Advances in the Sustainable Use of Plastics in Horticulture—Perspectives, Innovations, Opportunities, and Limitations

The use of plastics in horticulture is reviewed with respect to its sustainability based on the traditional criteria triple Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycling) plus a re-place strategy, taking into account possible alternatives. Hail (and insect) nets made HD-PE, their long-term mostly apple polytunnels LD-PE for cherry strawberry as well solarisation mulches (reuse), were found be relatively sustainable solutions needs are currently without In contrast, standard black mulch, largest share among horticultural plastics, had widest range alternatives, ranging from biodegradable spray mulch; few alternatives available fleeces reflective mulches. For third option, pilot recycling schemes examined, such PolieCoTM (Italy), MAPLATM (Spain), ERDETM (Germany); they collect 30–50% agricultural used respective areas, successful retrieval growth rate ca. 20% per year case ERDETM. fourth new R option (replace), future perspectives predominant mulch research development better, biodegradable, non-fossilbased sprayable microbes digestion deployed polyolefins and, certain limited (on shade tolerant crops or high-light intensity environment), hail that equipped/substituted by/with solar panels (“agri pv”) concomitant production green renewable energy.