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Is it safe to grow veg for consumption in plastic ?

jambonsambojambonsambo Posts: 8
in Fruit & veg
I have two unused plastic wheelie bins and I was planning on cutting them in half to make 4 containers for growing potatoes in this week.


Just one small thing playing in the back of my mind is the possibility of plastic leaching into the soil and contaminating the spuds.


I was thinking that if I lined the containers with burlap sacks then this would act as a barrier to any leaching .


Anyone have any insights ? Am I being overly paranoid or is the plastic of the wheelie bins possibly going to make the spuds toxic ? I assume its not BHP Phalantes free plastic

I have found some information but no consensus on the issue;


https://desertification.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/can-food-crops-be-grown-safely-in-plastic-containers-willem-van-cotthem/

http://greensideup.ie/growing-vegetables-in-containers/

“Plastic that is safe to grow food in/with should have recycling numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 on the bottom. Plastic with a 3 have PVC in them. In time chemicals leach out contaminating soil, which in turn contaminates the food. Styrofoam is made of plastic number 6 and have cancerous effects, Number 7 has bisphenol A which is harmful to the behavioural growth of children.”
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Posts

  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    I grow all my greenhouse veg except tomatoes in big plastic trugs. Never had any issues. 
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,847
    I never realised that plastic was viewed as being so dangerous to human life, it's a wonder that it has been legal to manufacture so much of it for the last 50 years or so if it's so toxic.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I think you are overthinking this, tbh, better to reuse and recycle. It will not harm your potatoes and I would imagine any leaching would take years, until the plastic starts to seriously degrade and even then, any impacts would be infinitesimal. Plantic does not suddenly start leaching toxic waste! There will be no long-term effect on the soil/compost as it is only there for the lifecycle of the potato, by which time it will be fairly exhausted and need replacing for the next crop. The used compost will be safe to chuck on your flowerbeds for mulch or add to your compost heap.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • cornellycornelly Posts: 970
    I will second Nollie, I have grown potatoes, tomatoes etc in plastic containers for many years, never dreaming there would be a problem, we can frighten ourselves without reason.
  • hogweedhogweed Posts: 4,053
    Up here, wheelie bins belong to the council. Are they yours to cut up? Just a thought...
    'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
  • Hampshire_HogHampshire_Hog Posts: 1,089
    The simple answer is yes use them if they are yours to cut up, people have been using plastic for years and as far as I know with no health issues ever.

    It's a bit like the scaremongers saying we all ingest plastics from fish we eat HOW? the fish may eat it but it does not transfer into their flesh so unless your into eating fish gut's I would not be to concerned.

    "You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog
  • jambonsambojambonsambo Posts: 8

    hogweed said:
    Up here, wheelie bins belong to the council. Are they yours to cut up? Just a thought...
    Thanks folks , the bins belonged to a private waste collection company who I had a contract with years ago and they never came round to take them back , Im going to assume they are mine to cut up

    I suppose I am all go on the plastic wheelie bin spuds then.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    barry island said:
    I never realised that plastic was viewed as being so dangerous to human life, it's a wonder that it has been legal to manufacture so much of it for the last 50 years or so if it's so toxic.
    It's an interesting question. BPA has only really been on the radar for 20 years and has been removed from use in baby food containers etc. PVC is also pretty nasty. Most of the stuff is made in China where health and environmental concerns are often ignored. Phthalates have been shown to leach into soil. Plastics can also hold onto some nasty stuff which it's come into contact with so make sure you know where that bin has been. Micro plastics and the effect on marine life has only really been recently studied and very little can be concluded yet but there are theories that plastic will get small enough to travel into tissue cells from the gut. We already now that some fish contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and the like.

    As far as all this 'we've done it for years so it must be safe' theory goes you should always be aware that lack of evidence doesn't mean lack of a problem. @raisingirl put it nicely in a recent thread 'absence of proof is not proof of absence.'. Not all plastics are equal and food safe labels can be taken with a pinch of salt. People recommended using car tyres for growing spuds for a while but that's considered a bad idea now too.

    I'm not saying don't resuse your wheely bin but you will have to use your own judgement. You're probably just as likely to have chemicals leaching into your rain water from plastic water butts though or from the plastic compost bins or the plastic compost sacks. It's pretty hard to avoid the stuff.


    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I think your last paragraph summed it up nicely, wildedges.

    Everything manufactured, transported and used/consumed has an environmental or health impact somewhere. You could wear organic cotton instead of particle-shedding fleece, but what of the huge quantities of water diverted from that local village to grow the cotton? Choose windpower instead of fossil fuels, but what of the embodied energy in turbine production and installation, not to mention the impact on birds. Use a stone trough instead of a plastic one, but that stone has denuded a natural landscape somewhere. Every action has a consequence. We can never eliminate environmental impact, just try and reduce/mitigate it, reuse and recycle more, and as you say, use your judgement. 
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,847
    And now the really scary thing, I hear that the Chinese government are encouraging the population to increase family size fearing the effects of an ageing population. The biggest threat to the planet is overpopulation.
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