Local Farm Part Of Agricultural Plastics Recycling Solutions
20 June 2016
The Recycling Association of Minnesota and their partners were selected as 2016 Partnership of the Year for their Recycling Agricultural and Marine Plastics program at the Environmental Initiative Awards on Thursday, May 26. This program, hosted by the nonprofit Environmental Initiative, annually honors innovative projects that have achieved extraordinary outcomes by harnessing the power of partnership.
Kristine and Mark Spadgenske, of Spadgenske Farms in Menahga, were part of the Agricultural Plastics/Boat Wrap recycling project, which recently won the state award.
Plastic films are used to wrap boats for transportation or for storage. Similar plastics are also used in agriculture.
In Minnesota, 460,000 dairy cows alone generate an estimated 15-20 pounds of plastic per head each year. This, combined with plastic from beef and other livestock operations, leaves more than 10 million pounds of waste plastic annually. While farmers want to manage their waste plastics responsibly, lack of options means most of this plastic is either sent to a landfill, buried or burned on site. Prior to this project, virtually none was recycled.
This project is working to provide viable alternatives for farmers to move away from improper and in many cases, illegal, disposal of agricultural plastic film wastes, reducing pollution, soil contamination and future liability issues.
County, city and privately owned Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) are generally unable to recycle the materials when they do come in to their facilities and face many problems as the long tangles of dirty plastic jam up and damage equipment which has not been designed to handle that sort of material.
Marinas, boat dealerships and storage businesses also generate tons of this type of plastic film annually. Opportunities to recycle marine plastics have been limited to parts of the Metro area with Choice Plastics, Up North Plastics and Republic Services.
Pilot hubs have been initiated for the purpose of setting up and testing collection points and methods.
"Farmers, solid waste facility managers, boat dealers and others were calling us because they did not have good options for dealing with these waste plastics and they wanted some answers" said Brita Sailer of the Recycling Association of Minnesota. "I'm so proud of all of the stakeholders who forged a new partnership, starting our state on the road to a common sense solution to this waste challenge."
The Recycling Association of Minnesota, along with representatives from local units of government, agriculture, plastics manufacturing and the solid waste sector worked together over the course of two years to identify and establish environmentally and economically sustainable methods for properly managing plastic wrap waste. For the first time, the agriculture and marine industries now have an outlet for recycling at several locations across Minnesota.
"The Recycling Association of Minnesota and their partners have collaborated on an important project that is creating a better environment for all Minnesotans," said Mike Harley, executive director of Environmental Initiative. "We are grateful for their passion and support of our belief that by working together, we can accomplish great things."
Source : wadenapj.com