Contamination an obstacle to recycling farm plastics

20 December 2006 – Reprocessing capacity is available for a large part of agricultural waste plastics (AWP) arising on UK farms, but contaminated film is still posing a problem, according to an interim report published by the AWP Collection and Recovery Programme.

While 136,000 tonnes of AWP was generated in the UK over the last 12 months, only 58,647 tonnes was reprocessed. Products such as picnic benches and fencing posts have been made from the reprocessed plastics, as well as plastic board and sheet or pellets for further manufacturing.

The interim report covers phase one of the programme on the recycling of farm plastics. The programme aims to identify good practice for collection of farm plastics and has commissioned trial projects designed to maximise tonnage of waste plastics collected.

Agricultural waste is generated from plastics including silage wrap, crop cover and agri-chemical containers. But levels of soil contamination on film can exceed 80% and can be handled by only a few reprocessors.

The report revealed that 72,500 tonnes of contaminated LDPE film is produced annually, but only around 32,200 tonnes of that is reprocessed in the UK.

Other obstacles to reprocessing farm plastics include the cost of collection from the hundreds of thousands of farm holdings spread across the UK.

On behalf of DEFRA and the Agricultural Waste Stakeholders Forum, the programme is managed by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management Environmental Body, and is being delivered by Valpak and ADAS.