Ag plastics becoming a growing ‘tumbleweed’
Farmers want to get rid of it, without burning or burying it. Landfills don’t want it. What do you do with it?
Recycling ag plastic (or “ag bags”) was the topic of a forum hosted by McLeod County Solid Waste Wednesday, Jan. 27, with area officials, including Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Dave Frederickson and representatives from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Recycling Association of Minnesota and neighboring counties’ solid waste departments.
Ag plastic is used for everything from feed and seed bags to moisture barriers for large round bales of straw to seed trays to tree wraps.
The use of plastics is growing at a faster and faster rate.
While Frederickson praised solid waste officials for trying to get “ahead of the puck,” McLeod County Solid Waste Coordinator Sarah Young indicated that recycling centers may not be moving fast enough.
“It’s like a big plastic tumbleweed,” said Young. “It just keeps growing and growing, and we’re trying to catch it.”
Brita Sailer of the Recycling Association of Minnesota, a non-profit agency, agreed that use of plastics is continuing to grow dramatically.
“Everyone eats their breakfast out of plastic, even the cows,” said Sailer.
She said her office is getting more calls from farm operators and cooperatives trying to find a way to dispose of the plastic in an environmentally friendly manner.
“People do care about this, but they really don’t know what to do,” said Sailer.
For more from the forum, see the Feb. 3 print edition of The Chronicle.