Home

Clutha District joins rural recycling programme

Clutha District is participating in a rural recycling programme aimed at collecting some of the country's estimated 10 million used agrichemical containers.

Agrecovery was launched on 1 April and already 50 sites from Winton in the South Island to Kaitaia in the North Island have been established.

The Clutha site is at the Mt Cooee Landfill in Balclutha.

Director Bruce Emerson of 3R Group Ltd, managers of the Agrecovery programme, said the rural recycling programme provided growers, farmers, foresters, and other primary industry chemical users with an environmentally safe way of disposing of their unwanted plastic containers.

"Agrecovery is already a success in terms of the number of agrichemical companies that have committed to the programme and the number of sites throughout the country that have been established. With the upcoming busy spray season we are expecting more people to start using the programme," Mr Emerson said.

Clutha District Council Engineering and Contracts Manager Christian Bopp said Agrecovery was a great initiative to clean up the rural environment. "The aim is to make sure the agrichemical containers are not disposed of illegally or put into the landfill," Mr Bopp said.

Agrecovery is a voluntary stewardship programme supported by participating agrichemical brand owners, rural retailers, regional and district councils and primary industry. Only brand approved agrichemical containers can be taken to the Clutha site.

The Agrecovery Foundation members include Horticulture New Zealand, Federated Farmers, Agcarm, Fonterra, and Environment Waikato. The scheme received initial funding from the Government's Sustainable Management Fund.

The participating brand owners (consisting of manufacturers and importers of agrichemicals) distribute more than 8 million litres of agrichemicals per year into the New Zealand market. These agrichemicals are commonly packaged in 20 litre plastic containers and distributed throughout New Zealand.

Mr Emerson said providing a sustainable solution to the long standing problem of used container disposal on farms was an important issue, both for industry and the country. "Fore New Zealand to maintain its 'clean-green' image, vital to our export sectors such as farming, we must adopt sustainable practices."

Growers and farmers can deliver triple-rinsed HDPE (grade two) plastic agrichemical containers 60 litres or under, from the participating brand owners to the Agrecovery collection sites nationwide.

About Agrecovery

The Agrecovery Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable trust which owns and governs the Agrecovery programme. The programme was developed through funding by farmer and grower groups, local government, agrichemical industry and central government.

Every year, New Zealanders dispose of an estimated 10 million 20-litre equivalent plastic agrichemical containers.

All plastic is shredded, reprocessed and supplied to a New Zealand based approved processor to use as a raw material. The programme is funded by a 13c levy on every litre of eligible product sold into the market. The levy is collected by the participating brand owners and paid to the Agrecovery Foundation to manage the programme.

The Clutha site is at Mt Cooee Landfill, Kaitangata Highway, Balclutha, and is open the first Wednesday of every month from 9am to 4.30pm.