Agrecovery Rural Recycling is returning to Taihape to hold another free container recycling event following the success of the November 2013 collection.
Local businesses Farmlands, PGG Wrightson and Ruapehu Farm Supplies are again supporting the Agrecovery initiative which will be held on 2nd April.
Last year, the one day collection netted over 600kg of plastic that might otherwise have been burned or buried on local farms.
“We promised that if we got a good result last year, we’d be back,” says Duncan Scotland of Agrecovery. “We hope to have an even better collection this year.”
Farmers and contractors can bring their empty, triple rinsed agrichemical and animal health plastic containers to Ruapehu Farm Supplies at 118 Hautapu Street, between 10am and 3pm. A BBQ will provide lunch for those recycling on the day.
“Our 56 participating manufacturers pay a levy to allow farmers to recycle their containers for free so we really hope farmers will throw their triple rinsed empties into the ute, grab something from the BBQ, but most importantly make the most of recycling to avoid unnecessarily burning or dumping plastic,” says Mr Scotland.
Agrecovery will have a mobile processing truck on site at Ruapehu Farm Supplies shredding the containers which are brought in for recycling. These will then be processed in Auckland, with one of the common uses for the recycled plastic being an underground cable cover.
“Last financial year, we collected enough containers to make a 15cm wide cable cover reaching from Auckland to Invercargill and back,” says Mr Scotland.
To recycle through this event, containers must be 0-60 litres in size, free of chemical residue and organic contamination inside and out, and still have the label on to identify the brand. All containers will be inspected before being accepted. Only containers from participating brand owners are free to recycle. A list of these and full acceptance criteria are available here or by calling 0800 247 326.
Permanent Agrecovery container collection sites around the region are also located in Ohakune, Marton, Feilding and Wanganui.