Grain bag disposal a growing concern

by Joshua Page, PA Daily Herald

John Dinius was born during the Great Depression and then fought in the Korean War at an age when most 19-year-olds nowadays would be celebrating their first legal Jack Daniels.

It's not really a surprise, then, the now 77-year-old farmer near Paddockwood is a tad resourceful, even when it comes to reusing old grain bags.

"People come around and call me a hobby farmer, (but) $20,000 in canola two years ago ain't a hobby to me," a chuckling Dinius said about the 160 acres he still farms, despite selling much of his land in recent years.

A couple years ago, Dinius believed there must be another use for plastic grain bags better than the burning pit the polyethylene bags tended to die in once they served their one-time use.

"It's so simple that somebody should be able to make it work, if they want to," said Dinius.

He hasn't used grain bags for their intended purpose before, but he's been able to use a neigbour's old bags as tarps for his firewood and bales the last two years.

The material, more than nine mils thick and nearly indestructible, was unlike any other plastic he'd seen before, and he's been using the same bag pieces as tarps the last two years.

The bags grew in popularity quickly over the past five years for a number of reasons, not the least of which include they're cheaper than traditional bins, save fuel costs for farmers, and farmers can often store damp grain in them.

Bags also block UV rays, fungus growth and hungry wildlife looking for an easy snack and protect grain for as long as 18 months in the field.

Their strength is well known to Tammy Myers, who for about the last two years, has been fixated on finding another use for the bags.

Myers began with baler twine on her agriculture recycling radar a couple years ago, but grain bags quickly popped up as well.

"The grain bags are just so much more plastic. There is lots of it, there are lots of them," said the Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards co-ordinator.

While burning the bags -- which normally weigh about 300 pounds -- is technically illegal, there is little else farmers can do with the heavy, empty bags once the grain is cut out.

"We are trying to provide a solution for those farmers that are seeking one," said Myers.

Burning the thick plastic produces carcinogens that enter the atmosphere and the ash can leach into soil and enter water supplies, added Myers.

One of the province's distributors, West Central Grain Bags, charges about $700 for a 250 foot by nine foot bag, a fraction of the cost of setting up and maintaining normal hopper bins.

A bag that size could hold more than 10,000 bushels of wheat while stretching out like a caterpillar over a field.

"It's cheaper. It's just become more attractive to farmers," said West Central's owner, Ken Somerville.

Many farmers lease land nowadays as well, noted Somerville, and the temporary bags are a more cost-effective and practical solution compared to setting up more permanent bins on borrowed land.

"Every farmer wants to be able to recycle the product, but it's not worth it right now. Until there is something to help the farmers get the stuff recycled, they won't do it. It's not economical," said Somerville.

In many cases, idling tractors and pollution created from hauling grain to bins could be just as harmful to the air as bag burning, he added.

That's where Calgary's Kevin Kernaghan comes in.

He's the polyethylene and polypropylene purchasing and sales manager for Merlin Plastics, a B.C.-based company with a large Calgary operation.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story," said Kernaghan when first asked how he became involved with grain bags. "Long story short: we are attempting to recycle grain bags."

In 2009, Merlin Plastics was involved in a pilot project in Alberta that collected agricultural plastics and tried to create the right process for recycling the hardy material.

He said the company developed the ability to create a type of pellet or bead from the bags and now the biggest challenge is finding a market for the new product.

"We have to develop the market. We aren't quite sure specifically what manufacturer will want to use this recycled material," Kernaghan said.

That said, Kernaghan added he is confident a market will be found.

Back at Dinius's farm, the veteran scratches one of his horses behind the ears, much to the brute's neighing enjoyment.

He makes a comment about a recent letter to the editor he read that discussed the toxins released by burning grain bags. His mind quickly tied the letter's intent to his usage of the bags, and then he thought of the refugees he saw in Korea while a train brought him to the front lines.

The displaced locals hid from the rain in cardboard shelters fastened to railroad fences.

"It just kind of all jelled," he said while he headed inside the house.

Now sitting at his kitchen table with his wife Marguerite, John pulls out a February edition of the Economist magazine, revealing a few highlighted passages that said what many people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti needed were temporary plastic tarps.

"Those little bitty tarps (they have now) just aren't enough for a family to get under, but if you took a piece of this stuff (grain bags) and cut it to whatever size NGOs needed it to be, I have no doubt those things have five serviceable years in them," he said.

Afterwards, the plastic could be used for waterproofing or lining lagoons, another use that some farmers in Saskatchewan have found for the plastic.

Such forward thinking also drives Tammy Myers, who over Thursday and Friday collected baler twine and grain bags near the Milestone area in southern Saskatchewan for farmers interested in recycling plastic normally headed to an ashy grave.

"Now we really need to invest in figuring out what it is going to take for the producer to consider another alternative other than putting it in a landfill or burning it. That is what we are doing and why," she said.

Not surprisingly, Kevin Kernaghan flew to Regina and then went to the Milestone area to meet with Myers and be there during the collection.

"We wanted to deal individually with farmers, but we felt that may circumvent a broader collection system that would be designed by industry or by government," he said.

An Alberta-based business called The Plastics Place used to accept grain bags, but shut down about three months ago.

Merlin Plastics essentially stands alone in the grain bag recycling world at the moment, though Myers said another Alberta company is becoming involved.

Saskatchewan has no recycling centre.

According to Somerville, Alberta was certainly ahead of Saskatchewan, and both provincial governments had taken a patient attitude with the product when it was first introduced.

"At that time it was a wait and see thing, and now we've waited and we've definitely seen," he said.

He added with an industry in its infancy, like grain bags, there is room to improve, and creating a biodegradable bag is one way the industry could improve, but it couldn't stop bag burning alone.

Myers, Kernagahan and Dinius all agreed.

"It's too big for one company, one firm or one person to handle. You need partnerships," said Kernaghan.

Government, producers and industry would all need to be involved in solving the bag burning, added Dinius.

"There are things we cannot do individually, and that is why we have government. Collectively, government can do things we just can't do individually," he said.

Dinius suggested a small fee could be added to the cost of bags that could help cover recycling them.

For Myers, knee-deep in agricultural plastic in Milestone the last two days, hosting the first plastic gathering pilot project in the province could lead to enhanced recycling initiatives.

"What we need to know is how far are people willing to drive to get rid of waste and the pilot cost and ability for the recycling industry to handle the plastic we can collect," she said.

The provincial government said it's aware of the grassroots groundswell over grain bags.

"Rural municipalities and individual farmers are very concerned about how to handle this material. Many understand burning it is not a good solution, and taking it to the landfill is not a long-term solution," said Marlon Killaby, Saskatchewan Environment waste management manager.

Some landfills don't want the bags because of their sheer size, according to Killaby.

Prince Albert's sanitation manager, Rob Burns, said the local landfill did have one bag in it and does accept grain bags.

Farmers were not only worried about the illegal, toxic burning, but also of burning themselves, according to Killaby.

The province now partners and pays CleanFARMS, an Ontario-based non-profit already involved in the province with pesticide collection, to find solutions to not just the grain bag problem, but other agricultural plastics like baler twine and silage bags.

An initial report is expected in the summer.

Current key recycling issues include the usual suspects, like cleaning the bags and transporting them, according to Killaby.

He added there were locations in North America that recycled similar plastics and he believed the industry could grow. Ideally, a program would be developed that didn't hit farmers' wallets for shipping costs.

A environmental fee is an option, according to Killaby, especially if the fee is adopted by the industry, much like the SWEEP program that charges a few dollars on computer equipment and televisions. Fees go toward the eventual recycling of the electronics.

"Right now, we would rather have industry take on responsibility for end-of-life disposal, instead of government having to legislate," said Killaby. "Then I think we all win."

Distributor Ken Somerville agreed and stuck to the inclusive partnership theory.

"I think the distributors are going to bear the brunt... We all have to grow together and work together on this and develop a recycling program that works for everybody," said Somerville.

(Source: PA Daily Herald, March 13, 2010)

jpage@paherald.sk.ca

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