Ag Plastics Recycling -- what's everyone else doing?

Alberta - Working Group and Pilot Project

In 2007, the Recycling Council of Alberta established a multi-stakeholder working group on ag plastics. Its first task was to research the amount and types of ag plastics generated. With the help of the Alberta Plastics Recycling Association and retailers, they estimated that 6.5 to 9million pounds of polypropylene twine and cord and 9.5 to 11.5 million pounds of polyethylene grain and silage bags were sold in Alberta in 2007.

The second task of the working group was to tackle collection. They got information from the Alberta communities that were already collecting ag plastics and established pilot sites in other areas of the province to get more data in 2008.

They're still collecting information from the pilot sites, but here are their discoveries to date:

• Recyclers are interested in this material, but are concerned about cleanliness and separation by material type
• Horizontal balers are the best alterative for intermediate handling and preparing the material for shipping
• Some recycling programs offered cash incentives or collection options (i.e. a clear bag that fits in a 55-gallon drum. These were popular.
• Farmers are keen to cooperate, but will need education to establish on-farm systems to collect the materials in a clean and segregated way.

The working group is still going. It is developing recommendations on how a viable ag plastics recycling program might work. These include potential roles for industry (make products from easily identifiable and easily recyclable plastics) and farmers (collect materials in the cleanest way possible, sort by type, and deliver to drop-off location).

Another issue to sort through is how a program might be funded. Alberta has several models of product stewardship that might be useful.

[Source: Plastics Recycling Update in November 2009 WasteWatch]

[Note: more details on Alberta's program are available from our Ag Plastics Recycling Workshop]

British Columbia - RDOS Pilot Project

In 2007, BC's Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen got funding to carry out a pilot project to develop a model for regional districts to use to establish programs for ag plastics collection. A key outcome of having collection programs for ag plastics is to reduce burning of these materials. The pilot project was considered an Air Quality endeavor.

One of the pilot program's main tasks was to catalogue the types of plastics in the ag waste stream and to contact recyclers to see if there was interest in the various types. Although there were a wide variety of ag plastic products in the district, RDOS found that they could classify most of them into film, rigid and twine. They used these three categories in all their public education to help people sort correctly.

The program provided large bags for operators to use to collect and sort ag plastics into. Operators were asked to either bundle tie or bag everything.

Recommendations for landfills or transfer stations involved in ag plastic collection include establishing 4 drop off sites, one each for film, rigid, twine and PVC. (PVC was kept separate as it has different recycling markets than the other rigid plastics.) They recommended the drop off sites have some type of covering, like wood chips, on the floor as there were problems with the bags freezing to the ground in winter. Landfills were encouraged to waive tipping fees for sorted loads of ag plastic.

The pilot program collected 115,000 lbs of plastic and RDOS has continued to operate it as part of its regular programs.

(Source: November 2009 WasteWatch)

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