue streams.

“Right now, we have two problems happening at the same time: we have a massive plastic pollution issue and we also have a lot of organic waste coming out of industries like dairy processing,” said Andrew Chiappetta, founder of Launch Bioindustries. “What we’re doing is connecting those two — taking waste and turning it into something valuable.”

READ MORE: Separated dairy processing waste can be used in cow diets

The company’s technology uses engineered bacteria to convert organic waste into a class of materials known as PHA bioplastics. These materials behave much like conventional plastics during manufacturing but break down naturally in compost, soil or marine environments.

“They’re essentially a drop-in replacement for petroleum-based plastics,” Chiappetta says. “The difference is, when they end up in the environment, bacteria recognize them as a food source and break them down.”

That ability to degrade naturally — in some cases in as little as six weeks for thin films — is a key advantage over conventional plastics, which can stay in the environment for decades.

For agriculture, the potential impacts could be significant. Plastic mulch films, bale wrap and other single-use plastics are widely used but can be difficult to recycle, and Chiappetta sees them as a natural fit for compostable alternatives.

“Mulch films are a really exciting opportunity,” he said. “With our materials, the goal is that they could break down in the field and actually feed soil bacteria.”

That could reduce labour costs, improve soil health and keep these materials out of landfills.

To be successful, any alternative plastics will have to not only perform as well or better than conventional products, they’ll have to also do it for the same or less cost. That’s one of the reasons Launch is working with dairy and food processors to source feedstocks like acid whey and lactose.

“In Ontario alone, there’s a significant amount of organic waste coming out of food and dairy processing,” Chiappetta says. “If we can take that and turn it into a useful product, it changes the economics of both waste management and materials production.”

Commercial facility in longer-term plans

Launch Bioindustries was founded in 2024, building on Chiappetta’s experience working with plastics in the medical sector, including single-use materials used in vaccines and drug delivery, which highlighted both the scale of plastic waste and the opportunity for alternatives.

Since then, the company has moved from concept to early-stage prototyping, successfully producing bioplastics at bench scale and beginning to scale up production. The next step is moving into larger fermentation systems, with a goal of reaching pilot-scale production in the near term.

Through the BioCreate program, the company plans to further develop its bacterial strains and expand its ability to process different types of organic waste. The longer-term vision is to build a commercial facility in Ontario within the next two to three years and begin supplying materials for a range of applications, from food packaging to medical products.

Chiappetta said the company is initially focusing on higher-value, hard-to-recycle products such as pharmaceutical packaging, like compostable pill bottles, but sees agriculture as a key growth area.

He’s looking for partners who either have waste they need to manage or who are looking for more sustainable material options – or both.

“Agriculture checks both of those boxes,” he says.

Through BioCreate, led by Ontario Genomics with funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, each participating start-up company receives $150,000 and 18 months of mentorship, access to specialized infrastructure and connections to investors.

The post Ontario startup turning dairy waste into compostable plastics appeared first on Farmtario.

The review highlights complex interactions between soil microbes and viruses that occur on the surface of microplastic particles. These microscopic relationships may influence soil health, ecosystem recovery and the long-term sustainability of agriculture.

Microplastics are plastic fragments smaller than five millimetres that enter farmland through sources such as plastic mulch, sewage sludge, irrigation water and degraded plastic materials.

WHY IT MATTERS: Once in the soil, they can alter physical structure, disrupt nutrient cycling and affect the activity of soil organisms essential for plant growth and ecosystem functioning.

A 2023 study found China is the world’s largest user of microplastic mulches, averaging 17 to 20 million hectares annually or 68 per cent of global usage.

Figures from the Canadian government show Canada produces 60,000 tonnes of plastic waste on farms every year.

The latest research finds microplastics create unique microscopic habitats in soil called plastispheres, biofilm communities where microorganisms attach to plastic surfaces and interact intensely. Within these microhabitats, microbes and viruses form dynamic networks that may reshape microbial communities and influence soil processes.

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. They play a central role in these interactions. By infecting and lysing (that is, rupturing the walls or membranes of) bacterial cells, they can regulate microbial populations and influence nutrient cycling. Viral activity can also transfer genes between microbes, including those related to plastic degradation or antibiotic resistance.

The researchers note these viral gene exchanges may have both positive and negative consequences. Viruses may help spread genes that enable microbes to break down plastic more effectively. But they could also accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance genes or other harmful traits.

Scientists are exploring strategies such as phage-assisted microbial augmentation and virus-like particles loaded with catalytic nanoenzymes. These systems could potentially deliver enzymes directly to plastic surfaces and accelerate polymer breakdown.

The study notes these technologies remain largely theoretical and need careful evaluation before field use. Concerns include biosafety risks, unintended gene transfer and the complex ecological dynamics of natural soil environments.

A lack of long-term field data on how viruses, microbes and microplastics interact over time is also hindering researchers. Most studies rely on laboratory experiments or short-term observations, leaving major knowledge gaps about how these interactions evolve in real conditions.

Emerging technologies such as single-cell viromics, artificial-intelligence-driven host prediction and advanced multi-omics tools could help reveal the hidden viral networks operating in contaminated soils.

Ultimately, the study suggests that understanding the invisible partnerships between microbes and viruses may open new pathways for restoring soil ecosystems affected by plastic pollution.

The post Viral networks in soil microplastics may shape future of sustainable farming appeared first on Farmtario.

Microplastics are readily found in treated wastewater sludge, also known as municipal biosolids, that eventually make their way to our agricultural soils.

Our recent investigation of microplastic levels in Canadian municipal biosolids found that a single gram of biosolids contains hundreds of microplastic particles. This is a much greater concentration of microplastics than is typically found in air, water or soil.

Given that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of biosolids are produced every year in Canada, we need to pay close attention to the potential impacts such high levels of microplastics might have on the environment and find ways to reduce microplastic levels in Canada’s wastewater stream.

Municipal biosolids are produced at wastewater treatment plants by settling and stabilizing the solid fraction of the municipal wastewater inflow.

In Canada and around the world, municipal biosolids are used to improve agricultural farmland because they are rich in nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen.

Municipal biosolid applications are carefully regulated in Canada for heavy metals, nutrients and pathogens. However, guidelines for emerging contaminants, such as microplastics, are not currently available.

While wastewater treatment plants are not explicitly designed to remove microplastics, they are efficient at removing nearly 90 per cent of microplastic contaminants. The removed microplastics are often concentrated in the settled sludge and eventually end up in the biosolids.

Previous studies have shown that municipal biosolid waste is an important pathway for microplastics to enter broader terrestrial ecosystems, including agricultural fields.

In collaboration with scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, we conducted the first pan-Canadian assessment of microplastics in municipal biosolids. We analyzed biosolid samples from 22 Canadian wastewater treatment plants across nine provinces and two biosolid-based fertilizer products.

We found hundreds of microplastic particles in every gram of biosolids. The most common type of microplastic particles we observed were microfibres, followed by small fragments. We found small amounts of glitter and foam pieces too.

READ MORE: UV light breaks down ocean nanoplastics, study finds

Microplastic concentrations in municipal biosolids are substantially higher than other environmental networks in Canada like water, soil and river sediments. This provides further evidence that microplastics are concentrated in biosolids produced at wastewater treatment plants.

Wastewater treatment plants are well-equipped to remove large plastics like bottle caps and plastic bags from municipal wastewater. However, microplastic particles are so small they can’t be caught by treatment infrastructure, so they concentrate in wastewater sludge.

As wastewater streams concentrate microplastics, they also offer an opportunity to reduce the plastic pollution that is entering the environment. Researchers across Canada are working to find insights on the short- and long-term ecological consequences of microplastic pollution on soil ecosystems and one solution is already clear.

Microplastics can be reduced at sources via systematic reduction in single-use plastics, washing clothing with synthetic fibre less frequently and removing microfibres using washing machine filters. These approaches will help minimize the amount of microplastics that get into the wastewater stream and, ultimately, into the broader terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Building new technologies at our wastewater treatment plants to remove microplastics through physical or chemical means should also be explored.

We need to better understand the impact of high concentrations of microplastic on agro-ecosystems where biosolids are applied, including its impacts on soil-dwelling organisms like earthworms and insects. We also need to start building national guidelines for microplastic levels in biosolids and agricultural soils.

Branaavan Sivarajah is a postdoctoral fellow, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University; Jesse Vermaire is associate professor, Institute of Environmental Science, Carleton University.

The post How microplastics are making their way into our farmland appeared first on Farmtario.

“The initial response was very positive,” said Frank Gross, transportation and waste management manager. “We haven’t seen a lot of material come in yet, but some farmers did indicate later in the year they expect to bring in the material as they accumulate it and fill up the bags.”

Provincially, the agriculture sector generates 35,000 tonnes of plastic waste, which often ends up in landfills or being burned on-farm due to limited recycling options. Oxford County alone can potentially divert 300 tonnes of material from the landfill.

Why it matters: There is a market for repurposed plastic ag-waste but limited opportunity to collect, process and deliver useable material to processors that can convert it into new products.

Gross said approximately 15 Oxford producers requested bags to be sent to them while a handful of others picked them up at the management facility. The supplied bags can be filled with plastic waste.

The producer is responsible for ensuring silage bags, bunker covers, bale wraps, fertilizer and salt bags are cleaned and sorted appropriately into the bags, which hold approximately 90 kilograms of material, before returning them to the facility.

“Once we’ve accumulated enough material, we’ll ship it bulk to Switch Energy Corp.,” said Gross. “They process it and then ship it to an end market where the material is used in the manufacturing of new products like composite lumber and other stretch plastic-type materials like garbage bags, for example.”

Producers pay a $50 per tonne shipping fee, and a county tax levy offsets the balance of the cost, so the program is only open to Oxford County residents.

Gross said they could expand the range of what’s acceptable now that Switch Energy has begun recycling baler twine, super sacks and woven feed bags.

Switch Energy operates Ontario’s largest agricultural polyethylene waste collection program and converts it into high-value products.

Bruce County launched a pilot project with Cleanfarms to collect baler twine, bale wrap, silage plastic and bunker covers. Cleanfarms is working to establish collection points for unwanted pesticide and livestock or animal medication in fall 2025.

Cleanfarms also works with entrepreneurs like Lynn Leavitt of Leavitt’s Black Angus Beef in Prince Edward County. He created his own environmentally friendly on-farm disposal solution for clean, dry plastic wrap and twine by developing the Pac-It compaction system and U-Pak AgriServices business.

Farmers can compact farm-based plastics and twine in a tall, rectangular slatted box and deliver to Leavitt for processing.

As of early 2023, U-Pak AgriServices has diverted approximately 250,000 pounds of scrap plastic wrap and bale twine from landfills since its inception.

Research is ongoing to develop a “holy-bale” biodegradable plant-based hay wrap alternative. Erica Pensini, of the University of Guelph’s College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and colleague Alejandro Marangoni, an Ontario Agricultural College food science professor, are working on the project.

They ran field trials for plant-protein-based spray-on and prefabricated silage films with the help of local farmers and, in 2022, turned their sights on creating a similar product to replace low-density polyethylene plastic bale wrap.

OMAFRA, Livestock Research Innovation Corp., Beef Farmers of Ontario, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, and Ontario Agri-food Innovation Alliance supported the project.

In a 2022 U of G statement, Pensini said working directly with farmers is essential for testing the biomaterial’s strength and durability, identifying issues, and ensuring the new sprays and wraps integrate into existing machinery and systems.

The post Oxford’s diversion pilot stretches the repurpose potential for farm plastic waste appeared first on Farmtario.