Farm plastics scheme makes recycling easy Disposing of agrichemical containers and other farm plastics isn’t always front of mind – the traditional method on-farm has often been to burn or bury them in a quiet spot out the back. The environmental damage this causes contributes significantly to a farm’s carbon footprint and should be considered as part of general farm management. Fortunately, recycling options are available, closer to home than you might think. Agrecovery, a product stewardship scheme focused on supporting the environment through recycling farm plastics, has been going for 15 years. Funded by over 100 brands from the agrichemical industry, Agrecovery
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recycles farm plastics that it collects from anywhere in the country.
Agrecovery’s fixed sites, including
Agrecovery has programmes available for agrichemical containers and large drums and is expanding into other farm plastics, including bulk bags and small seed, feed and fertiliser bags.
Agrecovery has over 150 sites that
selected Farmlands stores. will accept containers 60L and under in size. Agrecovery also offers free on-property collections for small containers and large drums from participating brand owners
The programme works on a circular economy: 1. Brands that package their agrichemical products in plastic pay levies to Agrecovery to be part of the scheme. 2. Once the product has been used, farmers and growers triple-rinse their high-density polyethylene (HDPE, plastic No. 2) containers and can drop them at one of
(minimum numbers apply). No location is too remote. 3. HDPE plastics are then transported to a recycler in Auckland and turned into underground cable cover for Wi-Fi cables and Tuff Board, a washable board used in everything from deer yards to horse floats. Farmlands Hautapu is a drop-off site for Agrecovery. Its Business Manager,
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