Every piece of plastic from customers is recycled. Photo / Supplied
Every piece of plastic from customers is recycled. Photo / Supplied
Content brought to you by Plasback
Plasback operates a Product Stewardship scheme to recover used farm plastics for recycling.
Setting up business in New Zealand in 2006, Plasback has gone from strength to strength when it comes to plastic recycling.
Plasback was one of the first Product Stewardship schemes foragriculture to receive accreditation from the Ministry for the Environment in 2010 and reaccredited in 2017.
The first year in business saw them recycling nine tonnes of plastic waste and this year will see them recycling in excess over 5000 tonnes of plastic, mainly made up of bale wrap and pit covers.
Operating their original bin and liner system, which when combined with on-farm collection, has contributed to Plasback not only running a simple and effective system but has meant over 21,000 tonnes of waste collected since the scheme's inception.
Their waste collection includes bale wrap, silage pit covers, shrink wrap, pallet covers, polypropylene feed, seed and fertiliser bags, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers, vineyard nets, irrigation pipes and polypropylene twine from farms and vineyards.
Tuffboard being used to great effect in a Perkinz Sheep press. Photo / Supplied
As part of their continued commitment to Product Stewardship, they now operate nine purpose-built balers across the country, designed to improve the onward transport logistics from their main centres to the recycling plants and have introduced new products made from recycled plastics such as Tuffboard, Tuffdeck, and Plaswood.
With their head office in Christchurch, they have a reliable network of 13 independent contractors who run the collections and cover the whole of New Zealand.
Neal Shaw, Commercial Manager of Plasback said, "customers who have their plastic collected are interested in traceability, they want to know where their plastic is going and what is the end product".
Every piece of plastic collected from customers is recycled, 20 per cent in New Zealand and 80 per cent offshore, but all is recycled.
Products produced from this recycling include Tuffboard, builders' film and recycled plastic pellets to be re-used for making other plastic products.
Presently there are six waste streams being assessed by government with farm plastics being one of them.
Others include plastic packaging, tyres, refrigerants and e-waste, along with agrichemicals and containers.
New Zealand agriculture's effort to recycle its waste plastic is a good news story that should be more widely known.
That effort is now at a crossroads, however.
If the industry does not take the initiative to lift recycling to the next level, then the Government will impose a scheme that will cost suppliers and ultimately farmers more in the long run.
Plasback is encouraging producers of plastics to be part of the Plasback scheme so that the industry can manage both the waste and the costs.
"The hardest part of this industry is the 'free riders', those businesses that sell plastics but take no responsibility financially for the recovery and recycling of the product," Shaw said.
"There are plenty of forward-thinking businesses who have actually stepped up, but there are still plenty that are taking the wait and see approach".
Getting behind the Plasback scheme is going to make this a better world for our children, and their children to come.
Plasback facts
• In 2020/21 Plasback used over 40,000kg of waste plastics to make more than 1600 sheets of Tuffboard.
• Plaswood is a wood alternative, resistant to rain, frost, and snow. Not affected by UV light.
• Plasback now owns and operates nine purpose-built balers located around New Zealand.
