Since many of our products require the use of Ag plastic, whether in grain bags or plastic film for wrapping hay, a natural thought has been about what customers do with the plastic once they are finished with it. Most Ag plastic cannot be used after initial use for the same purpose (ie. You can only wrap bales once with most plastic and grain bags are not reusable for bagging grain again with the same bag). Burning plastic is not a good idea as it has environmental effects. Similar to our products like Lemken tillage and Tubeline Nitro spreaders are concerned with the environment and help organic and traditional farmers alike, we strive to be educated on what the options are for farmers who have left over plastic from wrapping hay or grain bags. We carry a product called the BR48, shown below, which easily rolls our grain bags into rolls simple for recycling. Where to recycle? First check with your local recycling plants and see what type of plastic and quantities they accept. There are other services across the United States that will pick up grain bags and plastic for free from your farm, if the quantity is approx. 40,000lbs or more and it is in some sort of bale (like the BR48 will provide). One place is called Delta Plastics, and they will go anywhere in the Midwest and Delta regions if the above specifications are met. When we talk about our grain bags, 40,000lbs is only about 60 bags. We have talked to farmers in the Midwest that get together in a season and store their used bags together, to get the 40,000lb requirement and then have a company come pick it up at a central location/farm. Other options we have heard of is reusing the plastic on your garden to cover for weeds, or to cover machinery.
Below are several resources for recycling Ag plastic in your region. Minnesota & Wisconsin (they are hoping to expand to other regions) www.revolutionplastics.com/index.php#join East Coast http://recycleagplastics.css.cals.cornell.edu/ Mid West/Delta http://www.deltaplastics.com/Recyclers/Recycling/recycling-ag-plastics 800-277-9172 Canada http://albertaplasticsrecycling.com/resources-education/agricultural-plastics/ Comments are closed.
|