Assessment of Four Artificial Methods for Aging Plastic Mulch Films According to Efficiency, Rate, and Similarity to Natural Field-Aged Plastics.

ABSTRACT: Artificial degradation is often used to recreate and accelerate the natural aging of plastic for small-scaled simulation experiments assessing their environmental impact. However, current artificial aging methods are rarely compared against reference materials or validated using field-aged samples, creating uncertainties when extrapolating results to naturally aged plastics, making it difficult to place findings in an environmentally applicable context. Therefore, here we compared four accessible, cost-effective, and easily replicable methods (heat, UVA, and UVC irradiance at two intensities) to produce artificially degraded materials. The artificial aging methods were assessed over a duration of 5 months against degradation rate, efficiency, and similarity to field-aged samples of convent

SUBMITTER: Graf M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11829909 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature