KEY POINTS:
A nationwide rural recycling scheme that turns used agrichemical plastic containers into underground electrical cable cover is fast gaining interest from the primary production sector.
Tomorrow marks the first annual meeting of Agrecovery - marking its first year of success.
Agrecovery is a new programme that recovers and reprocesses agrichemical plastic containers and employs the world's first plastic shredding truck.
Bruce Emerson, director of 3R Group, said the scheme had proven popular, with an estimated 80,000 containers recovered in the first year. "We expect to treble that."
Farmers and horticulturists triple-rinse their 20-litre chemical containers and deposit them at one of 50 nationwide collection sites.
They are stored in shipping containers until they are picked up by a truck that shreds them before transporting them to plastic reprocessors in Auckland and Christchurch.
The truck was designed specifically to process agrichemical containers, and in its travels has raised the profile of the programme.
"The highly visual truck has created an enormous amount of public interest and has become one of our best public awareness and education tools," Mr Emerson said.
The shredded plastic is turned into underground electrical cables. "We can't give them [the manufacturers] enough."
Mr Emerson said it was estimated about five million agrichemical containers were used in the primary produce sector a year, many ending up dumped or burned.
The Agrecovery programme was paid for through a levy on the chemical products, a system that had the support of about 85 per cent of the agrichemical companies.
Mr Emerson said plastic waste on farms was a persistent and growing problem for farmers and growers throughout New Zealand.
He was encouraged to see in some regions, like Gisborne, that growers and farmers were rallying together and encouraging their neighbours, colleagues and friends to be part of the programme.
Farmers and growers were also looking for solutions beyond containers including silage wrap, larger drum recovery and the chemicals themselves.
www.agrecovery.co.nz
