The Agrecovery Container and Chemical rural recycling programmes have been accredited as Product Stewardship programmes under the Waste Management Act 2008.

Announced at the Waste Management Institute of New Zealand conference on October 13, the Ministry for the Environment accreditation followed a rigorous audit of Agrecovery’s programme including its design, operation, sites and product end uses.   Product Stewardship programmes are ‘cradle to grave’ schemes that help reduce the environmental impact of manufactured products, and this accreditation is formal recognition from the Ministry for the Environment that Agrecovery fulfils this criteria.

The letter of accreditation stated “The Agrecovery programme is an example of how forward thinking businesses can manage the environmental effects of their products through proactive product stewardship.”

Since starting in 2007 with 12 brand owners and 22 container collection sites, Agrecovery has expanded to 53 brand owners and 70 sites, and has also introduced recycling programmes for unwanted or expired chemicals, silage wrap and crop protection net.

Agrecovery Foundation chairman Lew Metcalfe welcomed the accreditation and said it endorsed the investment made by both the Foundation and its supporting brand owners over the last three years.   “With wide industry and market support, Agrecovery is giving farmers and growers a very credible and sustainable solution for disposing of persistent on-farm waste products.”

The 53 brand owners aligned to the Agrecovery programme represent more than 90% of plant science, the majority of animal remedy, parts of dairy hygiene, and other agricultural sectors.       Duncan Scotland, Sales and Marketing Manager of 3R Group, Agrecovery Programme Managers, said that these brand owners have made voluntary and ongoing financial commitments to enable farmers and growers to have access to Agrecovery.
“Through the container recovery programme, which is fully compliant and independently audited, the waste material is recovered and then recycled into internationally approved products.   “This is real product stewardship in action.”

In its audit, the Ministry for the Environment inspected container collection sites and interviewed site operators.   It found that all sites were tidy and in excellent condition, staff were professional and had excellent knowledge of inspection procedures and brand owners’ products, site operators had ready access to training information and manuals, and that the sites were very user-friendly with ample information for first-time users.

The audit report also acknowledged the fact the New Zealand Fresh Produce Approved Supplier Programme (NZ GAP) offers growers a recognised certification process through their use of the Agrecovery Container and Chemical programmes.   “To gain and maintain access to international markets, growers must be able to demonstrate commitment to food safety, environment and quality criteria - for export growers, the Agrecovery programme may be critical to that access,” the report said.

In this, its third year of operation, the Agrecovery Container programme recycled 91,064kg of container plastic - 21% of containers put into the New Zealand marketplace by participating brand owners.    Mr Scotland said this was a great result, but the aim is to build on it further and achieve 60% recovery by 2012.

Agrecovery also intends to add the recovery of large drums to its programmes and will continue to work on other waste streams such as feedbags, plastic ground films and other plastics that cause disposal headaches for farmers and growers alike, he said.