GROWERS have three weeks to offload their plastics for free and save money on landfill costs, says the project manager of a pilot recycling program set to close at the end of October.
RCMG project lead Carl Larsen said growers should also consider participating in the final weeks to boost their environmental credentials.
The pilot was launched in May to allow farmers to recycle their agricultural plastics at certain drop-off points in Mildura, Ouyen and Swan Hill.
It is part of the National Agricultural Plastics Stewardship Scheme and coincides with a pilot in Queensland which also aims to develop a viable market to recycle plastics.
“We know that farmers are currently landfilling their plastics,” Mr Larsen said.
“It’s becoming increasingly expensive because they take up a lot of area and they’re relatively light.
“Landfill fees are only going up because there is pretty limited space.
“The other driver and big benefit for farmers participating is … they can really demonstrate their environmental credentials.”
Mr Larsen said while people in agriculture wanted to do the right thing, there was big area for improvement.
“The current recycling rate of plastics is about 8 per cent,” Mr Larsen said, which suffered in comparison to rates of recycling of soft consumer plastics, cardboard and glass.
“Irrigation tube is used extensively in irrigated horticulture; grape covers are being increasingly used to protect crops from late season rain.
“Quite often, these plastics have been difficult to recycle because of the large distances between where they are used and where you can recycle them.”
Mr Larson said agriculture had been constrained by a lack of opportunities for sorting and separating, resulting in most plastics being stockpiled on farms.
He said data from the program would help design a broader scheme to be delivered from March.
Victorian Farmers Federation grains group president Ashley Fraser urged growers to use the program before it closed.
“The Victorian grain industry has continuously moved the line on innovation for decades, but agricultural plastics recycling has lagged behind this line,” Mr Fraser said.
Mr Larsen said while it was difficult to pin down an ideal increase in recycling within agriculture, anywhere between 50 and 60 per cent was a good target to adopt over the first five to 10 years of any long-term recycling program.
Local drop-off locations are Mildura Rural City Council landfill, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8.15am to 4.45pm and Ouyen’s Northwest Ag Services on the first Wednesday of each month from 3pm to 5pm.
