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Agrecovery just turned one but has already proven its worth!
More than 80,000 old and unwanted agrichemical containers have been collected in the first year of a national rural recycling programme.
Today, Environment Minister Trevor Mallard congratulated the Agrecovery Foundation on its first birthday and the progress made to date. “Used plastic containers sitting in New Zealand farm sheds can pose a risk to the environment and are a waste of resources if they are burned or thrown away. I would like to encourage people to use this recycling programme and help turn their waste plastic into new products.”
Agrecovery provides growers, farmers, foresters and other primary industry chemical users with an environmentally safe way of disposing of their containers.
“This programme recognises the importance of a ‘clean, green’ environment for the agricultural industry and New Zealand as a whole,” Trevor Mallard said.
So far, 29 of New Zealand’s agrichemical companies have signed up to the voluntary programme.
“I hope Agrecovery’s success will prompt other business and industries to take responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products, and so contribute to New Zealand’s aim of being truly sustainable.”
Already, paint, battery and electronics companies have similar schemes and the Government is encouraging business to set up initiatives for other products, to provide New Zealanders with more options to dispose of harmful waste.
“The government would like to see this happen on a voluntary basis, but the Waste Minimisation Bill, currently before Parliament, will enable regulation to be used when necessary to prevent non-participating business from reaping the benefits but not contributing to the costs.”
The Agrecovery Foundation is a charitable trust. Trustees include horticulture New Zealand, Federate Farmers, Agcarm, Fonterra and Environment Waikato. The programme received initial funding from the Government’s sustainable Management Fund and Sustainable Farming fund and is now completely self-funding.
Click here to read the Agrecovery Programmes Annual Report
Users of the Agrecovery Wrap programme now have another recycling option making it even more convenient to dispose of their used silage wrap. Already more than 20,000 of the popular small recycling bags have been sold since the programme began in 2009, however some farmers have also asked for a larger recycling bag which they felt might be more suitable to their particular farm environment.
“The wrap programme has gone from strength to strength since it started but we are constantly looking at how to improve it,” said Bruce Emerson, director of 3R Group, programme managers for Agrecovery. “While the current smaller recycling bag is easy to handle and meets the needs of most farmers, we have had enquiries from those with a lot of stock seeking bigger bags so we decided to offer this larger solution.”
“We’ve made the large bags basically the same size as an alternative recycling programme to make it easier for farmers to compare prices and also for those who want to switch over to the Agrecovery service - now it’s simply a matter of ordering our bags to fit their current bin. “We’ve also had an audit carried out by AsureQuality to make sure farmers know what they can expect to fit in each bag and to cut through some of the rather rough estimates given by other recycling services.”
Available directly from Agrecovery, the new 1.3m3 bags are sold individually and hold an average 85 standard round bale wraps each. Each bag costs $60 + GST which includes the cost of on farm collection.
3R Group was delighted to be awarded ACC Tertiary Certification following an audit on 19th May.
Following the successful certification to ACC Secondary level in 2008, 3R Group decided that it should take a step up and look to achieve Tertiary level certification.
“Achievement of tertiary level shows our continued commitment to Health and Safety,” says Barbara Nicolle, Health, Safety and Quality Coordinator for 3R Group.
“As a company we’ve always been very proactive about health and safety as well as continually working to improve our business processes and the quality of the services we offer.
“After been awarded ISO 14001 accreditation in May 2009, ACC Tertiary seemed to be a logical next step.”
The culmination of the ACC audit and the commitment of all employees to health and safety resulted in the achievement of Tertiary Level Certification in the ACC Work Safety Management Programme (WSMP).
Netball official Sam Kerins was named 3R Group Official at the Unison 2010 Hawke’s Bay Sports Awards held on 29 May. The Commonwealth Games-bound netball official took home the award after a memorable year which saw him officiate at numerous ANZ Championship matches and games between the Silver Ferns and World Seven.
3R Group are proud to sponsor the awards which recognise the Bay’s top sporting talent.
As 3R Group’s new North Island sales and relationship co-ordinator for Agrecovery Leon McPhillips is hoping to encourage even more participation in the recycling programme across all sectors of the agricultural industry. Appointed in June, Leon sees his job as being about education and putting talk into action.
“I will be identifying knowledge gaps in the market with farmers, retailers and industry groups and making them aware that the programme is available. “There will be a lot of face to face work, especially with companies and organisations within the supply chain, as well as collection site operators, farmers, growers and contractors.
Five new companies have joined Agrecovery from the 1st of April bringing to 50 the number of participating brand owners. This coincides with the 3rd anniversary of the programme’s launch. “We started the programme 3 years ago with just 12 brand owners and are delighted to now have 50 supporting companies,” says Bruce Emerson, director of 3R Group, programme managers for Agrecovery.
“It’s a great result which shows the strong support that this programme has across the industry. It also makes the programme even easier for farmers and growers to use, as there are now so few brand owners outside the programme.”
One of the new brand owners, Paeroa-based AgriSea NZ Ltd, is a multi-award winning sustainable New Zealand company producing seaweed soil, foliar, turf, pasture and animal health concentrates for agriculture and horticulture. Winner of the 2008 Waikato Sustainable Company of the Year, AgriSea is committed to supporting sustainable farming. General manager Tane Bradley says “We understand the size of the on-farm plastics problem for farmers in general and are pleased to partner with Agrecovery to be part of the solution.”
