Even “organic” soil that you might use to fill containers is full of crap. I’ve filled beds with this from several brands and all of them had a significant amount of pieces that were clearly previously painted wood, chunks of metal, etc. Probably still better than what’s in the ground. I recall seeing beautiful black, organic rich, loose soil when planting things 25/30 years ago. I haven’t found anything remotely resembling that here in CA in the last few years.
Your assertion may be region specific. The organic compost I get in Ireland is based on worm castings, and has never had "painted wood, chunks of metal, etc" in it.
Yup, I was thinking about the Cedar Grove compost (Seattle area) which is post-consumer comparing and yard clippings. Then I've been reading about most "compostable" packaging being laden with PFAS and also getting clippings from the Ruston smelter zone. I'm not sure one can even get clean, safe soil spare hiking out to national forests and stealing some.
Ceader grove is garbage suitable for landscaping… maybe but not much else. Even if you ignore the high plastic and glass content it’s incredibly hydrophobic when dry and is terrible for vegetables.
My solution to this was to start with store bought organic soil and start to amend it with compost. I have built more and more soil over time, and now I have so many red wiggler worms that I generate a significant amount of compost and castings.
