The key to recycling? No mud, no mess, no muck.
While we do love the notion of 100% Pure New Zealand for good reason, there’s a slight fly in the ointment with a surprisingly large amount of plastic going into the production of food and other crops.
In fact, around 12,000 tonnes of crop baling plastic goes on to farms every year – and until recently, most of it stayed there, burned or buried. Combatting the plasticopalypse isn’t easy, because farm plastic is lower-grade and, being used in dirty environments, easily contaminated, and comparatively difficult to recycle.
But that hasn’t stopped Plasback. And now, while successful in raising on-farm awareness of the necessity for recycling, Plasback Commercial Manager Neal Shaw is urging participating farmers to be mindful of how plastic is handled so it ends up going another round rather than snarling up machinery and equipment.
“We’ve had car batteries, a drum of oil, tractor weights, even a shotgun shell turning up in our recycling bins,” Shaw says, revealing a comedy not of errors but horrors. The oil drum was discovered when it exploded in a baler, turning a recycling effort into a costly cleanup. “At least it wasn’t the shotgun cartridge, I suppose.”
While that stuff grabs headlines (and operators’ undivided attention), the most common contaminant is mud. Despite the inviting bucolic images on milk cartons, farms are routinely dirty and demanding workplaces, occasioning accidental contamination. “It’s freezing, early in the morning or late at night, raining sideways. Plastic wrap comes off, the tractor goes over it, and it gets chucked in the bin along with a solid helping of soil.”
Not as serious as an incendiary barrel or live ammunition, but dirt doesn’t recycle well, or in fact, at all. “It’s a biosecurity issue too,” Shaw adds. “We don’t accept that coming into New Zealand, and we shouldn’t expect to send it offshore with farm plastic”
He says on-farm recycling should be approached in much the same way as domestic recycling: a little mindfulness and care goes a long way to achieving the purpose of the exercise. “Contamination ruins the whole process, misses the point completely, and works against the goal of minimising waste and creating a circular economy,” Shaw points out. “It’s also completely counterintuitive because our participating farmers pay to have a collection bin on their property.”
On-farm collection was developed by Plasback to meet the specific needs of farmers across New Zealand. The scheme has been running for 19 years and, for most of that time, was solely supported by Agpac, a long-standing supplier of silage and agricultural packaging. As Plasback steadily spreads the message about the importance of recycling agricultural plastic, the amount and variety of material coming off farms and into 12 depots nationwide continues to grow.
Every year, thousands of tonnes are collected, cleaned, baled, sent offshore and turned into a variety of products. This year, it’s likely to be 7000 tonnes, and in addition to baling wrap, collected plastics include fertiliser bags, drums, crates, polypipe and other common items.
Inevitably, that means contamination is on the up, too. And as evidenced by the oil drum incident, contamination can have serious consequences.
While most farmers are doing their recycling right, Shaw has a few tips for upping the game, starting with common-sense thinking which must extend to everyone. “The farmer who pays for the bin is probably fully on board, but everyone working the land should be on the same team,” he notes. “And that’s where a lot of contamination happens. If the tractor driver’s none the wiser, they run over the packaging coming off the bale. In other cases, someone might see the bin and for their own convenience put domestic rubbish in there, or the leftovers from their oil change.”
That makes communication the first step. A quick shake off of the soil and plant material does wonders. Only putting approved items in the bin means nothing can go awry. “Plenty of our farmers are loading plastics directly into the back of the ute when they’re around on the farm, then dumping it into the Plasback bin back at the sheds. This is an easy and highly effective way of keeping the plastic clean enough that it won’t cause any upstream issues,” says Shaw.
The benefits of getting it right are enormous. There’s the obvious advantage of not burying or burning thousands of tonnes of potentially toxic waste. Buried plastic can resurface, becoming “candy for cows” who munch on silage-scented scraps, leading to vet bills and industry criticism.
Recycling done right also keeps farms tidy and supports a circular economy. Plasback’s processed plastic returns as products sold at builders’ merchants throughout New Zealand and Australia, creating economic benefits for New Zealand and recycling partners offshore.
Shaw’s plea is clear: ditch the careless ‘just chuck-it-in’ mentality. “It’s about personal responsibility,” he says. “We want to remove carelessness, so every participating farm gets full value from our recycling efforts.”
To learn more about Plasback’s collection service, find your local collector, or get tips for reducing contamination, visit plasback.co.nz.