Farmers ramp up recycling efforts

Farmers in Taranaki have made a big step towards getting major rural waste problem all wrapped up. In the past 12 months, they have recycled enough plastic silage wrap to stretch from New Plymouth to Hawera and back more than 20 times reports the Taranaki Daily news.That's a big increase on efforts in the two previous seasons, and the effort is being hailed as excellent news for the environment. An estimated 50 tonnes of wrap has been recycled since the end of 2007, about half of it through a scheme run by Agpac through four Taranaki contractors, and the other half by Egmont Refuse in Hawera. The bulk of the wrap was returned during the 2008 winter feeding-out season, and is three to four times the total in the previous two season. Agpac's Chris Hartshorne says one tonne equates to 60km of bale wrap, giving a total of 3000km for Taranaki's effort in the past year. Taranaki Regional Council director of environment quality, Gary Bedford, says recycling is a far better option for disposing of bale wrap than the traditional burning or burying, both of which present environmental problems. "Burning plastic releases toxic fumes, while buried plastic rarely stays put unless it is tightly packed and buried deep," he says. "Once it works its way back to the surface, plastic tends to be dispersed by the wind and can end up disfiguring and blocking waterways, damaging plants and harming stock, birds, pets or other animals. It's good to see it disappearing back out of the region instead." Although farmers in Taranaki have made an encouraging start, Mr Bedford says the issue is a large one. At an estimated 320,000km, the amount of silage wrap used in New Zealand each year would go around the world eight times. "We're sure farmers understand the importance of dealing with this, and we look forward to more taking advantage of the recycling options available in Taranaki."