Thread: Plastic weed barrier, not as good as it seems?

I'm wondering if using plastic bags as a weed barrier buried under a raised bed for growing veggies is not such a good idea.

I know plastic tends to let out fumes over time. Underground I'm assuming this would be increased, but I don't know, would it decrease? Would the soil absorb some, most or all of the toxins? These toxins would end up in any of the plants grown so you probably don't want to eat them right?

If that's the case maybe I will use them to grow flowers but not food.

Is this worse for the environment(and how) than recycling the plastic bag?

They sell rolled plastic at home improvement stores and it's not going to contaminate your crop. It does break down after a while and needs to be replaced. They'll also sell a burlap like mesh for the same purpose.

Yeah I know that it's cheep, but there is a lot of plastic already, no need to go buy more when I can just use a bunch of plastic bags, it will be buried so dirt will hold it all together.

Burlap is a good idea too... ive heard of people using newspaper too but this breaks down eventually.

I'm just thinking of things I can reuse for my veggie garden. I'm going to start a negative(or as low as I can get it) co2 farm.