Agrichemical manufacturer AGPRO NZ Limited is the latest company to join the Plasback rural recycling programme.
Plasback is a comprehensive plastic recycling scheme that offers farmers on-farm collection of silage wrap, drums, polypropylene bags and vineyard net.
As New Zealand’s largest direct-to-end user herbicide manufacturer, AGPRO supplies a comprehensive range of agrichemicals for use in farming, forestry, vineyards, horticulture and councils.
AGPRO operations manager Jon Petherick says his company joined the Plasback scheme at the start of June, after several years of considering its options with other schemes.
“This scheme is ideal for our customers. They like the fact that it’s all done on farm. The containers are stored on farm and the collectors come to the farm to pick them up,” he says.
“With other schemes the farmers have to go out of their way to drop them off at a refuse centre or storage facility. Refuse centres only collect containers on certain days or at certain times, which obviously isn’t going to work.”
John Petherick says AGPRO plans to send a mailer out to its customers soon, informing them of the new partnership with Plasback.
“We understand that some of our customers are already using the Plasback bins and it’s just a case of putting their AGPRO containers in there.
“The main focus of the mail out will be to ensure that our customers are aware of the scheme and that correct disposal procedures are followed. For example, all the containers must be triple rinsed,” he says.
“We send out tens of thousands of containers a year and we will certainly be encouraging our customers to recycle via the Plasback scheme instead of current disposal methods.”
Plasback programme manager Chris Hartshorne says he is delighted that AGPRO has joined the Plasback scheme.
“Naturally we are delighted that New Zealand’s largest manufacturer of glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals has joined our recycling programme. We believe Plasback offers the best solution for both farmers and manufacturers,” Chris Hartshorne says.
“We are a user-pays system that provides a convenient service to those farmers who want to do the right thing and remove their waste from the environment.
“Unlike some schemes, we do not charge a levy. Levies are an added cost to manufacturers. They must either bear that cost or pass it on to all their customers, whether they recycle or not.”
Chris Hartshorne says Plasback is a true product stewardship programme, and is the only agricultural recycling programme to have earned Product Stewardship accreditation from the Ministry of the Environment.
Plasback has an exclusive arrangement with Mastagard, the only New Zealand company with the technology to wash, dry, and reprocess used farm plastic. Because Mastagard has the ability to close the lifecycle loop, the plastic Plasback collects is not warehoused or shipped to Asia for processing.
The volume of waste plastic Plasback collects grows every year and has already exceeded 300 tonnes this year.
For more information contact Chris Hartshorne on 0508 338 240 or email chartshorne@agpac.co.nz .