Rural recyclers say thanks a million

“It’s a significant milestone for sustainability in the primary sector, so we’re celebrating by giving away a new Suzuki farm bike,” says Agrecovery Foundation chair Adrienne Wilcock, a dairy farmer from Matamata who represents Dairy NZ on the Foundation.

The campaign ‘Kick start your winter clean up’ gives anyone who recycles with Agrecovery before the end of June the chance to win a Suzuki DR200 Trojan.

The Agrecovery container programme started in 2007, offering farmers and growers free recycling of plastic containers from 12 participating brand owners at 25 collection points.  It now has over 60 brand owners of agrichemical, dairy hygiene, and animal health products supporting the programme, with more than 70 permanent collection points throughout the country.

Wilcock says the number of farmers and growers recycling with Agrecovery is growing significantly year on year.

“In year one we collected 32,850 kg and now, in year eight, we expect to reach 230,000 kg, taking us well past one million kg overall,” she says.

“Laid end to end, 1 million kg of containers would stretch approximately 325km or the entire length of the Clutha River, New Zealand’s second longest river.” 

The recycled containers are sent to Astron Plastics in Auckland for processing into safe end uses, such as underground electrical cable cover. 

“Through recycling with Agrecovery, farmers and growers have avoided using the equivalent of 8,500 cubic meters of farm dumps, or unnecessarily polluting the air and land by burning the plastic,” says Wilcock. 

“Instead, using this volume of recycled plastic compared to new plastic has an energy saving equivalent to 1.875 million litres of petrol.  That’s a massive environmental benefit whichever way you look at it.”

The ‘Kick start your winter clean up’ campaign runs throughout June, for more information visit www.agrecovery.co.nz.