By Jessica Rowe
An agricultural recycling programme has had a sudden surge of interest from farmers across the country.
Interest in the programme is being welcomed by the Government, which aims to reduce New Zealand's agricultural waste by a third.
Every year, 4000 tonnes of silage wrap is used throughout the country, but much of it is burnt or buried, adding to pollution and threatening our clean green image.
But farmers do have an option of disposing of waste in an environmentally friendly way.
In the past six months the programme has recycled about 300 tonnes of silage wrap waste, which is the same amount of the waste recycled during the entire previous year.
The system involves farmers storing their plastic waste over the feeding season.
That waste is later collected and consolidated, before being recycled.
The programme is part of the Government's product stewardship scheme, in which businesses are encouraged to take responsibility for their waste from its manufacture to disposal.
“More and more farmers are becoming aware of the need to do this, which is great but we've still got a long way to go but we are heading in the right direction,” says Plasback’s programme manager Chris Hartshorne.
The Government is aiming to see recycling for more than 2000 tonnes of the estimated 7000 tonnes of plastic waste from agriculture by July this year.
Those behind the programme hope even more farmers will make use of the system, and ensure the agricultural sector continues making a positive impact on the environment.
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