Don't re-plant anything, but DO follow up on your complaint to the company!!!!!!! Or have the nursery make the complaint! Take the bag back to them with maybe pics to prove it?
I'll tell you what! I wouldn't un plant everything in order to make a complaint unless the soil/compost killed my plants!
Nancy

This is a problem we will be seeing more and more of as more and more of our waste is recycled and composted. The cost of labor to remove materials that are not compostable is simply too high so you will find bits and pieces of that kind of stuff in some of the compost being sold. Depending on how good the shredder (grinder) is may determine the size of this undesirable material and whether you will even know it is there.
If you purchase compost, especially bagged, you may want to screen if before using it in pots or the garden.

Kimmsr -- Do you think my tomato plant is okay as it is, or should I repot with new soil?

I'd not disturb that tomato now.

I would not worry about the plastic. It will degrade over time, and disappear. We get plastic in some of the wood chips we lay down. If there is a particularly big piece, I might remove it, otherwise, I let the sun and elements have their way with it. Most of the cheaper plastics degrade well over time.
Renais

I'm in Canada. I found some plastic in my mulch too. It was a little upsetting to see but I just picked it out and tossed it in the garbage. Everything is growing just fine for me.

This post was edited by cadence on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 12:58

I'm in Canada. I found some plastic in my mulch too. It was a little upsetting to see but I just picked it out and tossed it in the garbage. Everything is growing just fine for me.

There is a fast growing industry in collecting and composting organic waste, especially food scrap. So bagged compost is not just going to be manure anymore, it's yard trimmings, tree limbs and food scrap. Some contamination is inevitable.

Lots of the food scrap haulers use compostable can liners, but not all, so you may find bits of plastic now and then. Plastic itself is merely a nuisance in the garden, not a toxic problem. If you're concerned about what else goes in, keep bugging the producer and ask them what their inputs are.

Thank you for your reassurance, everyone! I'm still wondering about that stuff that looks like wadded-up paper. I'm going to get my money back from the nursery. Since I'll be leaving the tomato plant alone, I'll use the compost I've made myself for the cucumbers, and then try to find some other brand of compost for any future plants.

Some plastics may be biodegradable while others are not, which is why many plastic containers have those symbols on the to tell you if they are or not. Apparently the previous owners of this property (some 40 years ago) buried some trash in plastic bags because we find that periodically as we work the soil in different areas.

Plastics that are not quickly biodegradable are likely photo-degradable. As parts of those old bags and misc. stuff come to the surface, UV degradation will break them down. Even materials like pvc will break down, or at least blend in as they degrade and get covered with other things.
Renais

My city mulch sometimes has bits of plastic trash bags, since morons ignore the signs and dump bags of yard waste instead of emptying it onto the pile as directed. The crew has to cut open the bags and they sometimes lose a piece. I just pluck them out while I'm using the stuff and toss them in the trash. They may photodegrade, but that results in tiny pieces of plastic in the soil, which I prefer not to do. Even though they are not particularly harmful, they add nothing to soil life and fertility.