Company seeks increase in container returns

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Published: October 13, 2011

A company that recycles 4.5 million pounds of plastic a year from empty farm pesticide containers doesn’t believe it has gone far enough.

Clean Farms Inc.’s new recycling awareness campaign provides information to farmers and commercial pesticide dealers about the environmental benefits of recycling.

General manager Barry Friesen said he believes farmers need to be aware that recycling plays a significant role in helping to protect the environment.

He said the company wants to increase its recovery rate on pesticide containers in commercial use to 80 percent from 64 percent.

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The empty pesticide container recycling program varies between provinces.

Saskatchewan farmers take empty containers to farm pesticide dealers for collection, while in other provinces they go to municipal collection depots.

Clean Farms collects the containers from drop-off sites and shreds the plastic for collection by recycling companies.

Friesen said there’s a limit to what the recycled material can be used for because the containers used to contain pesticides.

Farm drainage tiles are the main product, but the plastic is also used in the manufacture of industrial garbage cans.

The program collects pesticide containers smaller than 23 litres.

Farmers, horticultural operators and golf course operators can deliver the empty containers to more than 1,150 recycling pick-up sites. The program had returned 83 million empty crop protection product containers for recycling as of 2009.

Friesen believes the company’s recycling program is one of the most successful voluntary waste disposal programs in Canada. He said Clean Farms is looking beyond pesticide container recycling to other plastic products, such as grain bag collection.

Clean Farms received $25,000 from the Canadian and Manitoba governments in January to examine the best ways to collect and manage agricultural waste generated on farms. The empty pesticides container recycling program has been in operation since 1989.

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