Mr Kemp, who uses about 200 bales of silage a year on his 115-hectare farm, has been recyling wrap for about three years, and is surprised that more farmers don’t do it reports the Taranaki Daily.
”I thought more farmers would have taken it up. It’s such a hassle to get rid of it. .” He said he recycled the wrap because it meant he no longer had to deal with the mess it made, and because it saved him time. ”The greenies mightn’t like it, but 80 per cent of the reason is the mess.”
Before buying his Agpac bin, he used to throw the wrap in a heap, hoping it wouldn’t blow away. When he went to clean it up six months later, the stinking pile was always full of water. He burned the wrap because he had no other way of getting rid of it.”It didn’t matter what you did, you would still have piles of silage wrap. It’d take a whole day in spring or summer to clean up. It’s dirty, wet, s….y stuff and it blows all over the place.”
The bin cost him $500, and liners cost $30 each. He rolls the wrap neatly so he can put as much as possible in the liner. ”I used to just throw it in, but you learn as you go. Now I put it in properly.” A lid prevents water getting inside the bin, and clips on the side allow the liner to be extracted easily. When the liner is full, he puts it on his ute and drops it at Inglewood contractors Ken G Moratti Ltd.
”What puts you off is the initial $500. But I don’t regret spending the money because of the time I save.”And the farm is much tidier there’s no wrap lying in heaps, and it doesn’t blow around. It’s definitely made my life easier.” He said he hoped that the cost of the liners would fall as more farmers recycled their wrap, allowing the recyclers to make money from it.
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