Simon Cook, a third generation kiwifruit grower from the kiwifruit capital of the world and owner of a spray contracting business, summarises how environmental stewardship envelops his business ethos with the Maori proverb, Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua – translated to ‘As man disappears from sight, the land remains’. “I’m on a property that’s been here for three generations and I’m hoping to pass it on to my kids. I don’t want to leave something behind that they’re going to have to clean up in the future. Part of that is dealing with chemicals and minimising their impact,” says Cook. Cook and his family grow green and gold kiwifruit varieties in Te Puke and have recently branched out to ...
An Agrecovery partner since its inception, the agriculture spraying company believes that sustainability should be embedded into every farming operation. It offers a collection site for agrichemical, dairy hygiene and animal health containers. Integral to their service is environmental stewardship – not only in educating the farmers that use their site, but also in conducting their contracting service throughout the region. Molloy Agriculture offers a ground application service for a wide range of arable, vegetable and pastoral crops including wheat, barley, ryegrass, clover and peas. Their service means no waste is left on the farm. “When we spray for clients, we rinse the containers,” says Mangin. ”If we supply the agrichemicals, we bring the containers back for recycling, so it’s ...
Rural recycling has seen unprecedented gains, with rates soaring to 43 percent above last year’s figures. The programme responsible for these results supports government proposals to rethink plastics but says there is an urgent need for local recycling solutions to generate greater recycling rates for a wider selection of rural plastics. If a wider variety of plastic can be recycled, less plastic waste will build up in rural areas and fewer harmful practices, such as burning and burying, will be deployed to dispose of it. This will benefit our environment and our wildlife. To help clear waste from farms, Agrecovery recycles agrichemical containers and drums so that they can be made into underground cable covers and building materials right here ...
Former Hurunui Council Mayor, Winton Dalley is a fantastic champion of agricultural recycling programmes and has been encouraging his community to support them for many years. The council and Dalley’s environmental priorities extend beyond agrichemical containers and drums, and chemical recovery. They include soft plastics, twine, netting and pipes, and that’s just in the agricultural arena. “Stewardship systems are the only way of dealing with waste,” Dalley says. “We need to be turning the clock back to reusing and recycling.” He says that buying new products made from containers means “you don’t need to pull more oil out of the ground to make them”. “Stewardship programmes mean that the cost of responsible recovery is factored in with the purchase of ...
We are seeing real growth in our recycling programme, reflected in the record volumes of plastic we collected in the last year.
As New Zealand’s peak rural recycling programme, we are proud of the results we achieve by working with our partners. This year's collection rates are up 43% from the year before and means that we are now recycling more than half of all containers sold.
Adrienne Wilcock, Agrecovery Chair
ANNUAL REPORT 2018-2019
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Farmers and growers are proving their worth as good stewards of the land, by achieving record-breaking volumes of plastic recycling through the rural recycling programme, Agrecovery. The past year has seen a 43 percent increase in rural plastic coming back for recycling at Agrecovery’s sites, events and via on-farm pick-ups. The staggering 437 tonnes of plastic containers collected over the past year is now being given new life. “This is a massive leap from the 320 tonnes collected the previous year,” says Agrecovery General Manager Simon Andrew. “The figures show that we are now recycling more than half of the agrichemical containers and drum plastic sold in the New Zealand market,” he says. Those manufacturers who participate in the programme ...
Supporting farmers to preserve the environment by providing alternatives to the harmful disposal practices of burning, burying and stockpiling of waste is vital for the future of New Zealand. Guidelines announced today by the Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage are a shot in the arm for rural recycling. The Minister launched a consultation, under the Waste Minimisation Act, which sees agrichemical containers and farm plastics become priority products. This means that manufacturers must take responsibility for any plastic packaging and unwanted product. Agrecovery, which runs such a scheme voluntarily, commends the government for ensuring that all product manufacturers participate in recycling and repurposing end-of-life product packaging. The focus needs to be on retaining convenient, reliable and cost-effective services ...
Each week, thousands of kiwi homes wheel or carry their rubbish to the kerbside for collection. For rural communities, managing refuse is not such an easy task. Generations of kiwi farmers have had to find their own ways of clearing non-natural waste. A 2013 study by Environment Canterbury claimed that farms were producing nearly 10 tonnes of waste a year. Empty containers and drums, silage wrap, fertiliser bags and motor oil are just some of the items left over from the business of farming. Finding an efficient and sustainable solution can be confusing and time-consuming for farmers and growers, especially with each waste stream having its own processes for recycling or safe disposal. To add to the challenge, the options ...
Our container programme provides a sustainable way to dispose of used agrichemical containers, which are then recycled into fully-compliant products right here in New Zealand. Long-time recycling partner, Astron Plastics in Auckland, converts all of our triple-rinsed containers into underground cable cover or building materials. The majority is made into covers for cables and pipes – for electricity and gas. The rest is made into damp course – used to prevent damp rising in buildings. Astron Plastics Manager Steve Mead says “there is ongoing demand for these finished products” and is enthusiastic about being associated with the Agrecovery programme because “it has really sound environmental credentials and benefits”. The plastic is collected from over 90 sites and large-scale farms across ...
Agrecovery Chair Adrienne Wilcock on the NZ Rural Waste Minimisation Project launch Good morning and welcome. It’s great to see you all here today. I’d especially like to welcome Minister Eugenie Sage, our Associate Minister for the Environment for attending and we will hear from her shortly. As we are all aware, plastic waste has become a huge issue – not just in New Zealand – but worldwide. After years of the perceived convenience of plastic packaging, we have finally woken up to the mess mankind is making and now we face the challenge of how to avoid, reduce or ethically dispose of it. We’ve seen single-use plastic bags banned from supermarkets and the banning of scrap plastic imports to ...
